January 3, 2009

The start of a new year always refreshes the music scene, it seems. For one, everyone - musicians and fans - takes a look back at the best, most buzzed about records and events of the previous year. This usually gives me pause around the holidays to get a fresh perspective on songs and artists that I and my friends and acquaintances have listened to and shared. And after that ritual comes the roll-up-the-sleeves-and-hit-the-ground-running mentality that hits after the New Year's celebration and all attendant side-effects wear off. With the new found vigor to start a fresh year on our best foot, is the desire to utilize extra head space for brand new creativity and recreation. To that end, music gets a shiny new spotlight and artists get inspired anew, even in the dead of winter.

I have caught the bug... in the process of wiring up my home studio with new gadgets, and capturing some ideas on "tape" in hopes that some songs and records distill from the audio morass... Time is not on my side; the Young Dubliners are beginning to announce dates for the first tour of 2010, staring in February. Must make a move on writing, composing, colaborating, and recording!

2009 held a rich panoply of experience to draw from, to be sure. Like all people, I had personal triumphs and challenges, successes and failures. My band delivered a new album and toured in the US and Europe. I experienced loss of close family and friends for the first time. The words of hundreds of people from countless locations crossed my ears, with their humor, views and stories. My teenage children gave me the vicarious thrill of that age of new adventure again. All this and more, and only the close time of winter to sort through it all to make some sort of sense and attempt to transcribe the impressions into chords and beats and tunes.

That's all for now; more to come soon, as the Young Dubliners get ready for an appearance at one of the NAMM show events this January.

Bob

January 3