Well here we are, half-way through the month of January. It’s a new year – we get to start again and Spring is just around the corner. It’s a great time to let go of the old and there seems to be energy to give towards the new. Just before I move on from 2006, I must say that it was a big one for us as we strung another string to our bow in the form of a solo album from Mary Greene. This was a step that broadened our horizons. SEA OF HEARTS brought lots of airplay and column inches and helped establish more strongly the songwriting side of our endeavours.
The album allowed us to tour more and opened doors in Holland for us. Already this year we are booking a tour there in November based around a gig for the folks at The Irish Spirit. I’ll put details up as they become available. There’s talk also that we might play a repeat of last Summer’s tour of festivals in the Amsterdam area. In the meantime, here in Ireland we will continue to play the usual round of festivals of which you’ll be kept informed.
On the songwriting front, Noel and I entered pieces for the International Songwriting Competition and found out just this week that both have progressed from 14,000 entries through to the next round. Noel put forward an instrumental piece called SPANISH POINT and I entered the folk/singer-songwriter section with AFTER ALL WAS CAST AWAY. It’s early days of course but we’ll know in February if we are in the semi-final. It would be the first time I was in the semi-final of anything since I played camogie at county level for Gaultier when I was 14! (We made the county final).
As I say, it’s early days but it is a boost because at times I feel like I’m writing in a vacuum and it’s great to be accepted into the wonderful world of songwriting. As Clint Eastwood said when he won the Golden Globe the other night ” You have no idea what this does for my confidence”. You can hear AFTER ALL WAS CAST AWAY on the music page and also on myspace. So what’s the plan for 2007? Some serious songwriting both solo and with other writers. I especially look forward to working again with Jim Dwan. We were delighted when Sean Keane decided to put our song EVEN HEAVEN HAS TO CRY on his latest album and we feel that we have only scratched the surface of what we can write together.
Hank Wedel and I are still trying to hook up and write together again too and we should be able to organise that very soon. I look forward to making more friends on myspace which has been a revelation to me and has turned out to be great fun as well as a wonderful resource and way to get in touch with likeminded people. Be sure to check our space out, there’s a link to it on our links page. We have some concert dates coming up. It’s a quiet time of the year but do check out our upcoming gig section.
Bye for now. Mary g.