We're honoured to have opened the night and want to say a big thank you to Terry, Bishop fm, fellow performers (Acoustica, Copperhead Still, Ed Mikalski, Marie Lindhardt and Tri) and everyone who came and enjoyed the music.
It was a tight fit getting everyone's gear on the 'stage' - it looked like a music store's front window! But we managed to squeeze our three guitars and state of the art Bose L1 sound system into the gaps between guitars, basses, electronic drum kit, and other amps/speakers.
The Bose L1 is ideally suited to this type of venue and we were really pleased with the way it performed - crystal clarity as always.
Our set for the 40 minute spot was:
- Love At The Five And Dime (Nanci Griffith)
- Two Old Friends (Magna Carta)
- Best Friends (jiva)
- Back Home To You (Allan Taylor)
- Different Dreams (jiva)
- Some Way Home (jiva)
- Passin Thru (Randy Scruggs and Johnny Cash)
- One More Song (jiva)
The night was an eclectic mix of styles and genres covering everything from folk/roots through to country and taking in blues and singer songwriter material too. There was even a bowed saw - Marie tells us its a Stradivarius!
Let's hope lots of money was raised for Bishop fm, and let's all double our efforts to promote the station and help out in any way that we can.
Looking forward to the next one...
Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Bishop fm website
Singers night at Cramlington Folk Club... one or two were missing with coughs and colds and flu, Carol was in hospital... let's hope she's feeling better soon. There were still plenty of performers to make for the usual mixed bag of styles incorporating everything from unaccompanied through to blues guitar and contemporary singer/songwriter material.
A new addition this week was Phil Graham who, with his wife Janet, made the journey from deepest South Durham to join us. Good to have him visit and we know he's planning on returning in the new year. It was also good to see Ray Derrick at the club - he seems to be back on the scene after a lengthy gap in solo public performances.
Still recovering from our coughs and sniffles and throat problems, this was our first outing for almost three weeks. We decided it was about time we dusted off 'Sissy' (Jimmy's Taylor 855 12-string guitar, sister of Val's 'Missy' Taylor 855 12-string), and played two songs with Sissy's 6th pair of strings dropped to D... '4+20' (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) and 'No Telling' (Linda Thompson).
Cramlington has an unwritten tradition that, time permitting, whoever starts the night gets the chance to return to the floor at the end of the night... and so it was that we saw Ken Cross back for a second spot, bringing on a few of the Cramlington Big Band club to close the night with the usual well known singalong stuff.
Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Cramlington Folk Club
We have been working on Jim Wigfield's debut album throughout the year - and, following the final mixing and artwork design, have sent it all off for glass mastering, CD production and final product manufacture complete with 8 page booklet, tray liner, CD label, bar-coding and cello-wrap.
It's an exciting time for us as this is our first venture into full out-and-out professional production/manufacture... it's also an exciting time for Jim as we wait for delivery of the finished article!
Watch out for Jim's CD, entitled 'At Last' - it should be available in time for purchase as a Christmas present.
Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
jiva design website
Jim Wigfield MySpace
Remember back in October we wrote about Jimmy's Taylor 910CE-L7 having the new Expression System fitted?
When we got the guitar home the electrics were fine, but the action on the guitar was different - Fender had given the guitar a free set-up! Jimmy spent a long time re-accustoming himself to the guitar and we both took great pains to try and tweak our wonderful Bose L1 system to get the signature Taylor sound that we love. But it was to no avail - we just couldn't get it right, so we got in touch with our friend and great luthier Mark Challinor... he agreed to cast his expert eye over it and see what could be done.
So on November 11 we drove to Otley with both our Taylor 910CEs to see Mark. Mark's inital thought was that he just loved them both, and didn't have any problem with either of them. But, after carefully listening to our description of the problems we were experiencing, he agreed to shape a new bone saddle in the Taylor compensated style but just a 1/64th inch higher for Jimmy's guitar. Two hours later Jimmy was smiling as his beloved Rio (yes, we name all our guitars) felt comfortable and right again, and was sounding more like its old self.But, the final test would be when we got back home and played both acoustically and through the Bose... more to follow in a later blog!
Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Mark Challinor
We were first introduced to Tom Pacheco, an American singer-songwriter, by a friend of ours a couple of years ago and saw him for the first time in Hartlepool in 2007... we were hooked! As he's not performing in our area on this UK tour and, as we were keen to see him again, we took a couple of days off work and travelled up to Dunkeld (near Perth) to see him at The Taybank Hotel.
It was a wet, cold and blustery night but a few brave souls had turned out to watch him in this close and upfront concert and it was well worth the travelling. He was on good form and we had a grand night - we enjoyed the performance and the friendly chat with him too (he even remembered us from 2007).
Tom is passionate in his beliefs and it is obvious that he cares deeply for the world and its people and creatures. His songs and his performing style run the whole gamut from gentle and touching stories through to thunderous protests.Linksjiva website
jiva MySpaceTom Pacheco websiteTom Pacheco MySpace
For a number of years we have performed, on a voluntary basis, at residential care homes in the region. These are organised through the charity, MINDActive. Not only do the residents enjoy our visits but we thoroughly enjoy performing for them and it's great to see them react to our music (some even dancing!), have them gently join in with some of the choruses and to chat with everyone over a cuppa.
Today we were at a care home in Bedlington and we had a great time!Linksjiva website
jiva MySpaceMINDActive website
We were asked by Terry Ferdinand, good friend and DJ of the Bishop fm folk show (Monday nights 21:00 - 23:00), if we could design a poster to advertise the upcoming Folk Fundraiser concert which is being arranged by them to raise funds for the station.
Rising to the challenge jiva design produced a draft poster that evening and put the finishing touches to it the next day.
We also designed tickets with a matching Bishop fm themed colour scheme.
The fundraiser promises a great night's entertainment featuring performances from:
>> Acoustica
>> Copperhead Still
>> jiva
>> Tri
And all for only a fiver!Linksjiva website
jiva design website
jiva MySpace
Bishop fm website
Along with club regular, Terry Fletcher, we played support for Marian Bradfield - an Irish singer songwriter. We'd not seen her before, or even heard of her, but we wish we had! She was superb and her songs powerful and yet tender. We definitely plan on seeing Marian again when her website is updated with gig details, etc.
jiva got a really good reception from the audience, even some whooping! We sang three songs in the first half - 'Tommy', 'Maginot Waltz' and 'Love At The Five And Dime'. For our second spot we sang our self-penned 'Different Dreams' and 'Some Way Home'.
Marian was brilliant - certainly someone to look out for. We had a great night!
Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Cramlington Folk Club
Marian Bradfield
What an amazing spectacle! We'd seen this show once before and were excited to be able to see it again. It's almost impossible to describe... suffice to say it is enthralling and magical and leaves you with a wonderful feeling of inner peace. A quote on the Slava Snowshow website tries to sum it up... but honestly, it has to be seen to be believed.
Slava’s Snowshow is unlike anything you have seen before – a world of wonder combining hilarity and poignancy with stunning spectacle and breathtaking images; an unmistakably unique comedy masterpiece. The ensemble cast of clowns use water, cobwebs, bubbles and dry ice to dazzling effect; a world of wonder in which a bed becomes a boat, a web of cotton envelops the audience and one tiny piece of paper begins a blinding, heart-stopping snowstorm that engulfs an awestruck audience in a blizzard of sparkling snowflakes.
We were staying with friends, Bob and Jean - it was they who first introduced us to Slava for which we will be ever grateful - and we had a nice relaxed weekend enjoying Slava and also enjoying play time with their two lovely cats, Frummerty and Max!
Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Slava Snowshow
We're honoured to have opened the night and want to say a big thank you to Terry, Bishop fm, fellow performers (Acoustica, Copperhead Still, Ed Mikalski, Marie Lindhardt and Tri) and everyone who came and enjoyed the music.