My most unusual tour has now been completed! I reversed the ticket model, and hoped for the best, and...it worked!!

If you don't already know, I booked 6 unique concerts, hired out the venues, and invited people to come to a free concert, with the option to make a donation if they'd enjoyed themselves. Trusting. Trusting that they will enjoy themselves, and give back. And they did! Take a picture walk through the tour...  it turned out so well that I might make this an annual thing!

Starting out in Priddy, Somerset, this is my all female trio (featuring Tamsin and Ellie Mains) having magically but briefly turned into a woodwind band!

Following Priddy we had a pretty packed concert at Poulton Village hall near Cirencester! This is Pete Mannheim supporting me, who helped to organise this concert.

Oh yeah! Got in West Sussex County Times and the Chichester Observer too!

From there I went all the way down to Ashington (nr Brighton), where with the help of Dave Grout, Christelle and I performed on the stage you can see. This is her, a lovely local young singer!

Over to the glorious 700 year old St Lawrence Chapel in Ahsburton! Which I should have taken more pictures of really. This was me, on stage, with a quite extraordinary backdrop!

Alright this next one is not strictly a performance shot, but when in Rome...or on Dartmoor in this case...I had occasion to enjoy myself!!

While, fortunately, while I was healthy the whole time, illness upon illness beset my poor support acts and we had to keep replacing them last minute. I'll think twice about and Autumn tour next time!! At the final concert, Lena Laki was too ill to come to support, and although Hayley Carlyon (they other support act) was well, she was unexpectedly stuck in Faro! Eventually, she *just* made it at 8 for and 8pm start! Good on her! Performed a cracking set too!

And finally, this is me closing the final concert! Thanks to Tony Birch for this shot. Lovely to be at maximum capacity for the final show, and so wonderful to see so many old and new friends. Special thanks to Nicholas Hennel Foley for helping out with the sound!

Since it's been such a wonderful experience, and people enjoyed it so much, I think I'll do it again. What do YOU think? :)

Yesterday I played in the world's smallest venue (pictured below) at the Stroud Fringe Festival. It's called 'Folk In A Box' and is a one person concert venue in the dark (yes, it's possible to play guitar in the pitch black..)! Founded by Emily Barker, it's a great way to re-connect with the roots of acoustic music (pun intended) . It takes away the pressure of psychological interaction - I can't see the audience and the audience can't see me - which means I don't have to bother about making them feel comfortable, or worry about what I look like while I sing, or wonder what they're thinking of me. And for them? They can cry, in the dark, and not feel judged... If you want people to really let go and open up, to really listen, and to feel something, this dark and intimate venue is a great way to go about it. And isn't that what every songwriter wants? For their songs to be heard?

I have spent a lot of time thinking about how important the context is in music. How people are much more affected by the song if you give an introduction, or if they have a personal connection to you. Imagine, someone tells you that this singer is the best in the world, and people pay enormous amounts of money to hear her sing - how does that prep you to listen to the music? Or, there's someone singing in a pub, but no matter how beautiful it might be, you're having a conversation with a friend and the music is nothing but an interruption. Those are two very different experiences of music, despite the fact that it may be the same singer, and the same song sung in the same way. The difference is the context. So, my concern, is how to provide a better context for my concerts. What can I do? Jokingly I told a friend of mine I almost have the urge to create rules like in a classroom 'sit comfortably, take a deep breath, let's start with a moment of silence'. She said she would ask the audience to remove their shoes and encourage them to move their body if they feel like it. I haven't hit on the perfect setting yet, but I'm enjoying the experiments. 
So far, I like the context of a donation based concert. People are free to come and enjoy the music, and to pay whatever they feel moved to. It puts me in total artistic control - I hire the venue, arrange the support act / accompaniment and I can decorate the space how I like, or arrange a start time that suits me (seriously, a 10pm start for my music is not ideal!). This way I can try to create a particular setting for my audience to have a better musical experience. No background noise for goodness sake! Silence please! But some artists love background noise, or the humdrum of pub environments. I want people to be seated, some want the audience to stand, or dance...

In a world full of singer-songwriters (wonderful!), doing this as a business, I have to think about what will be the best way for people to be introduced to my music. To have the deepest musical experience, and to take the most out of a concert? My success as an artist and as a business depends on the context, on how I create value for my audience members and for my singing and songwriting. So, any ideas send them my way! Concerts in the dark? Too weird! Candlelit? Maybe! Black tie and glam themed event? Maybe... I thought of a doing a series in old out of the way sacred sites - ancient chapels and what not. Atmospheric! Or even garden concerts...house concerts...etc. etc. The possibilities are endless!

For anyone who wants to come to a donation based concert, check out my upcoming October Series! I am really looking forward to seeing how they go...

Till another time! 

​X

A little look into a page from my diary at a very creative moment in my life...

Dear friends,

I wish I could share this with you. There are moments in all our lives that are filled with intensity, creativity, and an unnameable something else. Often following a period of depression or change of circumstances, and sometimes, for no reason at all. It is there.
Many of you who know me personally will know of my aversion to drugs and mind changing substances (ahem, look, coffee is NOT in the same category!).  Despite the fact that it makes me terribly uncool amid musician circles, I believe it is much more meaningful to apprehend the miraculous in sober consciousness, and besides, I doubt I could handle anything more psychedelic than the creative states I get into at times like this.
I am filled with fire. Something that burns hot and cold and makes me see stars... and write songs... and invent words. I spent a good deal of this morning joyfully singing nonsense words! I am playing with the idea of putting an improvised song on the new album.... my voice is taking me to utterly new places, and I wish I could show you. It will probably take me years to unfold all this and get it 'out' in the mainstream, but let it be known! Tuesday 16th August 2016 was the moment of discovery! The bursting forth of an intense creative singing energy that had been brewing for years...
And look, creativity is as natural as the earth. Why shouldn't this energy be available to us? It's hugely under-emphasized in our education system but it is possible, for any person, any where, at any time to become  spontaneously filled with it!
But here, the proof is in the pudding, and I'm desperate to get into a studio and 'serve'! Oh but for lack of money! I absolutely cannot wait to share this new round of explosive creativity with you - new songs are buzzing in the background, nearly ready to be born :) Hold on to your hats folks!

With love...

Is music a Charity or a Business?

These days to break into the music industry you need to be a start-up entrepreneur as well as an artist. In order to get noticed you need pro quality branding, organisation and marketing strategies.
All of these ultimately fall at the feet of the love of music, but are important nonetheless, to give your music the 'setting' it deserves. But lets talk about charity....

I've received a lot of funding from people. Actually my entire musical career has been community funded. Some people make a lot of money this way. Last I checked Amanda Palmer is voluntarily GIVEN $32,727 every time she does something because people have signed up to do so. And people have criticized her for it. Yet people don't criticize large salaries of business execs (well...). Is it offensive if an artist makes a huge profit? Why? Surely they are providing 'value' to many people, and people enjoy giving back.

Hold on, people ENJOY spending money? Giving it away even when they don't need to? Yep. That's right. And that's why music is a charity and a cause no matter how much the artist is making. The artist does not have to create art. Someone with Amanda Palmers business mind could surely make a fortune in a more traditional career. But I respect her, and all artists, for sticking to what they love. And no, the audience does not have to pay for music. Not with youtube, spotify, internet downloads and the fact that many artists are now giving away their recordings (download mine here!), but they want to. It feels 'right', like insisting on buying a friend a cup of coffee (yes please!).

I need a community of people to play to as much as communities of people need musical experiences, artistic creations in their streets, clean air and good food. Arts contribute to our lives beyond monetary value, and arts reflect our community culture. They are community endeavors for love of the art form itself which is why I believe musicianship is a charitable enterprise, and deserves all the support it can get! Go Artists! Keep On Creating!

Once, while up on Dartmoor's misty hills in the mid-winter, I had a strong feeling of...the brevity of life. A sense of journey, and of leaving all *this* behind. I stripped in the rain (no-one was around) and danced atop the hills. I managed to completely slip over in the puddles that had gathered in the grass and ended up covered in mud, water, and a big smile. All while thinking about death...which is also thinking about life.

I came home to a warm bath and the listening ear of my friend Charlene, and I sat down and wrote this song by the fire among tea and biscuits.

I feel a strange longing for something beyond life. To be part of nature in an unconscious way, or perhaps I feel somehow cut off and I wish to return. I feel this song really captures what I experienced atop the moors. It's a song about leaving, while not really having left...

Sometimes relationships are a bit of an uphill struggle. A dear friend of mine and I happened to be going through the same thing at the same time, and I wrote this for him. I watched him help, help and help his partner who always needed more than he could give. And I watched him move out, but not really move on... there seems to be a lingering feeling of 'would that I could' and this song is written on the very edge of that feeling. A kind of joy in letting go, a kind of regret at not being able to do anything more, a kind of wishing things to be different, but a kind of acceptance of how things are...

I wrote it from his perspective, though the topic is personal to me too, and likely to most people. Haven't you also tried to help someone that doesn't really want to be helped? And felt sympathy but also need a safety distance...? There is something to letting people be the way they are....

P.s. Thanks to Kev Wicks for making a pun (with this picture) about 'De Joy of De-Feet'!! :D Silliness always welcome!!

I've always felt the urge to reach out to people. It was underneath my training and career as a therapist and is still underneath my music. This strange desire to touch what can't be touched, and to be with people despite, during, and unaffected by even the most horrendous circumstances.

I saw scores of things that horrified me, and I've listened to hundreds of people life stories, and I have found that where there is simple willingness to hear and be with pain, there is equal willingness to explode in humour, anger and affection. It's amazing what a difference a listening ear (and heart) can make.

Did you know that roughly a third of adults in the UK have been sexually abused? 78% of suicides were male? Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health disorders...the list goes on... 

The fact is, we all struggle. And one persons problem is everyone's problem. I wrote this for everyone and beyond. Who knows why?

I am presenting a month of new music on Mondays, complete with video, a free download, and a little backstory:

In Time

One cold November night in the English drizzle, I was sat by candlelight trying to write a song with this new finger picking technique my producer had insisted I learn. For four hours I sat there, staring out of the window into the darkness and jotting down cheesy sentiments. Frustrated with myself, I asked myself what I REALLY wanted to say. And I wrote this song. All in one go. A conversation with myself. And I shed many a tear over it. Oddly enough sometimes sad things can be very beautiful too, even nourishing.

"Stop fooling child, you've many years before you,many transitions to go through, nothing's the same don't you know?"

Nothing replaces anything else. People don't replace one another in our hearts, and the flux of people coming and going from our lives is utterly natural. It's just that...a loss will always be a loss, no matter what happens afterwards. And in reality, there's nothing to letting people go, or letting go. It requires no action at all. And yet, somehow, I'm still taking my time...

42 minutes of recorded music has a market value as close to '0' as it gets. You may be able to sing like Adele (and in my opinion, way too many people do), but that's not enough. That's not even half the story. Success - both in creating a valuable experience for people and in 'selling' music is ALL ABOUT CONTEXT. I would repeat that, but I think the capital letters do the trick.

In many of the TV talent shows they build a surprise transition into a performance because it's not enough to be amazing in one way. You have to do something unexpected. Or BE something unexpected. In one of the first talent shows I ever watched, a bin man made it to the semi finals. Not because he was more talented than 80% of the others but because his story was so engaging. 'Bin man is secretly a super talented musical genius'... And we all watched his rise to fame....
Talent is not scarce. Amazing music is not scarce. This is what industry people understand, and 99% of musicians don't. This is what branding does. It's about bringing out your context, your story. Because if you hear someone talented playing in the street - heads turn. But if people pay £20 a ticket to see the EXACT SAME PERFORMANCE in say, the Albert hall in London, folks are going to be madly disappointed!!

This is partly what has lead into me booking in a tour entirely on donation (dates coming out soon!!!). I want to REMOVE the idea that the audience are in charge and know what to expect. SASKIA and the June Apples concerts have been £12 a ticket on average, and when most people invest that, they do so because they expect to hear a certain sound. And as an artist, I'm going to go right ahead and say that it is NOT up to audience what we do on stage!! I want people to come to the concerts expecting something vaguely nice, and I want to utterly blow them away with something they've never heard before. I don't always know what I'm going to do up there. I like improvisation and above all I value authentic, unrepeatable performances, such that you can't find on recordings. And I am giving me and my band the freedom to do that, as well as giving audiences the freedom to come and take a risk on a new band without feeling concerned by money.

The intention to make music available to anyone regardless of price is part of my context. Part of my story is the thrust to GIVE music and musical experiences to people. And to do it for free. Because I know in my heart of hearts, that if I manage to communicate even a tenth of what I feel when I'm on stage, the audience will look after me in return.  Besides, no matter how good I get at marketing, music is not something I create to market and make money from. My songs are integral to my whole being (whatever that may turn out to be), and are an expression of life as it occurs to this little girl from the west of England. Whether anyone listens or not. ;) But they will...

Yesterday, I completed my 'Gentle Heart' album launch tour, not without some emotion, at an afternoon of music in Barns Green. I was fulfilling my final kickstarter reward by playing this show, and it was a lovely, sunny day, full of quality live music.
This post is a tribute and a thank-you to my Kickstarter Backers, to my Producer Robert Weil, and to the Arts Council England (grants for the arts) for making all of this possible. Thank you to everyone who bought my CD's! Retweeted my posts, liked my status's and joined in with this magnificent journey!! I wouldn't be here without you.

​In the end I played 16 shows, in 13 counties, with 15 different artists. I made 11 youtube videos, and added 200 names to my mailing list, and more than doubled my social media stats (boring I know, but important nonetheless). I've completed my training in marketing and music management with the new artist model, I've been featured in 9 newspapers, I've been on BBC Gloucestershire 3 times, and for some reason, I'm still number 1 in Bristol's folk charts...

Where did the arts council grant go? Good question! There isn;t even one penny left! I have invested it ALL directly into art. Both into my business, and into other artists and venues. I so LOVE supporting art and artists of all kinds, and I LOVE being able to orchestrate arts events. Thanks to this investment I've been able to turn my dream into a profession, and I've been able to set the ball rolling for a sucessful future. Everybody knows it's hard to get started in a new industry, but thanks to YOU (ALL of you), I have the skills, experience, equipment and contacts to carry on snowballing into the English music scene. Watch out folks!! And stay in touch. XX

P.s. Did I mention how THRILLING it has been?! Watching my music make waves in THOUSANDS of people, seeing their responses, and communicating about my art daily? I've had the time of my life. Never worked so hard, or had so much fun. I'm hooked, and I'm not going back. You ain't seen nothin' yet!