Week 9 (Day 59-61) - Ystalyfera with Sild

I woke up a bit late the first day.  Sille made me some more Estonian porridge, this time with some tobasco sauce.  Tobasco, salt, butter, milk and basil.  Oddly refreshing...

Sille and I worked on some tunes while Martin was at work.  She taught me some background harmonies to an Estonian tune.  It was cool to sing in Estonian but I couldn't quite get the accent right. I also learned a couple of Estonian sacred tunes on the trombone.  Trombone with the hiiu-kannel sounds really beautiful.

My chops aren't in shape anymore so it was tough to play softly enough.

Week 8/9 (Day 56-58) - tunes with Julie

Well, it's been awhile and I'm having trouble remembering now all the things that have happened.  And quite a lot has happened.  So forgive me if the next few posts are somewhat spotty.
Here we go...

I traveled to Julie's house in Pencader.  Ceri Ffliwt was away in Cornwall celebrating May Day and doing some recording with Christine Cooper.  Anyway, traveled to Pencader on the bus carrying my harp and my trombone and my knapsack (or rucksack?).  That was interesting.  One fellow on the bus leaned over to me and said, "I brought my harp to the party but no one asked me to play."  Yeah, that's about right.  Guess it's from some song.

Anyway, Julie met me at the bus stop and she helped carry my trombone up that big long hill.  We chilled out for a bit and ate some nice food.  Then we started playing and it was amazing!  Julie's voice is so beautiful and emotive.  We worked on some Welsh traditional tunes and some more on her originals.

Week 8 - another digression, Flea

Flea

I'm a massive fan of Flea.  He's a great bass player, a great musician and full of heart.  Trust me...

Everything you need to know about music is on this vidi.


Not only do you get to hear some sweet music (Flea jamming with Chad), the interview is hilarious to watch. Flea is being interviewed by River Phoenix.  River is clearly tripping out during taping and Flea is probably stoned... but having said that, Flea says some really beautiful profound things.  Everything I do in music is an attempt to emulate this dude.

Here's one of his quotes, "Make sure you're not a victim of a guy who's ALL FLASH AND NO SMASH!"

I suppose it doesn't look like much of a quote... but this simple phrase says all that needs to be said about music.
I'll explain...