Dan Tindall: News and Views

Two more new songs uploaded - 'Rain Come Down' and 'You Might Surely Say' - in the player, and on the music page...

Added a new tune - 'Eye For An Eye' - it's in the music player and at the top of the music page.

Man, guitar, harmonica - just some acoustic LoFi folk!

Added a few new poems - otherwise I have been a little distracted of late - but fear not, some new tunes (and maybe a CD) before the year's end!

I have uploaded a couple of the new tunes to a digital download site called 'indiestore' - I shall be updating and revising these every so often - currently featured are 'Blue Skye' and 'One More Smoke'.

Downloads from Indiestore
For those looking for high-quality versions of new tracks for radio play, you can register and download a couple of tunes from Airplay Direct - there's a third track there 'Eye For An Eye' - as yet not otherwise released....

'Blue Skye' and 'One More Smoke' - man, guitar, harmonica - you know you love it!

A few things to mention -

'Post-Industrial Polka is now a free download from this website (go to the 'listen/download' page).

I have some new tunes recorded - very much live and uncomplicated - just man, guitar harmonica. I'm still working on a few ideas, but if you visit the Cloud Appreciation Society you will find a brand new tune 'Blue Skye' on their music page. I do intend to get some new tunes released more generally in the near future.

CDBaby now offers single downloads as an option from their own website - the prices I have set for full album downloads is a mere $5 - single downloads are currently 99c for the more recent releases, 50c for the tracks on 'You Know How It Goes'.

On the subject of YKHIG - I believe there is only one left for sale (and that really will be the last one!) - so go on, it might be a collectors item one day...if it should be the only CD left on the planet!

More later...

The glitches has been fixed (thanks guys!) and some new links and poems added.

I have a few new tunes recorded using my Zoom H2 recorder - basically one-shot recordings to demo tunes and practice guitar and harmonica...some have come out okay, some need work, some need to be thrown out for the wolves to devour! Hopefully I'll get one or two posted sooner or later - stay tuned, as they say...

Some new additions to the website - an automatic flash player, a poetry page, and some photos that don't display!

I may have to change a few things round - and if the music player annoys you, you can turn it off!

Any feedback appreciated!

For those looking for high-quality versions of new tracks for radio play, you can register and download a couple of tunes from Airplay Direct - if there is sufficient demand for otherwise unavailable tracks I may upload a few other tunes, so let me know!

Got a few 'live' demo tracks done over the last few days - recorded using a Zoom H2 - it's a weird experience to record without headphones and mic stands, without wires and all that stuff...obviously there's still a need to listen to what's being recorded to make sure it's a balanced sound...but after that, it's just sitting playing guitar and harp!

I have a few more tunes to try - if any of them seem any good, I shall upload them for listening...more on this later!

...the way time can just drift along...I really ought to get some tunes done, look for opportunities online and otherwise...I could even update my photos (the front cover for 'Harrisburg' is now in the photo section, if you're interested - the tracklisting is as listed on the music page)...but mostly, I just can't be bothered!

The BlastMyMusic site temporarily disappeared - seems to be back! Still, for those wishing to purchase tracks from 'Post-Industrial Polka' or the '37 Rooms' EP, you can get them from my EzFolk pages as well...

Click Here to go to EzFolk

In these uncertain economic times...

All three of my albums are available as MP3 download from CDBaby - high quality DRM free - and now only $5 each. All three CDs are also available as a 3 for $5 each offer though CDBaby.

I was interviewed recently for ezFolk.com by the very talented Holley Hall...

Read the interview here!

A few folks have asked me what this new album 'Harrisburg' is all about.

Good question!

Well, the songs are linked - they're a story of sorts, and each song is a little story all on its own. The order they are listed in is roughly chronological - and it ends happily!

Does that help?

It took me long time to write these songs, and I decided to give them away because I couldn't think of them in any commercial sense. I am always delighted when people choose to buy my music, but much happier that they choose to listen. Not a very business-orientated attitude, I know, but there you go!

Anyway, don't afraid to ask about the tunes if you so wish - I do answer all my emails!

First of all, a big thanks to everyone who has downloaded the new tunes - and there have been quite a lot - and thanks to those who have had a few thoughts on the songs and the whole free download scenario. I really appreciate all the feedback and ideas people have come up with - I would also like to encourage anyone who has enjoyed the tunes to share them with anyone who might like them.

I intend that 'Harrisburg' will remain as a free online LP - I believe that music is primarily about creating and sharing, not haggling over percentages. Perhaps that makes me a fool, but who cares? I'd rather choose to be a fool than have someone make a fool out of me...

10 new songs for free - go to the Listen/Download' section to hear them all. The collection is called 'Harrisburg', and there is no plan to release them on CD - this is a purely online only album, available in its entirety from this website for nothing.

More info later...

I'm still finishing those tunes recorded through the course of 2008 - hopefully I will get these mastered and uploaded this month...

Having recently acquired a Zoom H2 digital recorder, I hope to use it to help develop a different way of working and writing, and hopefully record some more interesting and spontaneous material. Still working at that, so bear with me!

More news soon - take care!

...2008, and don't look back. What a year - I wrote somewhere (about a year ago, in fact) that 2008 felt like one of those years that everything gets shaken up, and (sadly, for once) I was right.

Anyway, this website is due for an overhaul sometime in January, and some new tunes would be nice for you folks to listen to. I must confess, however, that right now, I'm not sure I can be bothered - although I do have 11 new songs (recorded during the latter half of this year), I just don't have the desire to do anything with them, a fact about which I'm sure you are all devastated! :)

Good luck to you all in 2009!

*note to self - no more predictions...

Can you be moral and make money - or rather, more money than you need? Can capitalist states be ethical? Is morality purely internal, a spiritual sensation - or is it potentially part of a political agenda?

Politics is about power; who has it, who doesn't, who wants it, who is denied it; you could argue that politics by its very nature can never be moral. In fact, introducing the concept immediately lays the whole thing open to being thoroughly immoral.

The best you can hope for is that good men do their best before they are sucked into the machine. None of us has the moral compass to pass through life without fault or flaw; for those of us who are nobodies, that scores very low on the scale of things in the greater creation - for a President or Prime Minister, there is great potential for disaster and mayhem that ultimately affects us all.

This was another tune that never really got much of an airing first time round - out-take from Inside Outside...I rather like it :)

Right and wrong, morality and immorality, good and bad, sin and virtue - these are all concepts which get thrown about to justify whatever ephemeral thoughts or policies some politician may conjure up; or which give a voice to both the source of outrage, and the system it opposes. Ultimately you have to ask - what is right and wrong?

The trouble is that anyone who assumes they have a monopoly where morality is concerned is always going to be trouble. An absolute conviction that you are right, especially backed up by some supernatural legitimacy, can only mean that everyone else is wrong, and therefore lesser in the eyes of whatever god you may choose to worship.

In practice, of course, such notions are ultimately both flawed and dangerous, since they assume that your god of choice is both real and capable of affirmative action. It also helps to convince individuals that they must automatically start each dilemma from the perspective of one who is on the 'right' side of whatever situation they are in; such belief can result in all manner of unpleasantness, from simply being smug and self-satisfied, through hypocrisy, to outright lunacy.

To gain real insight, one must really take a step back and examine the truth. There is very little that is certain in the world, and inventing new uncertainties does not help. Using those uncertainties to further selfish ends further complicates matters. The truth is that no-one knows any more than the smallest fraction of the sum of everything, and those who claim they do are probably just engaged in manipulation for their own entertainment or gain. And if they can dress it up in religious garb, so much the better for them.

Seems strangely appropriate at the moment - from 'Post-Industrial Polka'

Here's another older fave!

It might seem a little strange re-releasing these older tunes (there are a few more in the same vein) but I have recorded so many songs in the last 2-3 years that there is a real danger of some of them just getting lost! Now, you might consider that to be a vanity on my part, but putting things in order is in some ways part of the artistic process, and songs are there to be listened to in the best possible setting (rather than left sitting on a hard drive somewhere).

Curiously, I do have a whole load of new tunes sitting on my hard drive, and I can't really decide what to do with them. Some actually seem quite good, but how or when (or if?) they get released remains to be seen.

Dan :)

Not a new tune - but one which a few people people have requested should be re-released - uploaded at ezFolk.com
I'll be compiling a few other older songs (singles/out-takes etc) over the next little while - more on this later!