Category Archives: other

What next? Here’s a bit of a catch up blog post for August 2020

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, disabilty and health news, glass cage, music, Musings, other, Piano

Here’s a bit of a catch up blog post for August 2020

 

  • Delta Ladies,

    It’s proved very difficult to try and keep the act going. So much of it was created by the personalities of those involved as much as anything else. Whilst I had tried to keep the band going there has not really been anyone that so far was the right fit. Not for peoples lack of trying I hasten to add. Often simply because of we had always been a “let’s see what happens on the night” sort of band with a lot of freedom in what we played. Often Vicky would chuck in a number we had not played for months at random and not always in the same key that we had played it in before.  On another occasion Vicky came up with a tune on the dulcimer that was sort of Scottish sounding slow air and we played it at a gig having not heard it before that evening. Sadly we did not even have a demo recording of it so its lost to the world That’s not in everybody’s comfort zone which is quite understandable. Its not just about playing or performing ability, it’s about practical issues. Being in the right place and having the time to be involved without it clashing too much with other commitments. I had hoped to restart this year when of course Covid -19 and lockdown hit.  That was a real blow as I had just got myself back up off the floor after Vicky’s death and was beginning to feel a little more confidence again.

    I am still plowing on with the other music I make and record in various forms as much as possible, but that’s a rather solitary pursuit in the main at present. I am lucky that I have what I need to create. It’s useful to be able to play the range of instruments that I do. I released two albums of some of my most recent material which you can find here.

  • 2020 Vision
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/2020-Vision-Diana-Stone/dp/B084FSKQ9C
    and
    Not So Sure
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Not-Sure-Explicit-Diana-Stone/dp/B08DXLFYZX
    Released on August 7
    These are also available on Itunes and the other usual suspectsI am doing some remote collaborations from time to time to as fortunately current technology allows this fairly easily. Very different from the old days of posting cassettes to each other for collaborations.
Trying to keep cool in the studio
  • Health and other stuff.

    I have had a lot of bother with my back and related conditions which I am working on improving but it’s been a bit up hill. I have also got quite depressed primarily because of lack of face to face contact with people I know are quite a distance away from where I live so I don’t tend to be able to meet people casually.

    I don’t regret moving from London as the countryside here is wonderful and only a mere 5 minute stroll from my front door. Our next door neighbor even has ducks in his back garden. I haven’t really got properly integrated locally for all sorts of reasons and Covid-19 has not helped much either with that.
    Being a somewhat introvert depressive makes life a bit uphill too.

 

 

The good stuff is still there to be found it just requires more effort now

Musings, other

Yep, it would seem that I am complete out of touch and yet all my crusty and ancient mates seem to think they same way as me with regard to most subjects. So many people seem to think that everything is a race to be won or lost and that just over the horizon there is the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow. I think they may have been misinformed. That sort of thinking may cause you to miss an awful lot of the good lot of the good stuff along the way.

For me everything is a perpetual effort to do what I do just a little bit better and it takes more and more effort just to move forward an inch or so. But not bothering is really not an option at all and still on the worst days is a real effort to do anything with a backdrop of depression that it would be easy sink back into again. The reality is we do what we do, and then like the song says “you go back Jack, do it again, wheel turning round & round” because the alternative doesn’t bare thinking about.

I do feel like an alien creature stranded in a strange land with odd unfathomable customs half the time,more and more I realise its not the place that’s changed its me. Like many others I have spent a fair portion of my adult life being told what to do and when to do it, but when those certainty’s and patterns dissolve what are we left with?

I am feeling really old right now.