Monday, 13 July 2009

...where have you been Foy?"

I hear you ask.

Right here; where were you?

I've been working on many projects as always.  So many that I continually forget/run out of time to post and tell you what's happening.  There's much to update you on, but let me start with New York and The Roots.

The gig went great and I'll be back out there with them, either the end of July or in September; still trying to get a date that suits us all.

The gig they do at the Highline Ballroom is a Jam.  They (the Roots) play for 2hours solid, not even stopping between songs.  In fact you can't even say they play songs, they just groove on a riff, which then morphs into another thing altogether and this goes on for the whole 2 hours.  The idea is that, they provide music and their guests get up and improvise along with them.  This isn't something I'm altogether unfamiliar with (I used to have a Monday night residency doing just that) but it felt very different under the circumstances.

They had 15 guests that night, and no one knew when they were up, you simply got a nod and then up you'd go.  Turns out I went on 14th, so I stood there all night seeing what other artist were doing. 

Now, you'd think this would be good right!?

WRONG!!

Every single artist on before me were well known by the crowd (a few heavy hitters in fact) and every last one of them without exception....wait for it....RAPPED!!

Let me be clear, I love rap, that wasn't the issue, the issue was that for 1hr 45 mins there were 800 to 1000 people all jumping up and down to the chorus of these guys... "all the brothers in the house say ho" HO!

You get the idea...

They were great, invigorating, inspiring, articulate and honest with their form, but all I could think was "OOOOOOOOH SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!"

Eventually I got a nod, just as I was about to go and get my guitar and get ready to leave, thinking that maybe it wasn't gonna happen.  So I walk up towards the stage and the stage hand says "OK, so after this artist their gonna jam for a bit and then you're up OK!?"

"OK?" I thought to myself but what came out of my mouth was "sure".

I'm standing there thinking 'what on earth am I going to sing...by the time I get up the groove will change so I can't even sort it out until I'm up there.... PLEASE let it be in a good key for me!!"

I was introduced, and walked on stage to much mumbling and little applause as my welcome.  Not that people were being ungracious, I think they were just confused, being that they had been treated to such raw and visceral delights all night, and then on walks a little white guy from Belfast looking like a sailor that wants to be Frank Sinatra.  I could hear their intake of breath and read their minds as they all simultaneously thought: "Please don't be an Irish Eminem"

I pulled my hat down over my eyes and hummed to myself to see if the key they played in would let me soar like Icarus , or plunge me in to a huge dungeon filled with scolding hot humble pie.....

The key felt alright and the groove was good and slouchy... in a split second I made the decision to sing Be With Me and hoped the God that it worked out.....

I'll say no more than this: it worked out fine! Although I think it was more that everyone was relieved that I didn't rap....


So that's NYC in brief (If I told the whole story it would be a short novel).

The other thing I should tell you is about MONIO. Music of Northern Irish Origin.

It's the brain child of a guy called Steve Jones, that caught my imagination along with another friend of ours called Paul Hamilton. 

It's a bit of a tongue in cheek take on MOBO.  The idea is to celebrate Northern Irish Music in a Northern Irish way.  This year on 1st & 2nd August we have the MONIO & Friends Festival 2009.   Which will also happen next year, but we also hope to have an awards ceremony, where some local acts are expected to go Triple Wool and we also plan on giving out at least one 'Lifetime Non Achievement Award'... gonna be good.

To get tickets for the Festival and hear more about MONIO just click the links.  Right, I'm back off into my rabbit hole to write songs... Goodnight San Diego and thanks for stopping by.