Sunday 14 March 2010

tie me at the crossroads

Well, all that bated breath can be released now - I wasn't convinced and Tom Waits still sounds like Rolf the Dog from The Muppets.  Sorry, but it is a taste still un-acquired.

On to other issues now.

An enjoyable weekend that took in a 10 mile walk by The River Stour and a meeting with old friends.  The weather held - as did my new boots - and we saw plenty of evidence that spring is sprung.  New-born lambs, daffodils, snow drops and catkins all in evidence. A highlight was walking into a field and seeing three red deer staring at us suspiciously, a hare running at full pelt towards some shelter and a lark rise up behind us and sing its melodious little heart out.  Welcome to Spring. After a welcome pint of St Edmund Ale from The Swan at Bures, we drove home to get ready to drive up to Stevenage to spend a pleasant evening with old friends.  Great food, copious bottles of wine and a real craic.  I think I got to bed about 4 o'clock.

Back home and a pleasant meal for Mrs Dave as it's Mothering Sunday and now we have the week ahead to look forward to.  Plenty of marking and planning, a haircut and there are still doors to put on to the wardrobes.  All-in-all, a normal kind of week.

I thought I needed a change of guitar this week so the Fylde is in its box ("I don' wanna get in de gox") and out comes the bottleneck - it's a poor man's Dobro made by Ozark.  Probably in China.  It's a couple of years old now (bought in Cambridge) but with really heavy Resonator strings on (Dunlop - difficult to find but well worth it) and it instantly transports you to the delta.  In my case the River Orwell Delta.   It's got what's known as a lipstick pickup (look at the style of the pickup) and tone and volume knobs.  They're not terribly effective but it does have that great metallic clang to it that sounds authentic.  I will post an item about slides and bottlenecks later - this week may see me making notes on that very subject.  It's a loud and unsophisticated guitar.

And I feel loud and unsophisticated at the moment.

3 comments:

Brendini said...

His name is Rowlf, actually.

Dave Leeke said...

Oh, I thought it was Tom.

Brendini said...

Raaasssspp!!!