Friday, February 15, 2008

New CD - "More Second-hand Tales" and catch up!

Okay, so it has been a long, long while since I last blogged. Time seems to fly by so quickly, and what with gigging, being the stay-at-home dad, and children's librarian, I seem to have too little time to blog. But I will endeavour to be a little more diligent.

In December 2007 I began working with Steve Blanchard of the Conniption Fits. He is recording my new CD, 'More Second-hand Tales'. We are still in production. We have the stories recorded and the other night we recorded the music. I am so lucky that I have great musician friends who wanted to contribute to this second cd. Rick Barrows and Steve Glazer return and we have a new member of the Houghton Hill Billies - Greg Gundlach playing second guitar. Unfortunately Maureen could not make it so we are sadly missing the fiddle. In its place we have banjo (Rick) and a second guitar. It sounded good when we recorded it, but I am really looking forward to hearing it 'fresh' in a couple of days. That will be when I know if we have what I want! It is just a little nerve-racking.

Rob Brookes is once again doing the artwork for the new cd, which I am thrilled about. This time we have dragons. If you have not seen Rob’s work, please visit my website http://www.DiamondScree.com and click on CD. Follow the links to Rob’s work. Or you could go to www.cdbaby.com/cd/simonbrooks and buy ‘Second-hand Tales’ and see it close up in your hands!

Last year was a great year for me. I performed at over 90 different venues! I have worked mainly at libraries and schools, but was also fortunate enough to perform at the Three Apples Storytelling Festival, m.c.ed at Sharing The Fire (the storytelling conference for the League of New England Storytelling), and I performed at a couple of farmer's markets, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A great year! I hope to have an equally fun year in 2008. I have a couple of gigs booked for CT, which will be the first time I have performed there. I am looking forward to that. I will also be at STF again this spring, but this time I will not m.c.ing, but will be performing at the Friday Night Opener. I am very excited about that.

My next gig is at the Mount Washington Hotel and Resort, Bretton Woods, NH. I will be there on Tuesday 19th February, performing at 8.30pm. It is a family show, and my own family will be there, as we are staying the night. We are all looking forward to that. A wonderful opportunity. I also have a regular performance at Zack's Place in Woodstock VT. My next visit there is on the 29th February, at 4.15pm. Other gigs that I have are not open to the public, as there are at schools, but new dates for my 'public performances' will be posted on my website.

Anyway, I have to go and do some work! Visit my website for more details (www.diamondscree.com), or return to this blog!

Peace,
Simon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good words.