Dear all,

Last time I wrote I was about to play in Leek with UFQ…well we did and jolly nice it was too. Many thanks to everyone who came out to the Foxlowe and apologies to the lady I spoke to on the phone the next day believing I’d left my ipod there when it was in fact down the cushions of my sofa at home I discovered shortly thereafter…Anyway not to worry, I then had a rare weekend off which was spent in the company of very nice people which is generally a rather good way to spend the weekend I’d say.

The next few days were spent teaching and a visit to Bridgewater Hall in Manchester to play a concert to children with learning difficulties and their families. It was a lot of fun and involved a lot of jumping around! I was also reminded of the huge pile of crap that is driving in and around Manchester. Loathsome.

Then UFQ were back in action with cracking gigs in Newbury and especially Hitchin which really was a belter. I read all kinds of articles hinting at the gradual waning of the folk scene and Hitchin Folk Club really Continue reading “I was like and he was like…” →

Dear all,

Well it’s been the usual hectic time since I got back from the US. The American flavour continued when I first got back as the wonderful Hip Hatchet came to my spiritual home of the Market Vaults and delivered a sterling gig. I’d heard so much about this guy and he lived up to expectation it’s fair to say. Do check out his stuff.

And so began October and the Urban Folk Quartet autumn tour. The really crazy bit is in November but there’s still a fair bit going on this month. It began down in Somerset at Bridgwater Arts Centre which was a cracking night and has led onto a festival appearance – always the nicest moment of a gig when you come away with another one! The next UFQ action featured a couple of hometown gigs for first Tom at St Andrew’s Church in Bedford and then for me at the Gatehouse Theatre in Stafford on Friday just gone. As ever, my hometown was simply the best and we had a wonderful time and then I headed to the good old Vaults for some celebratory drinks and enjoyed a riotous gig by my good friends Pelo. Not often you see the Vaults like this:

But it’s not just been UFQ. A couple of solo gigs in Shropshire have also happened beginning with an appearance at a charity show at the Hive with several other brilliant performers. By that I mean the other performers were brilliant, I wasn’t saying I was brilliant. That would make me a bit of a prick. A few days later, I had a simply lovely gig at Housmans in Church Stretton, a bit of an old favourite of mine now! Then Live Music Now has taken up a fair bit of my schedule too with a trip to Glamorgan to herald the start of a songwriting project in a school which should be fun! I also found myself in London to play a lovely concert at a school which also involved the BBC…better not tell you more yet in case I’m not supposed to! Finally, I found myself in Bury at Folk Expo which was one of those events where the audience was full of very useful people to impress which doesn’t always make for the easiest gig but it seemed to go rather well!

Now it is fairly known that most professional musicians are worried about money most of the time. Four times a year there’s the lovely moment you forgot was going to happen – PRS royalty distribution. Money just appears it’s lovely. But what does seem somewhat surprising is that my music was used at an aerobics class apparently! Apparently, fast paced Indian-scale banjo reels make for the perfect workout – what are you waiting for?!

I can honestly say in the pantheon of things about England that has riled me in recent years, there aren’t all that many that come close to the reaction of some to this introduction of the 5p charge for carrier bags. I was genuinely flabbergasted last night when I listened to the radio in my car and there was a man who phoned in complaining bitterly about the expense and inconvenience that would be coming his way and how it would make a difference to family budgets. There was then the presenter Stephen Nolan actually refusing to believe a text from a listener saying that she always carried a couple of bags around in her handbag. Yes because that is so unthinkable isn’t it?

It is absolutely clear, and has been for some time, that plastic bags are an environmental menace ending up on landfill sites or worse strewn over canals and countryside. Anything that will genuinely help reduce their usage is surely only a good thing and what’s more the rest of the UK (and Ireland) have already proved that charging a small fee for carrier bags works. The statistics do not lie!

Just what makes English people think that they are entitled to get free carrier bags with every shop anyway. Somebody has to make them and you pay for everything else don’t you?! What next, mushrooms should be exempt from charges because your third son doesn’t like them? The Daily Mirror today ran an article about the monstrosity Continue reading “Plastic bag ‘problems’…” →

Dear all,

Well that’s it. I’m in Los Angeles airport ready to fly home. It was of course a rather shorter trip than originally planned and the preparation for the tour was undoubtedly the most stressful thing I’ve ever gone through in my career but the tour ultimately was pretty damn good! I saw a fair bit of a beautiful state and I tell you what it is a beautiful state. The drive in northern California was right up there with New Zealand and the Scottish highlands in the pantheon of my great drives. I enjoyed the 1967 vibe of San Francisco and surrounding areas and the beach-tastic sun of San Diego. But most of all I enjoyed the gigs and the wonderful people I met. Thanks must go to Jon Berger, the crew at Red Rock, Gregg Moore, Joe Rathburn and special thanks to Karen Carchidi, Sally Greenberg and Mark and Cindy Lemaire who went well beyond the call of duty in keeping me sane and helping me in the midst of the visa crisis (see previous blog for details, if you are of a strong heart…).

The remaining gigs to catch up on then – after Berkeley it was off to beautiful Arcata, a delightful hippy haven which was the destination of a quite stunning drive with some of the most amazing forest and woodland I have ever set eyes on. The gig was pretty good too – a cozy gathering at Gregg Moore’s. Of course my nice tour plan had been completely thrown out by the visa crisis as I tried to reschedule the shows that had had to wait! This meant another long drive next, to Grass Valley but again it was Continue reading “Heading home” →

Dear all,

I write to you from a ridiculously warm California – their September is quite different from the one in the UK. It’s been great to be finally be here anyway and this seemed a good moment to give you a bit of a tour diary thus far.

Arrival

So this was quite an experience. I’m not quite sure I can go into the pain of the US visa crisis again so I will simply say see previous blogs for details on that one. Anyway the upshot of it all was my flight itinerary involved arriving into Los Angeles at 2pm and flying from there to San Francisco at 3.35pm. You will see how difficult that is to achieve shortly (I might add not my choice, it was the only option I had left…). Before that though there was the small matter of Heathrow airport and all that and thankfully no big speech about the personal and monetary value of my banjo was needed as I was allowed to carry the banjo on board with no problems. One over priced Continue reading “Worth it?” →

Hey y’all! Trying to get into the whole American thing…so I’ve had a nice couple of days with lovely people to recover from my god awful week of American logistical nightmares and am pleased to give you my new tour schedule in California starting on Thursday. Sorry to folks in Soquel and Willits but sadly these two gigs were unable to be rescheduled. Massive thanks though to Karen and Gregg for rescheduling the shows in Grass Valley and Arcata. So here it is…

17/09 – Jon Berger’s, Sebastopol
RSVP to Jon Berger at jberger@sbcglobal.net

18/09 – Great Valley Songwriter Series, Modesto
RSVP to marklemairemusic@gmail.com or cvanempel@gmail.com

19/09 – Red Rock Coffee House, Mountain View
http://www.redrockcoffee.org/

20/09 – Sally Greenberg’s, Berkeley
RSVP to Sally Greenberg at sally@sgreenberg.org

22/09 – House Concert, Arcata
RSVP to Gregg Moore at crib1251@gmail.com or (707)499-8516

23/09 – Open Book, Grass Valley
https://allevents.in/…/dan-walsh-live-house…/970414066314261
https://www.facebook.com/theopenbookgv?fref=ts
Contact is Karen Carchidi at kcarchidi@hotmail.com

24/09 – Folky Monkey, San Diego
http://www.folkeymonkey.com/

26/09 – San Diego Folk Heritage
http://sdfolkheritage.org/

It is with disbelief, misery and serious anger that I have to tell you my starting date in the US for my tour is delayed. I will arrive on the 17th instead of tomorrow and do the schedule as planned from then on and hopefully of the four other gigs one has already been rescheduled and two of the other three can also be rescheduled. I will post on this over the weekend.

So the rant…despite starting the visa process seven months ago, submitting everything needed well ahead of time and ticking all the boxes, the US immigration authorities were running massively behind and took forever to process it all and gave me my necessary approval notice on the 2nd September. I then did the next form the very next morning and then went on the portal to arrange the necessary (and I have to tell you staggeringly pointless) visa interview at the US embassy which is followed by a wait to get your documents (including passport) back.

First available appointment was the day before my flight. I requested an emergency appointment but was refused. I did manage to nab someone’s cancelled appointment for yesterday but it still wasn’t soon enough. To add insult to injury, the airline have been gits and insisted I select a particular alternative date rather than ‘leaving it open’ hence my departure on the 17th (oh and they charged me lots of course).

So there you have it. I’m not often a sympathy seeker but given through no fault of my own, I’m out hundreds of pounds, not in the US and forced to cancel/rearrange shows I am looking for it now! This is the price I pay for doing things properly and by the book. Sort it out America. May I thank the gig promoters in the US who have been fantastic in their understanding and help.

So if you see a very grumpy musician in Stafford this weekend buy him a pint, a burger or just give him a hug because he needs it.

Yours grumpily,
Danjo

Dear all,

Well here I am in…the Wetherspoons in Leytonstone, London. Of course I am. Don’t worry I’m not doing the early morning drunk thing, just had a reasonably tasty cooked breakfast and catching up with some work. I’m here ahead of my first tour of the US. My flight’s on Friday…or is it? Long story. I’ll keep everyone posted but I am hoping it will all be fine…

Anyway on a happier note I had a cracking time in Germany with three lovely gigs and lovely as always German audiences. But first up was a very wet gig in Sunderland city centre with the great Alistair Anderson to open up the new square in the city. Always great to play with Alistair and despite the weather we had a good time! So then Germany…first up was a Continue reading “Return to the jazzlokal!” →

Dear all,

Good lord it’s been a little while since my last blog hasn’t it?! It’s been a typically crazy time full of lots of travel and gigs galore. The administrative hellhole of US visas is almost over – my visa has been approved! Cue some frantic planning for a US trip next month (you know…the month that begins in two days time. AAAAHHH!) but I am very excited. Before then I’m off to Germany for a few gigs which will be a blast I’m sure and better still means I get to visit Papa Joe’s Jazzlokal in Cologne again (see the archives for more info).

So just where have I been? A little political rambling about Jeremy Corbyn aside I’ve been quiet on here since the end of July so let me bring you up to speed…The beginning of August brought a first appearance at Cambridge Folk Festival and a whole weekend’s festival experience which is something I haven’t done for a while. Of course back in the day when I was first gigging and was carless (note that isn’t a typo, though careless was probably true as well…) I used to camp at festivals all weekend, Continue reading “Service Station Traffic Jam?!” →

Moving in the folk circles as I do, it probably doesn’t come as a great surprise that my facebook news feed has been dominated lately by enthusiastic support for Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign to become leader of the Labour party. Many herald his position as a return to ‘old labour’ values and socialism and a proper left wing alternative to what they see as the current Tory-lite Labour ethos. It would appear though that it is not just the folk world that is backing Jeremy Corbyn. He has emerged as an unlikely favourite in the race with union and grassroots backing and many have been drawn to his straight talking, question answering (rare indeed) and honest approach to politics.

Predictably, this has rather torn the Labour party apart of late. Seemingly the outsider, Corbyn has become the frontrunner in the race and the other three candidates and many other MPs are horrified at the prospect of a genuine left-winger leading the party ostensibly because they are worried about the party’s electoral prospects but rather more likely worried about the job falling to someone outside of the Blairite/Brownite circle. It has to be said as well that their surprise at his success does perhaps rather hint at the complete failure of a majority of politicians (on all sides) to realise just how bored the populace at large is of the robotic and script-heavy MP. Much of Corbyn’s success is actually Continue reading “The Jeremy Corbyn question” →