A Day of Plenty

It’s rained here in Britain for the last 4 weeks.  I mean big fat torrential rain clouds passing over the summer sky like warplanes from a predator nation trying to destroy the morale of the country.  I’m sure everyone here is feeling it, a sense of dread, anticipation of doom as we sit and watch that precious English summer slip through our fingers.  Surely it must be the governments fault along with the credit crunch – somedays you can’t help it – it really does get you down.

And yet. Like all bad days, suddenly the clouds part and you will find something to smile about.  I was woken this morning by a phone call from our label manager John Pearson, excited about the imminent release of our album “The Last Post” in France, a country I love, with the prospect of gigs and a promotional visit to Paris to look forward to soon and maybe 4 or 5 French shows they said. Perfect.

Then the sound of a delivery van sent Bruno Bear our German Shepherd dog into a frenzy.  I went downstairs expecting it to be yet another delivery from Amazon.com (see, down here in deepest Somerset, we buy books, DVDs and CDs – grist for my mill of revolution world rantings) but this time it was a UPS delivery man. The big box had an unmistakeable logo “Jack Daniels, Tennessee”.  Inside beautifully packed, complete with legal looking Notarie documents were 3 almost medical looking bottles. Remember the blog about our visit to the amazing distillery?  Well at last the fruits of my “barrel” birthday present from Mick are starting to appear.  These are 3 testing bottles for me to consider and decide ultimately, which blend will comprise the Tj Barrel. Here’s the picture.  How amazing this process is – the brewing and distilling of something so unique – just sniffing the honey malt brought so many memories of that magical day flooding back – what a birthday present.

We went out to walk Bruno with the feeling that the storm clouds were lifting and it wasn’t just because the sun was breaking through.  It’s amazing how a little good news can turn your feelings from black to white and that glorious “can do” feeling.

We walked along feeling the heat of the morning and discussing the new song ideas – Mj and I are hard at work on the next album recording sessions and the energy is flowing. We’ve always said our greatest pleasure is the creation of new songs in our studio, that magical moment, especially when you know it’s something really good, that makes all the struggle in the outside world of the music business really worth it.  If people ask what drives us on, I can honestly say it is those moments. However don’t ever underestimate how much work goes into the creation of the lyrical ideas behind the songs. We are always aware of reaching higher, putting into words where our minds are today and trying to find the resonance that connects with our audience.

So there we were deep in discussion, when suddenly, up in the field ahead, we spotted two huge, pure white globes – something we always hope to see at this time of year.  And no, this is not some old football pitch with leftover balls to kick about – much, much more exciting than that – these are giant Puffball mushrooms – and perfect specimens at that.  So, that’s it then, we know what we’ll be having for dinner – Penelope will knock up pasta with puffballs and I agree to re-watch (for the 10th time) her favorite movie if you’re eating pasta – a German film called “Mostly Martha” which I have to agree is a gorgeous film – and coming from someone who hates subtitles, this is high praise indeed.  They remade this film recently in America – sacrilege.

So here we are and it’s all good as Ari from “Entourage” might say (hurry up with the next season guys btw)… A trip to Paris, A box of Jack, A book of new songs, A giant Puffball …oh and Omar’s back bigtime in the Wire.

A day of plenty.
Oh, yes – and I’m learning Golf – don’t ask.