Pessimistic Me

There's a brand new recording in the player on the right, and on the Music page. The track is called Pessimistic Me, and is one of two recorded a couple of weeks ago at the home studio of my friend Matty Pinfield.

Many thanks to the musicans playing on the track,
Simon Davies on Piano
Ken Stratford on Double Bass
Matty Pinfield on Drums and Percussion

Have a listen, and let me know what you reckon...

Crossroads

Last Thursday, the 15th April I was asked to kick off the open mic session at the Crossroads Blues club. As anyone who reads this blog with any regularity will know, The Tower of Song and it's Thursday night Crossroads Blues Club are among my favourite clubs around.

Last week sums up what I love about The Crossroads. The gig was to turn up and lead the house band through a few blues songs. The fun bit is that there isn't a house band-it's formed from whoever happens to be around on the night. So the set started of with me singing Matchbox joined by Mal on snare drum and Tony on harp, and we were slowly joined by a bass player (sorry, didn't catch your name...) and finally Snake on guitar. Once I'd sang about five tunes Snake took over for two before we got off and let a whole host of musicians perform short sets. After the break the excellent Mellow Peaches played the featured set. Once again the place was full to bursting, and from the people I spoke to it seems I wasn't the only one having a very enjoyable night.

Here are some pictures taken and very kindly sent to me by Stan Newton

It has been a very busy fortnight since my last post, and circumstances have once again left me unable to do much communicating with the world at the very moment when there's an awful lot happening I'd like to shout about!

First of all, a beautiful short break in Pembrokeshire with my lovely girlfriend, parents, brother, sister in law and baby niece was the perfect way to relax a little and get some perspective on the busy week that was ahead of me. This has got nothing to do with music but I really love, with a frankly worrying zeal, everything about Saundersfoot, Tenby and the surrounding areas. I did when I was twelve, and I can confidently say I always will. I think we're successfully passing it on to a third generation of our family too, as Baby Lily had a fabulous time, and she isn't easily pleased.

Back in the West Midlands and I'm stepping on stage at The Robin 2, Bilston. I was supporting Edwina Hayes (I mentioned her and talked a bit about her bio in the last post) and was very pleased to find a warm and welcoming audience, many of whom were kind enough to come and chat with me, buy my CD and join the Robert Lane mailing list.

As for Edwina herself she was very friendly and passed on a few cool stories from her time supporting musicians as diverse as Jools Holland and Loudon Wainwright III. This kind of unassuming but thoroughly interesting anecdote also populated her set, alongside fabulous originals and some great covers that introduced me to some new artists.

She also had Mark Wynn along for the drive from up north who delivered a short set of bluesy folk tunes.

Here's a couple of slightly unlit pictures of Edwina and I taken by one of her super-fans



The gig was great, and I'm hoping to return to The Robin very soon. The rest of that week was spent in the studio working on two new tracks. More inf0 to come...