Category Archives: music

Mayday Mayday

Delta Ladies, glass cage, music, Musings, whatever

Love is the answer, maybe?  Or perhaps not. Another month begins and it  is time to attempt the annual reboot. So I have placed an ad for musical collaborators again. I don’y honestly think I will get too much of a response if previous attempts are anything to go by but I have to give it a try. A chink of light as the door cracks open and perhaps is enough to hint at a better tomorrow.  As I write this the sun is shining though its a bit chilly for May. Everything is slightly behind and the blossom is just about out now too.      

 

Keep calm and carry on perhaps?

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

Diana-Stone Studio.APRIL 2021This week I seem to have ground to a halt.  OK I have been practicing and preparing things so I haven’t really stopped completely, but it feels like that…  The creative energy well has run a little dry. I have been doing a lot of piano sight reading practice again though. I have 3 tunes on the boil which I have not started recording yet and are gestating for want of a better description. That’s a suitable spring like description I think and appropriate. They are also slightly hesitant like the not quite presently budding trees.  Its  at times like this I try and look forward to formulating a bit of a plan.  But I havent got one yet.  

Its still a good 5 weeks before we can meet people indoors under  the present UK covid rules, but I do look forward with great anticipation to that step nearer normality. 

 

Times tides wash us away like pebbles on a beach

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, glass cage, history, music, Piano, piano works, whatever

Sad to say another friend has died. Jan who ran Waltham Abbey Folk Club where I have played a few times. She became ill suddenly in January and died in a hospice this week on April 1st. She was a very interesting character and also had many cats. Her house had a large extension conservatory which was full of large foliage plants that grew out of the lounge and into the small garden so that it looked as though the end of her lounge was the entrance to a mysterious jungle that you might walk into, never to be seen again.

That’s now 6 friends and my aunt and my sisters partner who have died in a period of less than 2 years which includes one suicide and a death from covid. Its making it a bit difficult to try and keep my spirits up right now. All of this and the combination of lockdown and no opportunities to perform anywhere has been a bit of a perfect storm for my mental health. Its difficult at times like this not to become very introspective or overly nostalgic. Also to dwell over past mistakes if they were actually mistakes of course. At times like this “what ifs” weigh heavy on the mind.

So my current routine continues much as ever otherwise. Exercise to help with the back problems which some days is hard going. Music practice and composing and recording. Phone calls and some remote recording and rehearsal sessions on most days, The odd walk around and about locally. I have used my car so little that I have had not needed to put fuel in it for nearly 4 months. I take it out for a run once a week if I have not had to do a shopping trip. Contrast that with 3 years ago when I was doing around 15000 miles a year to and from gigs and related stuff.

Currently I have 2 gigs booked both in 2022, until then my diarys a little empty 😉