rivers2cross

I couldn’t, until recently, ever imagined that Fields of Dawn would be in any shape or form, a live entity. As much as I love writing music and making the recordings, I’ve always steered clear of live music. The last time I performed live was in December 1986 with The Majority at The Five Horseshoes in Remenham outside Henley. That pub has long since been offices, and until 2023 The Majority had been put to bed for over 20 years. Anyway performing in public has always terrified me and that’s just playing the guitar, so when you add singing into the mix, this really is a massive challenge for me. However, time is marching on, and my recent health niggles have got me thinking that if I don’t give it a try now, it might never happen. At the end of the day what’s the worst thing that could happen??? Fall flat on my face, well maybe, but in the big scheme of things should that really put me off from doing it…

What I thought I would do, is rehearse perhaps 6 songs, possibly more, and if I feel that playing them live with an acoustic guitar is going to work, then look to getting myself a slot on stage sometime. I am definitely out of practice. Strumming on your backside at home is one thing, but standing up and singing at the same time is something that will take me some time to get up to speed.

Choosing which songs to rehearse is a massive decision. They need to be songs I can play live, and just as importantly sing live. When I record at the moment, I have to go back over mistakes time and time again, and that is great as you get infinite chances to get it right. In front of an audience you get one chance. I see my progress in this as very much being in training and working towards getting myself match fit.

I won’t be filming every single day, but I am going to keep a video / camera diary and use this blog to keep everyone updated about where things stand. Enough waffling let’s crack on with the first post…

My setup is simple. I am using an acoustic guitar amplifier, which has both microphone and guitar inputs. A headphone socket is also handy for not upsetting my neighbours through the thin walls. I will also be able to record the output to my laptop, but for the most part I will just film stuff using my phone, so the sound might not always be the best. In this first video that is exactly what I did.

The track in this video is a brand new song called The Next World. It’s going to feature on the new album, Destination Unknown, which will be released on New Years Day. It’s a good song to play on the acoustic guitar and this first attempt gives me a marker to start from. I was pretty pleased with this performance as a first attempt. I need to relax more, perform with more confidence and obviously improve my singing and playing skills. This will take time though, so I am not going to worry about how good or not I am for the time being. The last few days I have been playing an awful lot, working out which songs I might want to try out, and my fingers are pretty sore as a result. This is what comes from years of not playing. They should begin to harden soon hopefully.

I’ll be updating again soon, as I add more songs into the rehearsals including the idea of one or two cover versions…