Since June 2000, when I started putting original material and traditional arrangements on mp3.com, the possibility of performing some of this to real audiences has come a little closer. I am not a professional, nor even a part-time, musician or singer - and certainly not an 'entertainer'!
However, I have sufficient material and experience to present 'a game of two halves' to clubs whose audience traditions fit in with my genre - the songwriter with new material in an old tradition, and guitar-player with gentle and accessible tunes. I'm not well suited to open bar combat, even though that's what I normally do on my home ground. Nor can I be asked to do the Wild Rover; I don't know it well enough...
I present about 90 minutes, overall, of selected material. I play Lowden steel and nylon strung guitars, mountain dulcimer and miniature guitar. I carry my own PA system suitable for audiences up to 50. I have CDs for sale at £5 each - produced by mp3.com or created on CD-R - and a little bit of info to impart about musicians on Internet.
I may also bring with me information, and examples of books, to show the value of researching old music and interpreting it. If your own club asks the same kind of questions I find being asked in the newsgroups on Internet, then we'll have a little interactive chat as well as music! I also would like, during the evening, to involve any musicians present in a joint effort. I have never understood why visiting singers love chorus participation, but picking up an instrument 'on the floor' would be taboo. I have a couple of numbers where I WANT to create a backing band from the floor - and you'll get the music sheet, too...
I'm interested in travelling to clubs anywhere in Britain, and I'll normally travel with Shirley to assist. We can partly finance the travel by locating a subject for a magazine interview - we publish the official magazine for The Master Photographers Association, and they have asked me to do more profiles and visits to their members all round the country. The idea is to spend some daylight time gathering an article, or visiting our advertising clients in whatever area, and combine this with a visit to your club.
You can obtain a sampler CD from me, containing tracks which I feel reasonably represent live performance (most of mine do anyway - I am not keen on studio production, and I don't embellish my material by hiring session musicians).
Contact me on 01573 226032, email me at david@maxwellplace.demon.co.uk, fax me on 01573 226000, or write to:
David Kilpatrick, Maxwell Place, Maxwell Lane, Kelso, Scotland TD5 7BB.