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Posts from the ‘music’ Category

Jun 30

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Trailhead – City of the Saint

Trailhead or Tobias Panwitz is a singer-songwriter from Germany. He has recorded three albums and has toured throughout Germany, Europe, and Canada. One of his more recent collection of songs, Keep Walking, was born out of walking in Spain. Tracks 4, 5 and the title track are favorites of mine.

A number of months ago, Tobias decided to create a music video for “City of the Saint”. A plea was sent to all his followers on social media asking that they send a photograph of themselves on the way to Santiago. And the response was amazing. What do you guys think? I have listened to it so many times.

You can learn more about Tobias / Trailhead at the below links:

Jan 11

Another passion of mine…

I’ll let you into a little secret..

lyricsIn another lifetime..well, not too long ago, I used to enjoy putting one word after the other to create sentences. From the age of 12 right up to my mid-20’s, I got great enjoyment out of writing and playing guitar on a regular basis. It was a pretty fun thing to do and I was even in a band at one stage. Sure, every 20-something was! It was a rite of passage in life.

However, in time, life got in the way and writing reports and reaching deadlines replaced this little obsession of mine. I have still listened to music all along, but my two guitars are now gathering dust in the corner of my room and my collection of songs are in a box alongside them. I haven’t looked at them in years.

But tonight something happened that hasn’t happened in quite a while. I put pen to paper and wrote eight lines. It’s not much, but it could be the spark. My inspiration? The Camino, walking and its memories.

I’ll probably forget about it tomorrow and leave these few lines lying where they are but this whole thing surprised me. Will I kick on from here? I’d love to. If I can write a part of a song without music I’d be pretty happy. It’s all about being creative I suppose and this is a great way. I had also thought about buying a ukelele before Christmas as it is so easy to learn (plus they only have 4 strings).

 

Aug 20

A little bit of Music?

Imagine the scene..

You have left your albergue, it is 7am in the morning and you are setting off alone. The sun has risen behind you and you have 7 hours of walking ahead of you. Sounds great, doesn’t it? You look around and there are one or two other pilgrims behind you, while there are three ahead of you. You could slow down or speed up to talk to either group, but you prefer your own company. Silence is golden and all that…and there are only so many questions you can answer while talking to your self. I usually listen to music at this stage. Before a Camino, I make up a playlist on my phone ready and waiting. There are some days I wouldn’t listen to any music as I could be chatting with other peregrinos. But I don’t use the music as an excuse not to meet and mingle with other pilgrims. So here is my Spotify playlist for my upcoming Camino Finisterre. I probably won’t even listen to it, but it’s handy to have.

You can have a listen to the playlist here. Unfortunately, WordPress is unable to embed playlists from Spotify.

It’s worth bearing in mind that you should download the music onto your phone before you leave to avoid data costs. If you are making your own and don’t have a Spotify account, you could do the same on YouTube. Enjoy!

Jul 7

Music?…..What music?

I didn’t pay much attention to music during my time in Spain. It didn’t bother me. Before I left, I spent hours working on a playlist on my iPhone. I had this romantic image of me starting out a walk at 5am while listening to Sigur Ros or Eddie Vedder watching the sun come up. But I didn’t listen to much music, mainly on 1st day walking out of Logrono and when I was alone. Also on my final two days travelling back home on the bus to Bilbao and on the flight. But in between, music wasn’t even discussed. I didn’t mind at all. Actually I preferred it that way.

But anyway, here is a short list of music I did listen to. Some you might know, others perhaps not.

Bibio – À tout à l’heure
Andrés Segovia – Granada
Bibio – Business Park
Jeanette – Porque Te Vas
Oscar Lopez – Classical Soul
John Williams – Sakura Variations
Live – I Alone
Sigur Rós – Sæglópur
Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
Woodkid – Conquest of Spaces
Sigur Rós – Glósóli
Eddie Vedder – Hard Sun
Tunng – Don’t Look Down Or Back
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Your Own Spell
Bonobo – Cirrus
Boards of Canada – Dayvan Cowboy

The John Williams, Andres Segovia and Oscar Lopez tracks are very new to me..I discovered them while trawling through the hundreds of Camino clips on YouTube. Classical guitar is painful to play but great to listen to.

Mar 29

At long last..

It has finally happened folks!

I have managed to purchase a ticket to see Sigur Ros when they play in Dublin in November. Ever since I heard them first in 2002 on a radio at half past midnight, I have been eager to see them. Unfortunately, their shows seem to sell out very very quickly. So here’s to November!

Dec 2

Most Listened to….2012

It’s the time of the year when music and film gurus sit down and create lists of their favourite films and songs or albums. Most I take with a grain of salt while others, like Pitchfork or Drowned in Sound, I pay attention to. This is pretty early but I thought I would get in there before the big guns released their respective lists.

So this is just a list of music I have listened to most frequently in 2012. There is no order this at all, so have a listen and let me know what you think.

Most Listened to..2012..Spotify

Oct 9

Where would I be without music..?

I always ask myself where would I be without music in my life. Could I go about my day and not have the radio on, or fire up iTunes and play it at full volume? Or even walk down a busy street singing with glaring looks. It certainly would make things a little bleak if I didn’t have it.  I look back over 25 or so years since I picked up a radio and try to make sense of all the bad tastes I used to have. (Wet Wet Wet were a favourite at one stage folks!) And if you told me even ten years ago what I would be listening to today, I would have laughed at my future self.

But I’ve always had a liking for this song below. Neil Finn has been around a very long time in various bands and formations. Four Seasons In One Day will always be high up on the iTunes DJ playlist. While it is written about the city of Melbourne, I used consider it about my various moods changes from back in the 90s..(insert groan!)

Oct 7

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Eddie Vedder – Rise

I’m possibly the only person not to have seen the film “Into the Wild”, based on a book of the same name and directed by Sean Penn. It is basically about one man’s travels across North America and Alaska. While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, the soundtrack blew me away.

Eddie Vedder wrote a collection of songs, just for the film and one song that hit me the most was “Rise”. It’s amazing what a voice and a ukeleke can do your emotions. Have a listen here:

Sep 24

R.E.M. Call It Quits – Stereogum

via stereogum.com

Sigh!

Jan 2

New Year but ..same old..same old.

Firstly, just to wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the very best for 2011. If you didn’t catch the fireworks display in Oz, you can watch it here. It looks amazing. However, I’ve never liked new years eve. Mainly because he whole countdown to another year has no real purpose other than being a great reason to have a few drinks and have a sing song. I have no problems with either of them though 🙂 I woke up this morning and wished one and all the very best for 2011 and lets hope it is better than the year gone by. Everyone I spoke to had serious hangovers, a sign of a good night.

Let’s face it, it hasn’t been that good. There has been almost daily negativity in the news, papers and internet in the last 12 months and it very hard to avoid it. Unless you lock yourself away in a room. I have a few demons to deal with myself. Not achieving goals I have set for myself, becoming too comfortable with what I have and worrying about meaningless things are a few. There is no clear direction. Resolutions are one thing but it is always good to have a direction of where you would like to be at the end of a year. Where I am now…I have been since 2007. Maybe these goals are pipe dreams and I should be aiming for something more reasonable. A promotion, finding a place of my own, widening my circle of friends, writing more music…these are the things that I am aiming for. However, I have a great fear that the end of 2011 will be exactly the same as the start of 2011 just like December 2010 held no change from January 2010.

Some may say “there’s no point writing a few lines about it, go out and do something about it!” and “stop feeling sorry for yourself” So be it. 

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