I listened to Gillian Welch a lot this week, including her song One Little Song. It’s about song writing. I saw Declan Sinnott live and heard him sing a song about songwriting. And I heard a friend of mine playing some songs he’d written himself that were really, really good.

So why the fuck do I struggle so much with it?

When I listen to the likes of The The and Nick Cave, I’m moved to try. They make it sound so easy. And I feel like it could be.

There’s a big ball of pain and fear locked inside me. I used to talk it out when I was drinking, but that’s no longer an option. Probably just as well. Sometimes it went okay, but usually not.

Playing music helps to get the fear out, simply because it puts me in the present. That’s a place I’m seldom in.

My head was buzzing all over the map at the concert last night and not always to good places. I was left wondering at times what have I contributed to the universe lately? There’s so much music I want to learn, songs I want to sing and it just felt over fucking whelming, you know? I find myself thinking that if I could just master this, figure out that, I’d finally have arrived and my self expression would suddenly have a valid artistic outlet. But all that happens is that I get angry at life’s getting in the way and preventing me from following my path, and that’s just wrong. I know that.

By contrast, this morning, I found the tired-with-too-little-sleep me sitting on the bus thinking about how joyful I am that there’s so much out there for me to learn musically and that each half-hour of playing live or twenty minutes of watching a video about thirds and fifths is adding to the whole me. I’m hungry for it, but I still get down that there’s no creativity and that it’s all just copying. And do people really care?

The Tweet I posted earlier was what I was thinking as I stood at the bus stop.

I have to play music for my own enjoyment first and foremost. If others enjoy it too, so much the better.

Watching these fantastic musicians last night had me feeling down that I can’t play those licks or sound that good or write my own stuff and it’s really not like me to think that way. I often hear musicians’, after seeing an amazing player, saying things like ‘I might as well just quit’, but it usually inspires me to go and pick up my guitar and learn the fuck out of it. Maybe I was just tired and low last night.

So how does the sober me get the pain and, yes, sometimes the joy, OUT into words without being explicit about what’s really on my mind? I tried poetry a few months ago and it actually went well, much to my surprise. I started with some of the loose random words and sounds that are constantly in my head and lines just appeared fully formed. I’d heard that that can happen but never really understood. In fact it felt bloody great.

So maybe I’ve just got to sit down and fucking do it; take the headphones off for a bit and see what silence can bring; be alone with the cacophony in my little head and see if I can get some of the noise out into words. Maybe that will make the noise a wee bit quieter and I’ll stop hating the world so much.

The North Country Winters album is recorded and mixed! It all began when I did an online course with Berklee called Introduction to Music Production. This was the second time I’d attempted the course, but this time I completed it. It was rather a steep learning curve to be sure, but I got there.

Through that course, somehow I was introduced to Joe Gilder and Graham Cochrane’s podcast, Simply Recording. I bombed through their back catalogue and learned absolutely loads.

I used Cubase for my Berklee course but I found it difficult to get to grips with and so I downloaded a trial of Presonus Studio One. It was waaay easier to use.

The natural progression from Simply Recording Podcast was to Dueling Mixes and it was absolutely brilliant for learning Studio One and how to mix. I simply followed Joe’s videos each week and learned a helluva lot.

I signed up for Joe Gilder’s VIP membership over at Home Studio Corner and got some courses there on EQ, compression and editing. In November he announced a 24-hour mixing contest where members were to record, mix and publish a whole song in 24 hours. That was the kick in the pants that I needed to get me off the tutorials and into making music for real. The basic studio was set up in the post office and we recorded Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin’ with lead vocal, two harmony vocals, guitar lead and rhythm, upright electric bass and fiddle. We didn’t win, but it was a great exercise in learning how to record.

Over the next few months we tracked 12 songs in the post office over weekends and evenings. That finished in Feb 2017 and I spent the next few weeks mixing it as best I could.

The plan was to have the album released for Easter Monday, which, at the time of writing, was two days ago. I decided that I should wait until I’d done Ian Shepherd’s Home Mastering Masterclass before publishing the album, and, since he was starting it again in April, it would tie in nicely time-wise. I’ve signed up for the course now and it starts very soon.

Watch this space!

I just joined the Steem platform after my good pal @barge explained it to me. I spent a few hours this week looking through the FAQs and what have you, and it looks like something that could really be of use to me for all sorts of reasons. I used to love Six Apart’s Vox platform round about 2006/07 and had a good wee group of friends there, some of whom I’m still online friends with on other social media platforms such as Goodreads and last.fm. That platform folded around 2010 and Facebook kind of filled the void for me. I started blogging more in 2010-ish using WordPress, but it felt like I was talking into the void, so it fell by the wayside. Steem might just be the thing to get me back to writing again. I do have experiences to share about a variety of topics, so I’m going to give it a go.

My feed is here: https://steemit.com/@camuel

So, as of now, I’ll be blogging over there. It looks really exciting, particularly some of the posts I’ve read about what’s available for musicians over there.

There is a WordPress plugin for the platform called Steempress, which I have installed on this site just to see how it works. This may well be my first post on Steem if it crossposts from WordPress.

I’m planning on a post to introduce myself properly tomorrow, then spending some time visiting other users to read some content and try and hook up with some other musicians and possibly recovering alcoholics, maybe even postmasters. People into self improvement would be good to find too, and fantasy book fans. This is gonna be great!

In December 1999, just a few months after graduating from the University of Bradford with an MA in Interpreting and Translation, I got a job with Ernst & Young in Almaty, Kazakhstan as a translator in the tax department. It was an incredible experience in all sorts of ways. I spent almost two years there and it was a fantastic experience.

Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan

The tax department was a fantastic place to work and I made friends there that I’m still in touch with today. That’s me at the front in the blue shirt.

Medeo

You can take a bus up to Medeo, which is an old olympic ice rink in the mountains. It’s a spectacular location!

Charyn Canyon

One day in April 2001 we took a trip with work colleagues to visit the amazing Charyn Canyon. It was a fantastic day out and I highly recommend that you visit this place if you get the chance. Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor went down into the canyon on the motorcycles on their travel show The Long Way Round.

Chymbulak

Then there was Chymbulak, a ski resort up in the Alatau mountains. Many EY folk went up at weekends skiing. I went once on a retreat, although I don’t ski — I spent time playing guitar and taking saunas!

On the Way to Big Almaty Lake

Beyond Chymbulak was Big Almaty Lake and the Cosmostantsia. Five of us took a drive up there, first of all stopping at a trout farm at Turgen to catch some lunch, then all the way up beyond the snow line.

Leaving do

One of the partners left in May 2000 and we had a leaving do up in the mountains, with shashlyk, guitar, a fire. It was superb.

Time

The Kazakh people are amazing and I miss them all from the office. The two gals I showed you at the ski resort in Chymbulak came to our wedding in Scotland, which was extra special. Here are some of the people I love and miss…

It’s been a real journey going through these photos and putting them into a timeline. If you’ve read along, I thank you. I was inspired to do it after reading a post by @elly-fly.

I left Kazakhstan for the last time in May 2001 and moved to a small village in Luxembourg where I spent the next 7 years. That’s a story for another time!

Thanks to @juliank and @photocontests for running this!

My introduceyourself post

I have some photos of my dad’s old cars that he owned as a young man. This one here is an Austin Sheerline and some info gleaned from a fellow photographer on Flickr.

Info thanks to Flickr user www.flickr.com/photos/40878011@N07/

The car is an Austin A125 Sheerline; it has a Glasgow registration from late 1950 to early 1952, according to www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/registrations/ga.htm . The Sheerline was Austin’s first post-war big car design, although the exposed P100 headlamps hark back to the luxury cars of the 1930s. Although well-polished, the car is perhaps showing its age in that one windscreen wiper is missing! It had a 4-litre 6-cylinder engine (Michael Sedgwick and Mark Gillies, in A-Z of cars, 1945-1970 (2010 edn.), p.24, call it a “poor man’s Bentley”), so it would have been quite expensive to run, but large cars were a better second-hand proposition in the 1950s than they had been earlier (or have become since), with the road-fund licence ceasing to be related to engine size in 1948 and not being related to engine size/emissions again until much more recently; cars did not, of course, have the complex electronics that can make modern cars very expensive (or even impossible) to repair and indeed until 1960 there was no annual roadworthiness test for older cars so that minor failures (such as that missing wiper) could be overlooked; mileages were usually lower than now so that the cost of petrol mattered less (I’m unsure whether petrol was cheaper in real terms in the 1950s than it is now).

Thanks to @juliank and @photocontests for running this!

My introduceyourself post

Thanks to @juliank and @photocontests for running this!

My introduceyourself post

Having an Irn Bru in The Auchans in Dundonald.

Tim Keen took this with my Sony A7 III and the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 ART lens at a pub in Dundonald and I really like it, so I thought I’d upload it here to use as an avatar on some places. It’s possibly too big, or too busy. Dunno. It’s the one I sent to @roelandp for the Steemfest3 workshop avatar for the programme. I’m doing an audio workshop as part of the @ddaily crew and am really excited for that!

On 28 October 2018 I did the route around from North Glen Sannox to Caisteal Abhail and down what I believe is called Hunters Ridge. I set off early, though not quite early enough as it was already daylight when I left. Not to worry – it was an absolutely amazing day.

I got to the car park just before 9 and made it back for 4, so one hour longer than the previous time, but that time the whole walk was in cloud with rain belting off me the whole way round. This time was rather different!

It was interesting following the moon and watching it set.

It was really cold to start with. I had to layer up and put my gloves on, but by the time I got to the gate in the coire I was well warmed up.

In the coire. I came down the rock ridge from just left of the middle down towards the right.

That was my route, up towards the moon then turn left up the ridge to the peak of Sail an Im.

Poppy, my trusty companion.

There was a lot ice as we got higher. It made the descent pretty treacherous down the other side.

Now it’s really starting to get interesting. Looking down into the coire, towards Caisteal Abhail.

Rocking the shades! It was cold, but such an amazing day.

That’s the ridge I’m climbing. This is where I bumped into Ranger Kate going the other way. She’d lost her lens cap and asked me to look out for it. I only bloom’ found it! Ha ha. Kate’s one of the rangers for the National Trust for Scotland and knows this terrain probably better than anybody!

Creag Dhubh, back the way I’ve just come.

Looking back over the way I’ve just come.

Getting closer to the top. The views are just about to blow me away…

Aha, now we’re getting some views to be sure. Not quite at the top yet though. Just a little further.

Looking down towards Blackwaterfoot and the Kintyre peninsula.

Some rocky tors that give this area its name of the castles.

Oh mama. Are we there yet?

Poppy finds an icy pond. It did crack eventually, though it wasn’t so deep as it look and she had a long drink from the water that came up from below.

And just when you think it can’t get any better, Cìr Mhòr appears in all its majesty.

Some more of those rocky tors at the summit. It’s always weird to puff and pant all the way to a summit and find it relatively flat at the top. Nice, but weird.

Cìr Mhòr with the ridge going down to the saddle between Glen Rosa and Glen Sannox, then up to North Goatfell and then the ridge to Goatfell itself. That looks like a tricky route, though one I’d like to try, possibly with a camp in between?

It was amazing to see for the first time how all the peaks join up with ridges. The Ridge from Caisteal Abhail where I was to Cìr Mhòr looks fairly straight forward, although the walk to the summit looks helluva steep. The next ridge coming down from Cìr Mhòr is called A’Chir and it leads to the summit of Beinn Tarsuinn. I’ll need to talk to my pal Kirstie about routes.

My ever-faithful companion Poppy the Akita.

The Witch’s Step from above. It looks like you could actually bypass it. It doesn’t look quite so scary from where I was, but that could be deceptive. I’ve always been kinda afraid of that particular place, but I could probably do it; then round to the summit of Suidhe Fhearghas. I wonder?

Lunch break. That Highlander stove is really good. There’s nothing quite like drinking coffee at the top of a mountain! I had a trio of chicken sandwiches from the Co-op, shared with Poppy of course, and a Boost bar. One of the best lunches I ever had!

A few more photos before heading back down again.

How’s that for a view, Poppy? Magic, innit?

D’you think dogs care about stuff like that? I wonder, ha ha.

Ra-oooo, says Poppy. Check out the icicles on the rocks on the right. Brrrrr.

The other side of the Witch’s Step as I start making my way down the horrible rocky, slippery ridge.

Looking over the peak of Suidhe Fhearghas towards the mainland and the islands in the Firth of Clyde. This is one of my favourite images from the day.

The rocky minefield I had to pick my way through to get back down. You can see how slippery they are in the foreground. Although the route was shorter, I think it would have been quicker to have gone back the way I came up because the terrain was so much easier underfoot.

The ridge I came down is called Hunters Ridge I think. According to the OS map it’s called Cuithe Mheadhonach, which might be Gaelic for Hunters Ridge. Dunno.

The Witch’s Step starting to look scary again. See what I mean? Is it actually as hard as it seems from below?

Nearly back down to the burn. Nice view of the jaggy tors that I’ve just come down from, and the rocky minefield in Garbh Choire. Man that was tough going.

And we’re down!

Conclusion

This is without a doubt the most enjoyable walk I’ve even done. Seven hours start to finish. I dressed right, I took the right food, I judged the time and daylight hours right. The one thing I need to do is learn to use a compass again. I used to know, but need a refresher. I do have a map.

Poppy was amazing company the whole way too. One of the most memorable moments was when Peter Gabriel Signal to Noise came on the AirPods just as Cìr Mhòr came into view and I was in utter heaven. The mountains can be harsh and brutal, as they were last time I did this route, but they can reward you like nothing else can if the conditions are right.

I kinda started getting the bug at the beginning of this summer and it’s growing as I explore more with my dog and my camera. Look out for more as spring comes in; I’m not quite ready for winter hikes yet.

And lastly, a moment of gratitude if I may. I fell from a cliff in 1989 whilst on exercise in the Lake District in England with the British Army. I almost lost my right leg; it bothers me a lot still and is actually getting worse now as I get older. But look at what I still get to do!

I’ve been following John Roderick’s content since around 2006, when Merlin Mann talked to him on the Merlin Show. He’s co host on a podcast called Roadwork, with Dan Benjamin on the 5by5 network. In episode 151, entitled Chasing the Dragon, John speaks candidly about alcoholism and how the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program works.

I’ve been attending AA since 2005. My sobriety date is 9 October of that year and, so far, I’ve not touched any alcohol since then. I know it’s a day at a time, and complacency can lead to picking up again.

John explained so well how alcoholism works for him, and it’s so in line with my own experience that I felt compelled to write a post about it and recommend that everyone listen to this episode if you’re of a mind to.

And John, if you’re reading this and you ever make it to Scotland again, let me know for sure and we’ll grab a coffee somewhere. You’re the person living that I’d like to meet the most in the whole wide world!

Support

If you like the podcast, the Patreon show is outstanding. They respond to listener mail in a candid and honest way. It’s one of the best things on the Internet.

www.patreon.com/roadwork/posts

It’s been a crazy month of stationery indulgence. It’s an obsession and I recognise it as such. I don’t seem to be able to hold back at all.

The post My First JetPens Order! appeared first on Sunbane.

My Hobonichi planners came today! I ordered these on 30 Jan from Jetpens, so I still had 11 months of value. They arrived yesterday. Bummer. So I lost a month’s value, but let’s be positive, right!

I’ve tried the Hobonichi Weeks and also bullet journalling in an A4 TWSBI notebook I have. The Weeks just isn’t going to work, much as I love it as an item. I think the Hobonichi A6 will be the one.

The post New Stationery Day! appeared first on Sunbane.

Can I? Dare I? Why the fuck not? I can do what I want, right?

I’ve been writing with a pen for the last couple of weeks. Every day. It’s been really great actually. That’s my Namiki Falcon with Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki ink.

It’s 11:20am on a Monday. I’m listening to Mary Ann Hobb’s show on BBC6 Music and wearing multiple layers and a blanket over my thighs at the kitchen table. This is my new office. I feel happy. Really happy. But a bit scared about income.

I went freelance 100% at the beginning of November. I have two clients for my social media management and content creation business, but it’s actually only one because it’s the same guy in each instance. He runs a restaurant and is starting an affiliate marketing business of his own. I’ve got a ridiculous amount of training to go through and I love all that stuff. I tell you, no one is more surprised than I at finding happiness in getting into marketing. I mean, what? For real? I know, it’s nuts. But there it is – a job I love, and starting again, again, at the age of 48.

Am I too old to learn new tricks? Am I bollocks. I’ve got this.

My goal is to get to £100k a year by the time I get to the end of my 2019-2023 Hobonichi planner. I’ll be 52.

The post I’m going to earn 100k by 2023 appeared first on Sunbane.

The sun is shining. When did that last happen? I really should take the dogs out. In fact, that’s just what I’m going to do.

Once I’ve posted this…

Morning Pages

I woke up with a headache. Not good. But it’s been productive. I’ve started using MarsEdit again; I’m using it now in fact. And I posted my first blog post on my new business site at camssocial.media. It feels good to be blogging again and I’ve really missed it.

Dogs time. This is going to be good!

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I’ve spent most of the morning researching habit trackers. I’ve found a pre-made one that looks like it might work, the Clear Habit Journal from BaronFig, but it’s expensive. I think I would do better to work on my own version. I was doing weekly habit trackers for the month of February and it worked, but setting it up every Sunday was becoming a chore.

It’s a work in progress. Much as I love the look of the BaronFig notebooks, I have to spend £60 to get free shipping. Otherwise the shipping costs £20 and comes from the USA with USPS; that means Parcelforce on the UK side. After the JetPens order’s having taken over two weeks to get to my house from Glasgow (a two-hour journey!), I’m not super excited to order from BaronFig.

I’ll see how March works out, but I’m pretty certain that I’m going to do a two-page landscape spread for April and get a bit more creative with it. As I said, it’s a work in progress!

I actually tried using my Hobonichi Techo Avec and was hoping that it would work out because I love that little book, but I just have way too many trackers to make it work. It’s a real shame. I’ve already pretty given up on my Hobonichi Weeks. It’s rather an expensive business figuring out the analogue tools that are going to work for me.

My daughter’s having great success with her STÁLOGY A6 and has taken to bullet journalling like a duck to water. I knew she would though, and it’s a nice thing to be sharing with her.

Speaking of STÁLOGY, I placed an order for a B6 pad today, and way too many other things as well. The B6 will be my daily journal, once my Silvine hardback A5 notebooks are finished. I started my current one in 1998!

The post Habit Trackers in a TWSBI Large Notebook appeared first on Sunbane.

Jenn Butterworth played at the Arran Folk Festival back in the mists of time (2014). I’d never heard her playing before and I was blown away. She played a set with Laura-Beth Salter on mandolin, and boy, what a treat that was to hear.

Fast forward to 2019. Jenn’s back at the festival with LB!

Podcast Episode with Jenn Butterworth

I found the courage to ask her if she’d be up for an interview for my guitar podcast Acoustic Guitar IO and she very kindly agreed.

So we sat down, had a cup of tea and recorded a bit of a blether. The episode we recorded is here.

It was really fun to talk to Jenn Butterworth and kind of her to agree to give up some time to talk with me.

Kinnaris Quintet

Check out one of the bands she plays with Kinnaris Quintet. I almost went to see them at Celtic Connections, but the first quarter of 2020 has been absolutely horrendous for ferry crossings between Brodick and Ardrossan. I have been listening to their album a lot though, and it’s an absolute stoater!

Musician of the Year – Scots Trad Awards

Jenn Butterworth won Musician of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2019. Not only that, Kinnaris Quintet won The Belhaven Bursary for Innovation in Scottish Music. It’s was a good year for young Jenn and her musical pals!

Support Jenn Butterworth

COVID-19 is here at the time of writing (March 2020) and artists all over the world are struggling. Well, not just artists, pretty much most people, but this is when we need music more than ever. If you’d like to support Jenn Butterworth as I have, get yourselves over to her Patreon Page. She’s set up three tiers right now, £3, £5 and £10 on a monthly ongoing basis. Go and show her some love if you can afford to. It doesn’t have to be forever; you can cancel anytime. As a Patreon user myself, I *know* just how much this can help!

More Guitar Stuff

I’ve been writing about guitars for a while. If you like what you’re reading, there’s loads more here!

The post Jenn Butterworth Interview appeared first on Sunbane.

I’m experimenting with the GoPro to make my audio podcast into a video one. It worked pretty well, although I’m not quite sure who’ll want to watch an 18-minute video of my yakking into the camera! Maybe I’m wrong. And besides, I’m enjoying making content.

Podcast Version

There’s a longer audio version of this published in my normal podcast feed. Yeah, I continued yakking into the mic after I switched off the camera! If you’re at all interested in hearing the podcast recommendation that I made on the audio-only version, check out my podcast Quoth the Camser.

Links

I talked about live streaming tools and Ian Anderson Gray’s fantastic blog post on that. You can check that out here.

The post What Live Streaming Tool Should I Use? appeared first on Sunbane.

There’s a lot of attention of David Icke’s talking on Brian Rose’s London Real podcast. I did a walk and talk on it.

References

London Real – https://londonreal.tv/

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Live from Mevo #quoththecamser

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