“Looking down the road ...”
Happy New Year!
It was great seeing in the New Year last night with a live music gathering of friends at Berwick's wonderful bistro, Repas 7 By Night. There were about 14 of us sharing the stage to offer an array of tunes to see in the new year. Fun! Thank you to Leo and his faithful team for hosting the celebrations, and to Iain for organising all the performers.
I'll start off with wishing you all the best for this new year.
May it be a good year ahead for you - lively, interesting and enjoyable. I wonder which way you (and I) are leaning in focus as the year changes - backwards, forwards, or staying put in the here and now. Maybe a bit of all three directions would be fitting.
Looking back at the year past, I feel gratitude for lots of things.
I'll remember 2022 as the first year I made Dialogic recordings and releases. I'm grateful for all the opportunities that came my way to make and share music, both live and recorded, in connection with others. If you are reading this 'Dialogic Newsletter', then you're part of the musical community I'm lucky enough to have landed in, and I'm grateful for this bit of connection with you too.
When I look forward to the year ahead I reflect on some areas for change and growth that I would like to embrace.
The main thing I'm thinking of here is growing my capacity to stay present, moment by moment, rather than ruminating on the past or fretting about the future. Perhaps that's a lifetime's work, but I'm hoping for some good incremental progress in 2023.
Some weeks ago, a musician friend, Peter, told me about the 'Berwick Meditation Group' that meets for an hourly session each Friday. I've been warmly welcomed by the group and I now feel that regular attendance of this mediation group, along with my newly established 10-minutes-a-day meditation practice at home is helpful for staying present. So, a new year's resolution of mine is to try to bed in this practice as a good habit. I hope that ingraining this habit will be helpful for all aspects of life, including making music. Here's to establishing good new habits, in thought, word and deed!
Next single release, mid-month!
The next Dialogic release, 'Invisible', will be out on the second Friday of January. It's a ballad about loss. Having just expressed my intention to stay present and avoid ruminating on the past, I wonder if it is somehow contradictory to shine a light on the release of this song, since its initial inspiration was tied up with my own past experience of loss.
But actually, I feel it's sometimes good, or even necessary, to give expression to feelings about the past, so as not to get blocked and confused in the present. If stuff from the past is here in the present, I can let it be, for a while, so that I can then hopefully let it go.
In writing, performing, and recording 'Invisible', I've found a good mixture of 'letting be' and 'letting go', in relation to my own past experiences.
I'd be pleased if the song could, in a similar way, perhaps be helpful for anyone else listening to it.
Loss, in one way or another, is woven into the human experience after all. It's a universal - tricky to embrace because it hurts - and it's the flip side of all that's good in this impermanent life. With the help of our people, present and past, I think we can learn to accept it. Our people can give us friendship and support, maybe pass on some wisdom, to help see us through times of loss. Music can help too.
Spotify Pre-Save
Look out for the Dialogic release, 'Invisible', Friday 13th January, and please have a listen. Here's a pre-save link: https://releases.dialogicmusic.com/invisible
Wishing you all good things in 2023
Maybe even 'loss', as you encounter it this year, in small ways or big, can be mysteriously part of 'all good things'. I'll see you out there, along the way, one of your people, I hope. 'Buen Camino!', as they say on the famous pilgrim route in Spain - have a good journey, into the new year.