Hi Everyone

Just checking in, as I do every few hundred years…..

Social media and blogging’s not really for me, but I’ve just had a bollocking from my web designer (and close pal!) Dave Arcari for neglecting updates and not renewing ‘plug-ins’ (whatever that means), so I’m trying to promise to do better……Dave’s a real professional, and really is a master at promotion and marketing, as well as a hard-working pro gigging musician and songwriter. I drive him nuts. He’s also got me linked up with www.bandsintown.com so let’s see how I do. I’ve apparently got quite a few ‘followers’ too, which is nice.

So, how are you all? I’ve hardly been busy with playing as such, since I last wrote to you, but I have had a few nice gigs since Covid, including a solo one opening for the aforementioned Dave Arcari in Eastern Loch Lomondside which was great fun, and Cy and I had a sell-out at my home village of Gartmore with our pals Chris Stout, Mike Bryan and Fraser Speirs two weeks before Christmas, and a super evening at Stirling Folk Club in January. Mike and Fraser have been a godsend to us. Mike is one of the finest acoustic guitarists in Scotland, and Fraser is of course a legendary blues harmonica maestro as well as a really good guitarist and singer himself. Both are true long-established professional musicians. Their lists of achievements and musical experiences would fill several pages, and they are true pros as well as being great fun to play and work with.

I’m really hoping 2023 will be something of a new beginning, as last year was truly horrific in terms of losing really dear friends. It started when we lost the wonderful Rab Noakes in late November and Cy’s lovely wife Mairi just after Christmas, with a further six funerals since, all people who were very important to me and Irene. An inevitable part of growing old, people say, but that thought doesn’t really help. Rab, Mairi, Neenie, Billy, Joe, John, Campbell, Allan RIP.

Anyway, Spring is here, and I’m hoping the longer days bring sunshine and a few more chances to get out to see you all. Please do get in touch anytime and better still – come along to a gig sometime!

Love to you all

Duncan xx