It's been a busy old month so far.
I just got back from having a fantastic time out in Chania, Crete where I played a couple of solo shows at the Artemis Apartments in Stavros near Chania. They were lovely warm nights under the moonlight by the swimming pool.
As soon as I got back to Edinburgh via London I had to travel through to Glasgow to do Dean Friedman's Real American Folk show on BBC Radio Scotland. This was a live show from the rooftop cafe of the brand new BBC headquarters at Pacific Quay down by the River Clyde. It was great fun and a wonderful setting for a show. I was asked to perform one song by a songwriter who came from the Hudson River area so I played the Bruce Springsteen song One Step Up. I also played my own song from the River Clyde area - Raining In Glasgow and guess what??? It wasn't raining!! You can re-listen to this show for the next week by going to -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/ and following the listen again instructions.
The next morning I was off back down to London to do The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2. I was asked to play one of my own songs, but also to summarise the show in song at the end of the programme. This would have been a lot easier to do had I not been left in an office for the first 45 minutes of the show without a radio!! I had no idea what they were talking about and wondered how the hell I was supposed to summarise a show I couldn't hear. However it all worked out in the end as I caught the main part of the show and was filled in on what I'd missed. Russell has a good team of people working with him who were very kind.
To hear my daft wee song and the rest of the show go to -http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/brand/ and follow the instructions to listen again. You can also download the podcast.
Russell was a lovely guy. The show is pretty mental, but great fun.
Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting) has been saying nice things about me and Whisky Hearts in The New York Times. Check it out - http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/living-with-music-a-playlist-by-irvine-welsh/
I have some shows coming up in September.
They are:
September 7th - The Queens Hall, Edinburgh. This is a show to celibrate 30 years of the Canongate Youth Project and other performers on the night include the wonderful Karine Polwart and the legendary Dick Gaughan.
September 15th - The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen. This is a full band show at one of my favourite Scottish venues.
September 19th - The Village, Leith, Edinburgh. This is a solo show in a small intimate venue just a stones throw from where I grew up in Leith.
September 23rd - The Maze, Nottingham. This is a duo show in one of my favourite venues in England.
September 26th -The Darvel Festival (near Kilmarnock) this should be a great night and is part of this fantastic festival in Ayrshire. Also on the bill this night is my good friend Michael Weston King and also Keiran Docherty. Get your tickets and information now from - www.darvelmusicfestival.org
That's it for now.
Enjoy what's left of the summer.
Dean
