Category Archives: Delta Ladies

The land of Woo and Wonderment

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, history, Musings, whatever
Diana Stone Is Trouble
Diana Stone Is Trouble

This could be it or not. Well I got my wish for it to cool down and it has. A lot.
I have had some news about collaborative projects going ahead  so that’s good news. 
I feel a bit worn out and I have not been out much this week due to the heat which has dampened my spirits.  My back is playing up a lot too. and I feel like I have been in a fight.  I can’t get going musically at present. My latest release for Amazon/Spotify/YouTube and Apple music and the rest has just been cleared for release and will be available from August 6. 

 

At present I am feeling somewhat wrapped up in my own thoughts. A few things are praying on my mind somewhat.  My own mortality being one of them.  It may be that having been thrown back on my own resources I have focused too much on the bad things then I was busy doing gigs and just trying to figure out how to keep paying the bills I was mostly quite happy. Now I am likely to have financial stability for the rest of my natural life be that days weeks or decades. I ache but that comes and goes. Some days I feel I will die imminently. The fact that my dad went so quickly sort if makes me feel as I might do the same despite any mitigating circumstances in my own life (40 years of being veggie/ vegan almost) and having various tests in my late 50s for health that showed no increased risk of anything much. I have too much time to think. I always think I will be dead in a month or so of something dreadful. And I worry about running out of money all the time and what may happen.  It’s not entirely rational  I know.  

I have been continuing to scribble down musical ideas  as usual this week of course.
And sticking some new letters on my computer keyboard as they are wearing off again.
Yes I need a new one so I really ought to sought that out as it  could be cheaper than the stickers. It will do for now though I guess. 

After having lived here for nearly 4 years  we have finally said goodbye to the building site opposite our place and now have an open park leading down to the water meadow country park and the river Great Ouse. I finally set foot on the path today and it completely changes the outlook from out veranda.  Plenty of people are now using it. It will take a while to get established as there is not much grass at the top end yet and the ground is very dry.  

I have hardly been out for a week., the recent spell of very hot weather was a little too much for me to deal with.  Also no music related visitors or a places to be. I need to check the car is OK or it might sulk.  I have had it for 5 years now. It’s got a few dings and scrapes on it so it looks a little careworn now rather like me  🙂 It has over all served me very well and I have done around 60,000 miles in it. Mostly to and from gigs. This last year it hasn’t really moved much at all though. The odd drive in the country and a few of music related trips down the M1. mostly though its been standing about looking a trifle forlorn. 

Some of the solo projects I have been thinking about have slightly stalled, (Covid restrictions have affected things of )  plus also as much due to a bit of a wobble in confidence.   One thing that has occured is words coming to me again. Words for songs, perhaps words for other things too. After a long time of having really nothing to say.  Living in your own head too much in a great wash of introspection may be OK if you are a genius writer or scientist or philosopher  but not perhaps if otherwise. Forcing myself to actually write down what’s going through my head is actually quite helpful to give a little extra clarity.  

 

 

   

Starting From Scratch

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, glass cage, history, music, Musings

When the rules of the game change we must change or likely loose. And the rules have certainly changed.  I am now firmly in the “one day at time day” category. No great long term plans and I will see what happens when I andf get there.  Mentally I feel a bit more on the ball all of a sudden. Physically not so much. And the balls are all in the air at present. So if I am not at the end quite yet, what next?  I really do feel clueless.
I have been keeping up on the creative side as much as possible of course. Its mostly what I do these days. I can’t do more and I rarely do less.  It takes more effort than it used to though. A lot more effort. 

I wrote a humorous and slightly near the mark song yesterday. Dare I sing it? I am not sure. Many don’t do irony. I  once worked with a very clever songwriter and singer. She had a  great voice. She was also a burlesque performer and a natural comedian.  What she had not reckoned with was that people did not get the joke and essential wrote her off a posh stripper. She was quite a wit but many didn’t get it. When she went on to try and push her songwriting career people didn’t really always want to know.  That was a great shame and  a major talent has been missed in my opinion.   

So I shall endeavour to make the most of  the abilities I gave creatively as long as I am allowed. It’s been a hard year or two having lost close friends and its only in the last month or so I really felt as though I was not under a permanent cloud.  I just woke up feeling different. Not better and not worse but different. The world is not looking quite the same.   

Surprise, surprise. here’s a song. It’s got a bit of dulcima  in the mix too and tin whistle though these are not featured. They are just working away supporting the song. 

 

  

Diana-Stone Studio.APRIL 2021

A June 2021 Round Up

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, glass cage, music, Musings, other, whatever

Personally  it’s been a very draining 6 months.  I have been working solidly on music projects both solo and collaborative but of course nearly al remote ones. Other stuff I had hoped to do has ground to a complete halt now. Also mostly due to lockdown I gave not really been able to get anymore local connections made. Added to that I have had a lot of  problems with long term Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions which seems  to have been much worse this year plus depression and anxiety. So fighting that tends to impede the creative flow quite a bit. At present I do feel its a real uphill struggle and it’s getting harder.  I also like many wonder if we will actually get a full UK unlocking at the end of July. If we don’t that will be more than a little disappointing as   the present regime does not yet permit the normal mix and mingle type activities (Folk clubs and Open mike and normal pub gigs) to name just a few.  I feel as though my mental facilities are dwindling as well. Currently I am living on a diet of youtube videos and little else to keep me amused in my downtime.  There are some very interesting blogging genre videos.  One that I watch is this guy Hobo Shoestring   https://www.youtube.com/user/TheHoboShoestring and if you like trains and the wide open spaces there is a lot of joy to be had in the videos he posts. he has been riding trains for 30 years and is what you might call a natural philosopher perhaps.Another one I watch is  https://www.youtube.com/c/HubNut/featured which is about ordinary cars with a motoring journalist called Ian Seabrook. He drives and then fixes them eventually and more.  It’s  one of the things helping to keep me sane at present at least In a small way.   There is a lot more I watch but I am not going to list everything here.

This a very spontaneous song that popped into my head  on Friday so I have recorded a quick “demo” version. Its  an acoustic (Folk sort of) song  with fiddle and a bit of tin whistle too. 

        

And in other news, a question. Who put that camera in Matt Hancock’s office I wonder? But the world will keep turning I guess. 

Does any one remember that book “Feel the fear and do it anyway”? I might even have a faded and yellowing  copy somewhere on my shelves. So following its prevailing mantra I did something recently to expand my comfort zone and help reduce my anxiety. I am not saying what it was but rather like the way that some people either like marmite or hate it, to my surprise it was really quite pleasant which I had not expected. Its not something I shall be doing again for a while I suspect but if appropriate when needed I am ready to put my new skill set and hopefully win friends and influence people, I havent got that book though. 

I notice a lot of people are now back out gigging again which is good news. I would love to be out and joining  them and I hope the opportunity comes again.  However the recruiting drive has not been  successful so far despite trying different several different approaches sadly. It’s hard not to get disheartened frankly.  I will keep trying though it’s beginning to feel like an exercise in total futility. It feels almost like I am on some sort of blacklist?  It really  makes me  wonder at times.  Answers on a post card please 🙂   I hope that does not seem too negative as its not intended to be but if I am doing something wrong I would love to know what it is? 

 

 ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks‘

(Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2)