The Old Bookshop

Up in Callander Scotland there is a lovely old bookshop where they restore and rebind rare and second hand old hardback books.  We like to take a drive here as there are several bars and restaurants that welcome dogs. 

On our last visit I talked with Sally Evans, the owner of The Bookshop.  She is a poet herself and she used to hang about Sandy Bells Bar in Edinburgh when guys like the poet Hamish Henderson and his dog were there. She also hosts a poetry weekend here in September.  

I asked her if she thought books would disappear and she said she thought not and that we would want special hard back copies of the books we loved best - I think she may be right, I hope she is.  I thought of my own book collection for my favourite writers and poets, which are such an important part of my life and who I am. 
 

As book shops leave the high street and with books being cheaper to purchase online, I miss the time to collect and discover myself in them and vanish from those commercial clothes,  cosmetics and accessories high street merchandisers.

It’s of interest to me also that most of the writers, poets and musicians I meet support a yes vote for Scottish independence.  Perhaps it’s that artists are also dreamers of new visions and new horizons….

Kings Bookshop: Antiquarian and second hand books. Excellent bindings by bookbinder Ian W King; good Scottish, history, natural history and poetry sections, and our own garden behind the shop. Poetry Scotland broadsheet published here by Sally Evans, also diehard poetry and drama books. Annual Callander Poetry Weekend Party every first weekend in September.

Broken Records Queens Hall Edinburgh

Some gigs are simply so much fun! This was the Edinburgh based band Broken Records at the Queens hall Edinburgh, where I had unlimited shooting. The gig took place during the Edinburgh festival 2009.  I like to get to a good position at the side, if that’s possible. The converted church hall was packed so it wasn’t really possible to move about and I much prefer not to interrupt the gig when shooting.  The 3 song limitation is really so restrictive to getting good images.  It depends – you can get the shot but if you want to get something more than that it is not possible.  I remember feeling exhilarated and exhausted after the gig.

Over the years my eye has changed too. I’ve put a lot into my photography over the years and it means a lot to me following my passions for music and the combining two of my best loved arts is simply perfect for me.  Broken Records have a new EP Toska and play King tuts in April.  http://brokenrecordsband.com/

Broken Records are a six-piece indie folk band from Edinburgh. The band are signed to 4AD and released their debut album, Until the Erath Begins to Part 2009 and Let Me Come Home in 2010.

New Pono Player

In March Neil Young launched his high quality digital Pono music player at SXSW in Austin, Texas, where he said of his new player "once you hear this, you can't go back". The rock legend announced his plans for Pono - and during the event his Kickstarter campaign raised over $800,000 in just 4 hours! Young explained that 'Pono' is the Hawaiian word for 'righteousness'.

Pono promises lossless audio files, up to "ultra-high resolution" 9216 kbps. Pono consists of a digital music service (PonoMusic) and 128GB portable device (PonoPlayer) capable of storing 1-2,000 high resolution songs.
Some observers however have described the new player, which is yellow and shaped like a triangle, as looking like a Toblerone Chunky! Some also wonder whether we need higher quality sound for ‘music-on-the-go?

I read of Young’s music player,g which he called ‘Pure Tone’ at first, in his good read autobiography Waging Heavy Peace. Young was very concerned over the sound compression of mP3s and resolved to develop a high resolution sound. This reminded me of lo res web images compared to high quality prints. 

Young believes the quality of sound is being lost with MP3s as they compress the sound of music - whereas in the studio there are many layers of sound.  We might compare this to the quality of lo res web images compressed to 72 dpi to hi res prints 300dpi. 

The Pono Player is described as a "purpose-built, portable, high-resolution digital-music player designed and engineered in a "no-compromise" fashion to allow consumers to experience studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible, bringing the true emotion and detail of the music, the way the artist recorded it, to life."
Young is due to release a new autobiography. I enjoyed reading his Waging Heavy Peace last year his stories of both his passion for both vintage cars and music 


His next album will also be released this month and he said the record was "An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever…".

Neil Young SECC Glasgow 2013

 

QUOTE Neil Young in Waging Heavy Peace: ‘I want to bring the soul of the music industry and the technology of Silicon valley together to create this new model using artists as the drivers’

I have an idea to build a portable player (I’ve called ‘Pure Tone’) and an online distribution model to present a quality alternative to MP3s.

‘To rescue music from the degradation in quality that is at the heart of the decline of music sales and ultimately music itself in popular culture with the advent of the new online music retailers (such as iTunes ) has some terrible quality. An mp3 has about five percent of the data that can be found in a ‘Pure Tone’ master file or a vinyl record.

I dislike what has happened to the quality of the sound of music, there is little depth or feeling left and people can’t get what they need from listening to music anymore, so it is dying.’

Recording is my first love in the creative field (along with song writing and music making)

Which all led me to think about how much I enjoy the quality of sound of live music. And also prompted me to restore our vinyl LPs and record player from their place in the attic. My son was highly impressed!

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003614822/ponomusic-where-your-soul-rediscovers-music

Lyla Foy at Nice and Sleazy's Glasgow March 2014

Lyla took to the Nice N Sleazy stage, after a fine set by Scottish duo Turtles, who have a strong front singer and play powerful electronic melodic post rock. Worth checking out. 

Lyla sang with a subtle haunting country voice her memorable songs along with her backing band.  She sang with a dreamy ethereal, other worldly and even slightly hippy-ish look and feel to her music and look.

Her voice is pure and direct over a steady beat. There were some shades of  Christine McVie's melodic tones with the subtleness of Lana Del Rey and The XX in there too, as she mixes some folk with a more contemporary feel. 

Her songs have quiet reflective themes.  Notable songs were Easy, Feather Tongue and Left To Wonder.  

 

I hoped she didn’t feel let down that some mates of the support band had already left before her set -  fans of one artist should also support the other artists. It matters not the size of an audience but about impressing those who are there and the seasoned performers know this only too well! 

In 2013 the London singer songwriter put out her music under the pseudonym the WALL and her song No Secrets was well received by both BBC radio and the music website Pitchfork. Her single Magazine has good drama.

She also put out 2 pretty nifty covers - Something on my Mind by Karen Dalton and Where Did Our Love Go, sung by The Supremes.   

I might wish to hear more meat or edge come through at times in her sound though - to offer more dynamic range and moods to her intimate music.

She is a rising new artist now signed to Sub Pop records …. some artists slip quietly under our radar and Foy is one of them. . 

She is currently doing a UK and US small venue tour and has released her debut album titled Mirrors The Sky in which she recorded her vocals outside in fields and on beaches. . .http://www.lylafoy.com/