It’s April, and that means it’s Half Moon month! Have you got your tickets yet?
There’s and event posted on facebook here and tickets are available online
via this link

There is life beyond Putney of course. Added to the Moon gig I have two shows with Vera and the band, and the Maly Glen gigs continue with Radek but henceforth on a fortnightly basis as opposed to every week. This duo really cooks!

I also have two solo shows at the James Joyce. This place is special venue for me , it has a great atmosphere, wonderful bar staff, and unfiltered Gambrinus beer

Plus I have a gig supporting my buddy Dani Robinsons’ band “Dirty Secrets” at Vagon in the centre of Prague

I’m back on Sunday nights at The Dubliner in the Old Town too, doing duo gigs with bass guitarist Martin Landa.

Looking ahead to the month of May and another city, Prague.

The “Continental Breakfast” band (as opposed to Full English Band – geddit? – Paul, Chris, Radek and I) will play our first EVER show on Tuesday May 22nd, at the coolest club in the city, Jazz Dock.

There’s and event posted on facebook here
If any UK fans want to come, please email or message me and I should be able to help with discounted good accommodation.

As ever take care of yourselves and each other, and most of all enjoy life.
Thanks for all your support .. it means a great deal to me.

Check the gigs page on my website .. see you soon

I shall be doing Balcony TV on Sunday and trying to make at least part of it a request show .. if you’d like me to play something for you (it has to be one of my songs) then by all means get in touch and I’ll do that for you

Ages ago I played a gig in Swansea .. a local guy came up to me before the show and told me how much he liked my new CD.
Great I thought. He then went on to tell me how much his mates loved it too. Even better! In fact, he told me he liked it so much, that he “made 30 copies” .. slightly dumbstruck by his candour, I said “aha .. right .. that’ll be £300 please”.

Do these kind of people imagine that CDs cost nothing to make? That I don’t pay for studio time or tape or a producer or for mastering .. or that I don’t pay my musos (even if they do work for mates rates). Even excluding recording costs, the CDs still have to be pressed and the paper parts printed.

As an independent artist, funding self-financed recordings, one of my goals is to make enough money from CD sales to pay for the record. Break even .. even. Better yet, just maybe to turn a profit so that I have some money to put towards the next one.

Whilst I’m not advocating copyright theft, the likes of the majors have a good deal more financial resources and flexibility than people like me.

I offer some of my songs as free low res mp3 downloads .. I have even paid so that my album “HereAfter” can be bought on a track by track basis from itunes, Amazon and three other music websites .. the tracks cost a whacking 99 US cents each it’s unlikely to bankrupt you … and … you don’t even have to buy the whole album if you think some of the songs suck.
In these days where so much material is available free on the internet, please spare a thought for the independent musician the next time you’re “downloading”

PS .. I wish I knew who the cartoon artist was .. I’d credit him .. even offer him a free download of mine. Alas I don’t but many thanks. Oh and yes … I downloaded it from the internet.

without doubt the best was saved for last … thank you to our audience last night you were outstanding .. it was best gig Radek and I have played at U Maleho Glena since we started there in September of last year .. thanks also to Ryan Bisio for his songs too .. we really have finished the year on a high

Brilliant !!! Here’s to more of the same in 2012
Jamie xx

via my mobile – loove good technology

here’s my lyric re-write for Hallelujah Day .. which is sung entirely in English
the Xmas carol references are deliberate. The track is a bonus on the CD.

Silent Night
Star Of Wonder
Burning Bright
Over Yonder
Three Kings travel from afar
Heard the word, now here they are
Expectation
Hallelujah Day

Bethlehem
Deep December
New born laying
in a manger
no room for them at the inn
what a story to begin
a new dawn coming
Hallelujah Day

Hallelujah Day – change is coming
take away your darkest night
Hallelujah Day – now we step into the light

Church bells ring
voices singing
Hear the good news
that they’re bringing
King of Heaven born on Earth
behold the Virgin birth
Christus Natus
Hallelujah Day

Hallelujah Day – change is coming
take away your darkest night
Hallelujah Day – now we step into the light

Family, friends
gather round us
celebrate
the joy of Christmas
Hark The Herald Angels sing
Glory to the new born king
Jubilation
Hallelujah Day

lyric copyright Jamie Marshall 2011

… and heard a wonderful story from the host and his cousin about their 87 year old Grandfather.
Conscripted into the German army following the Nazi invasion of Poland in WW2 (he lived in a Czech village close to the Polish border) he eventually deserted, and joined the Allies to fight in the Italian campaign .. for some reason he ended up in Scotland after the war and played football for Glasgow Celtic for two years !!

Helenka (the most famous female singer in the Czech Republic) and me .. it’s not just my smile that’s fake .. I really liked her, she was the absolute opposite of all the negative things I have heard about her .. very friendly not at all diva-esque and down to earth

I have been trying to find a way to sync the updates in my facebook page to this blog but it’s proving very tricky.
If you’d like to follow what I have been up to .. I update on an almost daily basis .. and at least once .. then head over to
http://www.facebook.com/jamiemarshallmusician and join up there ..

Meantime I’ll keeps searching .. if any of my readers have a solution then I’d been happy to correspond with them

Take it easy
JM

July is another busy and very varied month with seventeen gigs in three different countries!
I have four shows with Věra including one in Bratislava, Radek and I are at U Maleho Glena three times for our weekly Wednesday night residency, and Dani and I play MoHo on Monday the 18th.
I also have a gig at the Roots and Blues festival being held in Teplice .. my first time playing there.

I’m back at the James Joyce in Prague too, twice in fact .. I really like that space to play in and the bar staff are great … and I make my annual pilgrimage to Šipan Island in Croatia to play a two week long residency.
This year I’ll play solo, but I’ll take my Boss RC20 loop station along with me to work some aural magic ..
For all my gig details including show start times and maps here