Pubs Clubs and Photo Shoots and the Honour of Truth.

Hello Folks,
time to do my weekly sum up of what's being happening in Real Life as well as Second Life.
Sunwolf and I had said we would have Mondays away from the machines. No sooner did we say it than we discovered two of our favourite artists were playing at one of our favourite venues, in SL, oh temptation!. We succumbed  , as you probably guessed we would. Tim Anadyr and Dusty Smythe are always well worth listening to and we enjoyed ourselves. Dusty can always makes us laugh and in these days we value that very highly. After these two, we did in fact have the rest of the day sorting out our RL chores which went a little lighter as a result. An old friend of mine once said, a plan should always be used as a guideline not as a rigid structure to bind and suffocate spontaneity , as in all things it is the balance between that is important (last words are mine).
Tuesday was a bit hair raising, in RL Sunwolf had been playing with our Malamute, Ka, and she managed to catch him in the corner of the eye with one of her rather large claws. We had a set to play that night for the lovely venue Drunken Drow and we got through it though Sunwolf was in quite a bit of pain and often couldn't see too well the chords or notes. Isn't it odd the way if one eye waters then the other will too even though there is no reason for it to do so. Cailidgh Spires and Ari the little Dragon both had sets following ours so we stayed to catch them. It was interesting to note the difference between Caili,who is a seasoned performer of several years and Ari who is just starting out and of course us, Wolf n Hawk, who have now been playing for over 5 months now.
Wednesday saw us with our venue owners hats, on rearranging  time slots. We had a cancellation to sort out and The wonderful Frank Molko stepped in to help us out. It meant we, Wolf n Hawk, would be playing an hour later, but that was a small price to pay to have Frank doing a set in the pub. Our lovable rogue and crazy  friend Gweeb ended the evening for us.
Thursday saw one of those odd coincidences happen that seem too coincidental to be so, if you get my drift.
Just before we were due to play our usual show at Waffles, an RL as well as SL friend we have known for years n years suddenly came on line after several months.We don't get to see too much of each other in RL either as we live quite a way apart now, but he was able to stay and catch our set.
Conor Savage was on before us and again I just got lost in this man's beautiful music.
Jed Tharnby followed us and we always enjoy listening to him.
We then needed to log off to get some food etc in RL but were back for our evening at Spice where we saw Tim, Lyn Carlberg a lady singer who's name I am afraid I missed.
At this point I would like to say that anyone who shares their artistic talents with an audience is giving a great gift and it is not to be underestimated, but in my opinion and the opinion of several other folks who have spoken to me. If a person is using all backing tracks with vocals only added then that is not really live music, it is a live singer yes, but not live music and really should not be advertised as such. Several live music enthusiasts have said they felt a bit cheated when they turned up to a show billed live music to find it was, a Karaoke singer only, (those words are not mine) in fact one guy had quite a rant about it, so maybe, again wearing my venue owners hat, we could make that distinction when advertising out shows. I want to make it quite plain that I am not making a value judgement between the two genres  each has it's place and it's fans in the rich and wonderful 2nd life music scene.
Oh and I should also state that the reason I did not catch the aforementioned lady's name was because I had been busy with I M's  from musicians who play our venue and needed to sort out our calender, sometimes you have to grab folks when you can.
That evening was rounded off by a lively foot stomping set by Mark Seery, and again here comes my stock phrase, if you haven't caught a set of his then you are missing out.
Friday we played our usual Guthries slot, how I love that place. Dusty Smythe was there making Sunwolf laugh when ever he looked at the local chat. I have to sit too far from the pc to see it which I sometimes think is a blessing in disguise.
We watched the usual line up there for Fridays, which is Moses, Laz and Quinton.
We took a quick RL break and then were back on line hosting our own venue.
Steveeolio opened for us, always a soothing experience. He was followed by Cailidgh Spires with her particular brand of madcap and mayhem.
Our last act for the evening was Ari, our friendly little dragon, she was having her debut at the pub and as folks kept her playing for an extra 20mins I would say it was successful.
Sunwolf and I then popped over to Chez Roz to watch Russell Eponym. Russell is another artist who soothes my spirit and the venue is so lovely, outdoors with trees , water and open space, my description doesn't do it justice, so why not pop over and have a look yourself, if you are a member of SL community and if not then that's a good reason to join.
We ended our day at Cuddlers Cove, who only had one show that night, so we ended up listening to the Gweeb again! but we don't regret that, he is a true entertainer and can always make me smile.
                                                           

                                                Dances as wolves (teehee)

We had a sheer silly moment on Saturday morning when we slipped into our wolf avis and went to see Peet Peterman at Guthries(another artist well worth giving a listen to.) Wolves dancing on a couple ball looks hilarious  and we had several  other people laughing too, always a good thing. We didn't worry about what Pete may think as he plays as a Chimpanzee in any case.
Saturday at Cuddlers Cove is as I am sure anyone who reads this regularly will know is our usual stopping place. It was a fantastic line up, with Quinton doing an all original set, and as I love just about every song he has played for us I had no complaints there. then Anj Gustafson's full and rich set delighted our ears before
Rock Doghouse moved me to tears with his wonderful piano playing and lovely inspiring songs.
After Cuddlers, Sunwolf logged out, but I popped over to our place with another long time RL friend Blackdwarfbud, and we had a chat to our lovable lion Ringo, who was over there having a pint, while a couple were dancing to the radio behind him.I think it is wonderful that folks feel they can use Ye Olde Wolf n Hawk as a meeting place when there are no live shows, and if they hit our vote box on the way in or out then that is even better.
Sunday we spent quite a bit of time on redoing our bio, taking lots of photos re writing the blurb, that sort of thing,  as it had come to our attention that some people think we play only old folks songs and that is not so. We have a list of covers from, Richard Thompson to John Lennon  and others in between, plus we have quite a few of our own original songs as well. There was quite a bit of work involved but we think the end results are worth it.
Well, that's all for this week, I have just found out that we now have two shows to do tonight instead of our usual one, so I have to get this posted and fly to RL to get organised, well as organised as I get anyhow, but before I go, for those who may be wondering about Sunwolf's eye, a trip to the doctor and some gooey ointment seems to have sorted it out just fine Phew!.

So until next time may your days be filled with love and light.

The Good The Bad and The Sad.

Hi People,
Another week flashes by and here I am again to tell you what we have been up to in the past week.
Monday evening saw us at Southbound hosted and managed by the lovely Crystal. We did a set there, the first since it was refurbished. I can't in all honesty say it went well as hardly anyone showed up and though Sunwolf and I are happy to see only one person enjoying what we do, this is no good for venue owners who need  to make at least a little money towards their costs. As venue owners ourselves, we can see that need and I am always a little sad when we feel we have failed to get enough folks in to be able to help in this way, though of course we always tip the venue ourselves. Sunwolf has pointed out that as this low attendance to our shows has happened quite a few times maybe we should consider that folks don't really like our sound and give up the live performing. This saddens me, but I guess he does have a point and it is something we will have to address eventually.
Anyway, to cheer ourselves up after the show, we went of to try some new couple dances to add to our pub dance ball. There we were dancing round the store while we made our selections and I think we have made some nice choices. We took them back and Sunwolf installed them, I am not that technical, and then proceeded to sort out the singles ball so that all our dances are working well.

                                           Blackdwarfbud with a friend on her first day in SL

Tuesday saw us out in RL all day visiting family and going to a dear friends house to help her set up 2nd life. Blackdwarfbud and I have been friends since we were teenagers and that is too many years to mention here. She has been listening to our shows for months but did not have a machine that would run the programme, then Sunwolf hit on the idea of lending our spare laptop and though not ideal it will run the programme all be it a bit slow.
We then rushed home to sort out our RL chores before doing our show at the Drunken Drow another venue we really like playing at. Ari was on before us and we enjoyed her set, a mix of funny songs like Delaney.s Donkey and some really tender music. Ari has a gentle soothing voice, always a pleasure to listen to, so as I usually say, if you haven't been to a show of hers yet make a point to go. In fact she will be playing at our pub Ye Olde Wolf n Hawk this coming Friday at 1pm slt. maybe we will see you there I know Ari will be delighted to see you.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay to watch Cailidgh as we were doing another half hour set at our own venue. We had lent the pub to our good friend Katja Runo to hold a surprise party for her partner Tim. Katja had booked some awesome folks to play for him and so we got to listen to Lyn Carlberg, Russell Eponym and Mark Seery. It was a lovely party made even better by the fact that the afore  mentioned Blackdwarfbud was with us on her first day in SL. We felt honoured to have played among such illustrious names as those mentioned.
Wednesday saw us playing at our own place and again the audience was very low for our show, never the less it was very good to see Butterfly Maiden and Blackdwarfbud. Butterfly is often at our shows and it touches my heart that she and Earth Angelo come to shows as often as they can.
Audience numbers went up a little for Tim Anadyr's set and for Gweeb who followed him. I was struck by how much I enjoy putting the shows on and seeing folks enjoying the music. It can be very hard work, but to my mind it is worth it.

Thursday we had technical problems that caused us to cancel our weekly show at Waffles and in fact we were off line for the whole day. Luckily we were up and running again on Friday for our weekly show at Guthrie's. I really love playing there and the show was reasonably well attended. We then hung around to watch Moses Rae, Lazarus Doghouse and Gweeb, who replaced Quinton on this occasion
                                                         
                                          Guthries Mascot Woody with his beerbottle.

                                                                             
.
That evening we were hosting our own shows again and it was a mixed evening. Steveeolio did not show up, that is not like him at all so we guessed something was wrong, and sure enough he contacted us much later to say he had only just been able to connect to the Internet. Cailidgh followed the empty slot and bless her she was struggling with a sore throat. She managed her set and sounded fine if a little throaty, but it was when she was speaking you could hear just how bad it was. We were truly touched that she had come along rather than let us down and wish her a speedy recovery.The evening wound up with our lovable lion Ringo playing for us with his usual mix of covers and original songs all delivered with his own style and flair. During this set we had a griefer come in and knock Ringo onto the roof, however this was swiftly dealt with and the guy was banned, we then continued on with the show.
Sunwolf and I rounded off our evening by going to Renaissance, run by Red Hartle and Lowel Price, to watch Lyn Carlberg's
Saturday saw us in RL most of the day with a considerable amount of catching up to do with chores etc.  Sunwolf logged on briefly late that evening to take care  of a few things and got a message saying Rock doghouse was playing a set at the Guitar museum. We have not been able to catch one of his sets for ages and so I logged on as soon as I could manage it. I missed half the show but what I heard made up for it. We love Rock's songs particularly Meridians and I'll Fly Again, though there are many more we enjoy those two are the ones that spring instantly to mind.
Those who read this blog regularly will  recognise this phrase as one I use a lot, we went to bed very late but contented.
Sunday saw us playing a show at The Playhouse, again the rather low attendance figures, which is especially disappointing when you are playing somewhere for the first time, but there it is. We caught half of James Corachea's set, and after our show we stayed to listen to Franck Molko another lovely person and great performer.
We were about to log off when we got a note saying LaidBack Celt was playing at Warung Beats so off we went to listen to some raw rock performed the LB way. During this great set, LB mentioned that he and his lady Stinna had got married in sl the previous week so congratulations are in order. Bless them they are such a lovely couple and Sunwolf and I hope they will be very happy.
which brings us back to today, and as we don't have a show. we have decided to take some time off and spend it in RL now there's a novelty.

Till next time wishing you an abundance of all good things.

Whoosh, Another Week Flies Past.

This week has flown as quickly as a hawk diving for it's prey. We have so many things on the go in RL and SL, I love it, but fitting it all in can be a challenge.Tuesday saw Sunwolf and I playing a set at the Drunken Drow. This was our second time there and luckily no walls or tunnels appeared this time and the show went very well. Nice people and nice venue. Our dear friend, Cailidgh Spires followed us with her usual mix of madcap mayhem and lovely songs.
From there we hopped to The Playhouse. This is a nice roomy venue, hosted and run by Scarlett and Frank Molko, two really lovely folks, and owned by K C Draymen. Frank is also an awesome performer, so as I often say, if you haven't heard him yet then make a date to do so, I am sure you won't be disappointed.Lyn Carlberg was on as we arrived playing his lovely sweet gentle songs. I feel myself relaxing whenever I listen to him. After Lyn, it was the turn of Cha-Lay-Lis- Darkwatch. I had only ever heard her once before, but I remembered that I had enjoyed her music and so I did this time too. I love her vocal style and the original songs she did were wonderful. I also like the fact she sings some songs that men usually sing her voice compliments them so well a real pleasure to listen to.
Wednesday evening saw us playing a set at our own venue, Ye Olde Wolf n Hawk. We were followed by Chance Jampuler and then Gweeb. It was a fairly quiet night, but at least there was no sim crashing this week.
Thursday we went off to Waffles an hour earlier than our set there, because Conor Savage was playing just before us and that was an opportunity too good to miss. He is another Must See, and to my mind if  male angels sing, this is what they sound like. Conor's set was a mix of songs so lovely they make me weep and some so bawdy that I couldn't stop laughing. The only problem I had was that when it was out turn to take the stage I was so lost in Conor's music that I hadn't finished getting ready for our show. After our set, we then found that Jed Tharnaby was unable to make his set so Dusty Smythe stood in for him. Now I like Jed, but getting to hear Dusty was a real bonus, because we never seem to be able to get to his shows enough and inspite of the man himself denying his talent, we just love him and could listen to him for hours.
I make no appology for the fact that Sunwolf and I have several venues that we visit every week. For us they are special places where we feel comfortable and at home both with the venue owners and the folks that tend to frequent them, never mind the great talents they bring to their stages. Spice is one such venue and Thursday evening saw us there, as usual, to listen to Tim Anadyr. I didn't get to see much of the next act as I got called away to deal with an RL phone call. The call was lengthy, but luckily, I was able to get back to catch Lyn Carlberg. Again, I hear you say,to which I reply yes, you can't get too much of Lyn. Unfortunately, due to the content of the phone call, we had to miss the last act that night as there were things in RL that needed our attention, so I gave a resigned sigh and logged off for the night.
I have renamed Friday, Crazy Day, because for us it is. We start off playing at set at Guthries, in what for us is 1pm and then we then stay on to watch Moses Rae, Lazarus Doghouse and Quinton Whitman, a  first class line up of entertainment. We then rush off to RL to eat and get sorted out before we run our own venue for 3 hours. This week we had the wonderful Russell Eponymn and his family. It is always such a pleasure to host Russell, his group are some of the nicest folks you will ever meet in SL and Russell is justly proud of them.It was a great performance, but then I have never been to a show of Russell's that wasn't and I really sincerely mean that. He was followed by Cailidgh and then Steveeoilo mellowed us all out with his distinct and wonderful set.
We had an hour off then before we were off to Cuddlers Cove, another of those wonderful places we love to frequent. Quinton Whitman played that night which was unusual as he usually just does Saturday morning, but hey, we were not about to complain. We got to hear a lot of his new original songs, this man has talent coming out of his ears I think. Quinton was followed by someone we had not seen before Dennymac, gave us a nice set.
IT was gone 1am in the morning when we finally got to bed, so now you see why I have renamed Friday,  we were tired, but happy and I guess you can't complain about that.
Saturday was Crazy Cuddlers day, back at the Cove to see Quinton again followed by Twin Ghost and ending up with Laid Back Celt, who we never get to see as often as we would like.There just aren't enough hours in a day for us at the moment. Three hours of brilliant entertainment and we thought that was it for the day, then we got an sos from a friend who had a venue owner looking for a stand in act. So off we went to Forestwalkers Too. What a great place it turned out to be and venue owner Katenali Forestwalker is such a lovely person. I think this was the best show we have ever done. The audience were truly appreciative and we had more request here than we have ever had before. The  atmosphere was incredible and we enjoyed every minute of it. There was also a bonus in that we had the honour to introduce Russell to the stage as he was following us, we had never been on the bill before him till now. I was like a kid, all excited, funny the way some things make us feel. The only cloud on the horizon was when the sim crashed towards the end of Russell's set, but never the less it was still a great night.
Sunday is our day away from the machines filled with feverish activity to get RL sorted out ready for Monday.


ForestwalkersToo Venue where we played a stand in set .

This Monday, in RL, we began work with Cailidgh Spires on her new CD. We were due to start last week, but  snow fall caused a postponement.The roads here are all back roads, they never see any form of gritting or snow clearing, so we had to wait, but now I am happy to say that as I write this, the first session has gone well and we have a few songs already completed. Hopefully, we will be meeting every Monday now until the work is complete. Cailidgh already has one CD under her belt that we worked on with her last year. Called Spare Change, in memory of her busking days. If you can afford a copy it would, in my opinion, be money well spent. Here is a link to her reverb nation page where you can hear some of the CD and buy a copy if you like what you hear. http://www.reverbnation.com/cailidghspires.
Well that brings us up to date. We have a show to do tonight at Southbound Jazz Club hosted by Crystal and owned by Kitty Rider. This is another nice little venue and Crystal is a lovely lady, not that I am implying Kittty isn't , I just haven't really met her other to say hello. So as I said at the begining it' all systems go and busy, busy, busy, but happy with it and I hope you are too.

Till next time love and best wishes.

Funny Old Week.

Hi Folks,

What a week it has been, on Tueseday, Wolf n Hawk played for the first time at the Drunken Drow. I love the aquarium there and outside there is a 2story circle of shops selling elven and magical merchandise. It is well worth a look. I am always a little nervous when we play a venue for the first time and it didn't help that as we took the stage a wall suddenly appeared to either side of me. At first we thought it was a griefer, but it turned out to be attached to me. Lord ,that was embarassing. It turns out my pc had a funny turn and instead of giving me my singing hud it  gave me the wall, oh well. Fortunately it was soon put right and we went on to have a good show, though it took me quite a while to settle down.

Wednesday saw us playing at our own venue before we went on to host to other acts there. This didn't go according to plan either. The sim crashed with with server issues, we had quarter of a hour of our set left to play and were desperately trying to get back only to be thrown around the grid. I have always said that the live music scene is peopled by some of the best folks in SL and this experience confirmed to me the truth of that statement. I tried to talk to several people in the various places that sl logged me into,but no one would speak to me. I was completely ignored except for one guy, and he only gave a one word answer. I was glad to finally get back to the pub, though it took over half an hour or more, messing up most of the evenings entertainment. Luckily we managed to get our last act in on time and Gweeb gave us a good show. We  chalked  up the rest of it to experience, and one we don't care to repeat too often.

Thursday saw us at Waffles to watch Conor Savage, such a great talent and wonderful singer. It was lovely  to hear him again. In fact we nearly missed our cue, as we were on stage directly after him and I was lost in his music.

Later that evening ,Sunwolf and I visited Spice, another favourite haunt of ours. The venue was looking lovely as Katja and Tim had switched over to a spring setting, no more cold old snow. Oh how I am looking forward to that in RL, as I write we have over 6 inches of snow that doesn't look inclined to melt very quickly.

Tim Anadyr performed a beautiful set for us all at Spice, followed by the powerful voice of Clair Durval. Then it  was the turn of Lyn Carlberg with his lovely gentle songs and relaxing style, and I do have a soft spot for his dear little red dragon.

To cap off a wonderful night, a fantastic set by Mash Rhode, and if you haven't caught a set of his yet, please put him on your lists of acts to see you won't regret it. Mash had not done a show since before the new year so it was a real treat to see him again.

Normally after Spice, we log off as it is very late in the UK by then, but we could not resist zipping over to Leiras venue to listen to Quinton Whitman performing a half hour of original tunes. Lerias is a nice little venue with some friendly folks around so if you haven't been there, why not check it out.

We went off to bed chilled out and content after Quintons set. I love just about everything Quinton plays, but his originals are truly inspiring and touch the heart and soul. His song Take My Hand always brings tears to my eyes, it is so lovely and the sentiment conveyed in his voice never ceases to touch me.

Friday saw a repeat of Wednesday, the sim crashed again with server issues and I must confess I was starting to loose my cool. We run for 3 hours twice a week and it had to happen during those 6 hours and twice in the same week Grrrr. As it was,  Gweeb had stepped in to help us out after our original act had RL issues and had to cancel, and then poor old Gweeb gets stuck who knows where We could heard him trying to work out what was going on, but we could not find him and all efforts at TP or IM failed and we were stuck at the venue unable to get out, frustration abounded.

Eventually the sim came back on line and our 2nd act, Cailidgh Spires was able to get to us albeit a bit late. One good thing came out of it, as she made us laugh with an ,on the spot song, she wrote about it all.

Ringo Robonaught, our lovable lion finished off our evening at the pub, with a set of songs that went some way to reminding me how much Sunwolf and I enjoy running out little venue.

Deltek and Paine having fun at our first show for Pelican Cove.

Saturday saw us at another new venue. Pelican Cove, is a pirate themed place, full of palm trees, nice white sand and hidden treasure. It is well worth exploring this sim as a lot of work has gone into it, there are hidden walls and secret places to discover and the Captain and his Bosun are nice folks only too happy to show you round if you like.

Our set went well , and we will be playing there again soon I think.

Talking of playing, Sunwolf and I are trying an experiment at the moment, where we are playing mainly our own songs with just a few covers thrown in if they are requested. So far this seems to have been well received,  but do let us know what you think as constructive criticism is always welcome.

Sunday saw us taking a day away from the machines to turn our attention to RL and catching up on things that need doing there, plus some much needed rest and practise of new songs we have yet to give an airing to.

It was a busy week both in RL and SL but apart from the sim problems it was a good one.

Till next time,

May all your joys be great and all your problems small.