27-Jan-10 Acoustic Wednesday Beamish Mary

This is a new club - or rather an old club rising phoenix-like from the ashes. It was started anew at the beginning of the year by Steve (the Bass player with the trio Fool's Gold) and this was our first visit under the new management. We have been to the Beamish Mary before when there was a club run by John Brindle and before that by Rita Mawson.

The separate music room has been 'done up' - the bar has been removed and a small stage built in the corner. It's an acoustic set up (ie no instruments plugged in) though Steve has a PA and mikes up the instruments and voices which made for a very natural sound - the ambience being further supplemented with a basic lighting rig (very close and bright for the performers).

There was quite a good turn out with about a dozen performers, and it was good to catch up with Andy and Cath (Acoustica) who sang two songs new to us.

It was two each round the room which took us to 10:00 pm and then one each to get around again. Some people had gone home so the last act got to finish with two more songs and then Fool's Gold rounded off the night with a song.

We sang

• Love At The Five And Dime (Nanci Griffith)
• Best Friends (jiva)
• Different Dreams (jiva)

There were varied styles and quite a few performers we had not seen before. It was a grand night - we'll be back. Well done Steve!

 Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Stephen Wilson MySpace

21-Jan-10 MIND Active

Quick change of venue for today's outing for MIND Active. The home we were due to play in was 'out of bounds' with sickness. But some quick re-arranging had us booked in to play at a different home... our first visit there for nearly a year.

We arrived in good time and got our gear set up and were ready to play. We played the usual two sets of five songs in each with a small break in the middle for re-tune and gargle. We played:

• Love At The Five And Dime (Nanci Griffith)
• Two Old Friends (Chris Simpson)
• Yorkshire Romance (CJ Rowe)
• Back Home To You (Allan Taylor)
• When (jiva)
• Dream On (jiva)
• Best Friends (jiva)
• Different Dreams (jiva)
• Some Way Home (jiva)
• One More Song (jiva)

There was some lovely joining in from the residents and the whole hour was relaxed and cosy.

All too soon it was time to head home again leaving some smiling residents and taking some happy memories and good wishes with us.

 Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
MINDActive website

20-Jan-10 Comrades Folk 'n Local

We'd been invited along to the Comrades Club in Whitley Bay by John Jeffrey (he runs the occasional Saturday folk acoustic music nights there). The 'entertainment' for the evening was a group called Folk 'n Local... We'd not heard of them before and didn't know what to expect, so we headed off just to chill out and have an evening off from our own music and PCs and recording and designing etc.

Folk 'n Local are a 4-piece who sing Geordie traditional/fun/music hall type songs and some stuff from the 50s through to 70s pop era too with the odd modern pop song thrown in for good measure. Instrumentation was guitars, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, Northumbrian pipes and even a drinks tray acting as a makeshift tambourine.

There was a canny buffet at half time and we managed to have a natter with Few Broth too.

Thanks for the invite, John.

Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace

20-Jan-10 Recording Stewart Shackleton

Stewart is a resident of Cramlington Folk Club. He asked if we could help him as he would like to record some of his songs for a CD. We agreed 'terms and conditions' and he duly turned up at the allotted time. After a bit of chat and chinwag he got straight down to it. Three hours later, two cups of tea each and a biscuit and ten songs recorded! Phew!

Now begins the work of listening and tweaking and adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that jiva magic then we'll be sending an initial mix for Stewart to listen to. 

Watch this space for developments...

Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
jiva design website

19-Jan-10 Foggy Furze Folk Club

The awful snowy weather has really taken it's toll on jiva outings... only our second time out playing so far this year found us at the Foggy Furze in Hartlepool. The club is run by Ian and Kay D'eath and on non-guest nights is run on a singaround basis.

It's was fairly a quiet night but a fair mix with guitars, mandolin, accordion, harmonica and a cappella singing as well.

We were asked to start the night and began with the title track from our recent CD release 'Best Friends' (jiva) and followed this with 'Yorkshire Romance' (CJ Rowe) and then it was around the room with everyone else doing two at a time as well.

By 10:00 pm we stopped for a swift beer break before going round the room again. This time we sang our own 'Some Way Home' and 'One More Song'.

There was time at the end of the night for two more songs from jiva and we sang two more self-penned numbers, 'Different Dreams' and 'When'.

Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Foggy Furze website

19-Jan-10 Anthony John Clarke songbook 'An Acquaintance' 50 Songs

In October 2009 when Anthony John Clarke was the guest at Cramlington Folk Club he came to stay with us for a couple of days and we were surprised, but delighted and thrilled, when he asked if we could design a songbook for him... oh, and he'd like it done by the end of 2009 if possible! We said yes, no problem, we'd love to!

Anthony John worked through the songs providing lyric sheets, chord shapes and photographs. We got all the photos (some paper and some electronic) onto our computer system, painstakingly drew every chord box and formatted the lyrics into a consistent format. Then we assembled the songs into alphabetical order and inserted the chord shapes for each song.

As the initial drafts were emailed and edited it became obvious that we needed to spend a day or two together to confirm and finalise the chords, choose from the assembled gallery of photographs and add that personal touch from Anthony John himself. So towards the end of November Anthony John came up north again and we all worked very hard to ensure that we got as much done as humanly possible... The book was now starting to take shape and the excitement and anticipation was starting to grow.

During the following week we managed to fit in listening to every one of the songs on CD, ensuring that the lyrics were word-for-word in the book. Then it was back to the chords, and trying out the final lyrics with the tunings and chords and confirming capo positions. Additionally, there were new photos needed, some old photos to be improved/doctored, and cover design to be finalised... All this while we were preparing for our Netherton guest spot and CD launch followed 3 days later by our Croxdale Folk Club Guest spot!

Then the draft was hand-delivered to the printer for a proof print - nothing more to be done except wait... the proof version came out with some concerns over greyscale picture quality and so we frantically re-examined all our work to date, went over every possible setting with a fine-tooth comb, braved the snow to drive to a couple of print shops to try a few things out, came back home, checked, re-checked, got some higher resolution photos, and still found no difference from the original on our own equipment.

After a tormented and exhausting week-end we got in touch with the printers and were somewhat exasperated but very relieved to find that the problem had been at their end, and that our submitted work was fine! Ah well, the time had also been usefully spent in going through the printed proof very thoroughly and we and Anthony John came up with a few tweaks before submitting the final version for the production run.

So, with a lot of hard work by all concerned, we had everything drafted, proofed, tweaked and with the printers before their Christmas break - everything that we could do was 'done'... but the printers wouldn't be able to complete the order until some time in January.

We're pleased to report that the book is now published and about to hit the streets!

148 pages, 50 songs with chords and 'twiddly bits', photographs, quotes etc., it's a great book and A5 wiro bound so you can open it up and lay it flat while learning to play his songs.

A must buy for any Anthony John Clarke fan.

Oh yes, we are thrilled to bits that Anthony John has included our very own 'One More Song' in the songbook... he now includes it in his live set too! Wowee!!

Links
jiva website
jiva design website
jiva MySpace
Anthony John Clarke website

12-Jan-10 Cramlington Folk Club

After a longer than usual Christmas and New Year break we were pleased to head off to Cramlington Folk Club for a singers night. Apart from the snow and ice making travel difficult (with many clubs having to cancel their evenings) we had suffered a slight setback ourselves... while making hardware changes to a PC Jimmy cut his right hand index finger. Even after a fortnight it hadn't fully healed, but we decided that we just had to get on with things and get back to playing!

As always Keith got the night underway shortly after 8:00 pm, and there was a good crop of performers including acts that we had either not seen before (Fools Gold) and who were new to Cramlington (John Jeffrey). We were on fairly late in the first half and played 'Back Home To You' (Allan Taylor) and 'Different Dreams' (jiva), both of which had the Cramlington Choir in full swing.

There was quite an array of instruments - multiple guitars (including parlour guitars and a twin-neck 6 and 12 string Ovation), two banjos, mandolin, two double basses and harmonica.

It was a night of varied styles and genres... another grand Cramlington night.

Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
Cramlington Folk Club website