Dan Tindall: News and Views

The SoundClick player updated with new tunes from the CD which is available right now from CDBaby - the button above in the main text will take you to the CDBaby page.

Please visit the links section and take yourself off to Sound Aid, who were good enough to add the Empires And Dust EP to their extensive and top quality set of downloads. Lots of free music, info - and the chance to donate to a great cause!

One of the new songs - you can also hear it (and read the lyrics) on the music/downloads page.

All being well, the new CD should be ready for release soon - as well as the songs from the EP, there are some brand new tunes to give you 10 songs in total.

Tracklisting

1. Guns And Sand
2. People Tell Me
3. Sunday Morning
4. The Folks Underground
5. Famine Blues
6. What Would You Do
7. Stare Into The Mirror
8. Roundabout
9. Run To The Sea
10. Bang The Gong

Previews of at least one new song soon...

It seems quite likely that a full length CD version of 'The Folks Underground' may make an appearance - the original EP plus some new tunes - more details to come!

Just spent a week away from it all, and got some new tunes recorded. Whether they are any good or not remains to be seen. I basically threw out all the stuff I was going to do, and just wrote (or re-wrote) new stuff. This is generally not considered to be an efficient or professional way to work - but then I am neither of those things! :)

Just been tidying things up a little here - and added a tune to the music section. It's called 'Run To The Sea' - a folky number, recorded around the time of 'The Folks Underground' etc. Free download for the meantime, if you want it. :)

'The Folks Underground' made it to Number One in the mighty SoundClick acoustic chart yesterday - bizarre but true!

Many thanks to everyone who took a listen!

Dan :)

Yes, it's Christmas time. What little energy you have left after a year of working and struggling to survive, you can expend on an unsatisfying orgy of consumer spending and dubious charity. All those must have gifts and must have foodstuffs - how useful they will all seem come January, when you are broke and miserable and unhappy.

Unless, of course, you are lucky enough to be either very rich or very poor. The rich can spend their way out of anything - and the very poor have nothing but the consolation of a little human warmth at the best of times. In either case, the yuletide season is a pleasing blip on the radar screen of life.

For everybody else - well, aside from the excuse to actually sit and enjoy a day with your loved ones, you might as well not bother. The people you love are around you every day - why the need for a hi-jacked pagan festival, long bereft of any religious meaning?

Seasons wishes to you all! :)

If you want to purchase the new 4 song EP, here's a list of places you can download it from -

BlastMyMusic (The Music Blaster is above in the main text)

EzFolk
SongPlanet
SoundClick
All these sites will have the tunes for sale after 1st December

(if you purchase thru EzFolk you can use the promo code 3EE5876CA3 to get a 20% discount on any or all of my tunes until 31st December)

Four brand new tunes on the music page for your listening pleasure - not yet on 'general release', nor available for purchase (more on that later).

The Folks Underground
People Tell Me
Famine Blues
Stare Into the Mirror

Take a listen and see what you think...

If you want to buy any of my tunes currently in the Digital sales vault at my EZFolk pages (CLICK HERE to go straight there!) you can use this promo code to get 20% off between now and the end of the year - valid for any tune as many times as you like!

3EE5876CA3

when you get to the checkout you will be asked to input the code.

Registration as a listener (or artist) is free at EZFolk.

Dan :)

A small percentage of the price goes towards the EZFolk site, which is an excellent and august home for all varieties of folk musicians - the promo will also be available for the new tunes to follow in December :)

Random and huge it may well be, but the internet has one advantage for musicians - it has created a whole world of non-mainstream opportunities, many of which have probably not yet come to fruition. Even in the few years since I first uploaded a couple of tunes to SoundClick (which was literally the first such thing I ever happened across) the indies have got more organised. Which is a good thing!
Of course, the internet has also provided a showcase for wannabees and the musical corporations to muscle in and ply their wares. But let's just hope that freedom (for once) prevails...

...finally got some tunes mixed down - need to get them mastered and so on - and some others to get recorded as well.

But I will have a couple of tracks up soon as a 'taster'!

From 'Inside Outside' CD/MP3

Just an update about a couple of my fave indie sites -

EzFolk now has the facility to upload digital files (primarily mp3's, but also pdf files etc) for sale via the site. A small percentage of this contributes to the running of this excellent institution, which provides a home on the web for a wide variety of acoustic and folk musicians, as well as providing info on folk music songs, styles, and musical instruction. I have an immense respect for it's founder and owner Richard Hefner, and would encourage anyone with an interest in folk/acoustic/blues etc to pay a visit.

IndieHeart is a showcase for a variety of indie music, and also promotes its artists through the near legendary 'Heart of the Night' and 'Trans-Atlantic Acoustic' podcasts. The site has recently been updated, and offers even more for the listener and artist. Again, I would encourage you pay a visit and see what Jill and Sam are up to!

Links to both these sites are on my 'links' page.

Just refreshed the look of the site - thought it was about time!

Finally have a few new tunes recorded (though still need to be mixed and mastered etc) - a couple more are in the pipeline, so hopefully there'll be something positive to report fairly soon!

One or two other developments pending as well - more on these later...

...what you know. That's what they say - and it's true. But what do you know? More than you think, but maybe not what you expect. Less than you'd like, but plenty to be getting on with.

The point is, it's more than just writing tunes and words to play on the guitar and showing off to the world. It is having something to say and finding the voice to say it in. The three dimensional onslaught of the modern media machine has made a good job of silencing those voices - but they are still there, and thriving without the help of self-appointed arbiters of trend and taste.

Perhaps it is simply a function of the increasing need for those who achieve positions of responsibility to imagine that they also acquire authority. This seems to apply equally to politicians and media moguls, and shows a certain lack of character in those concerned. Or perhaps it simply re-enforces the notion that anyone who wants to be boss should immediately regarded with suspicion by the rest of us!

I have a great deal of half-finished stuff that might become songs - or then again, they might not!

Some new ideas and new variations seem quite likely....

From the "Empires And Dust" EP (2007)

CD Baby now offers high quality album downloads from the CD listing page - DRM free and high quality encoding. Just thought you might like to know!

If you check out the links page you will find a link to a blog site I have written detailing some recording tips and advice - I have recently updated this to the point where it's pretty much complete in its original intent.

Hopefully I will be able to start another similar page soon with some more detailed info on particular songs (the writing and playing, as well as the recording) which might be useful for anyone having a go at doing their own tunes.

I have updated the links page - some nice new additions, and some corrections and deletions (for sites moved and/or no longer active).

Once again, can I encourage you to check out some of the listed artists and indie sites.