Jo is...

...sitting at home listening to a recording of one of his own gigs.
...thinking that this is quite possibly very sad.
...thinking that while life has lots of very good things in it at the moment, they're just a little bit too tightly packed for his liking.
...thinking that, despite potential sadness, listening to himself is adding to his determination to rearrange his life a bit and get his musical brain back in gear, fingers and vocal chords back in practice, and get a new song or two penned.

Watch this space, and be expectant. Just perhaps not immediately...

A new gig; a new download

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much to everyone who made it out to last night's gig - was my first in ages, and I had a very nice time. Got a good recording of it too, including the debut performance of new song Hide & Seek/Found You.

The whole show is now available for free download here.

Happy listening!
J



Setlist:
Lazarus
Missing
Puzzle
Lilies & Sparrows
Icarus >
Loop Jam
Part Trust
Hide & Seek >
Found You

New stuff!

Hey people, new online happenings:

• DLDown has a new Facebook fan page with a proper music player and video capabilities. I'll be using the new one more over the next wee while, and phasing out the old DLDown group. The new page is here - come and be a fan :o)
• New versions of 4 tracks are up now on Myspace and the afore-mentioned new Facebook page. They are Romans 7, Missing, Icarus and new song Lilies & Sparrows. Lyrics can be found, as always, on our lyrics page.

Let me know what you think!
J

For your alternative listening pleasure...

Here's a couple of great Edinburgh bands I've had the joy of sharing the line-up with over the last wee while. Both have tracks up on their sites which are well worth checking out, or better still go, and catch one of their gigs. Excellent stuff.

The Vacant Tourists
Cancel The Astronauts

J

Falling with style

The brand-spanking-new studio version of Icarus is now up at myspace for your delectation and delight. Feedback please!
J

New myspace tracks

A couple of new tracks are up on myspace: a work-in-progress version of Missing, along with a live It's All in Your Mind from the Merlin gig with Tim. Hopefully will have another up soon. Happy listening, and feedback welcome.
J

Are you still alive?!

Well, you may be wondering what's been going on with DLDown in the last wee while... well, here's some idea of what I've been up to anyway...

• A spot of recording! - studio versions of Romans 7, Icarus and Missing are all at various stages near completion, so look out for one or two of those on myspace soon.

• A wee bit o' songwriting. I'm sure everyone has different ways of going about this. My method (for want of a better, less precise word) usually involves lots of scribbled ideas on lots of random bits of paper lying around in my room.

Sometimes, the whole song grows and expands out of a sentence or phrase that I've heard in another song, or have subconsciously picked up somewhere else, the obvious examples being Farther Up and Farther In (from a line in C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle) and Icarus (which began as an extrapolation of a line I heard in a Phish song, The Squirming Coil). Others are an attempt at a different angle on a Bible story or passage, and still others are more closely related to emotions or circumstances I'm going through at the time.

Occasionally, some of these make it to the consolidation-into-something-coherent-and-singable stage, from which point the best ones pretty much write themselves, usually in the middle of the night when I really ought to be sleeping. Lilies & Sparrows is coming along nicely, and I'm hopeful that a couple more will be on their way shortly!

• Looking forward to tonight's gig - the first in a wee while. Should be grand!
J

Going solo

Tim's moved to London (everybody say 'aaww'). Jo will be playing solo for the time being, while on the look out for some new people to jam with. Hopefully Tim will be able to join in again now and then...

If you're a competent musician or singer who happens to like our music and fancies joining in, then get in touch with Jo at band@dldown.co.uk and we can have a jam!

We've had quite a nice wee review on Cross Rhythms - check it out here.

Alright, who unleashed the frog?

Hi folks, we're delighted to announce the latest addition to our ever-expanding catalogue of live show downloads: Last week's gig at the Merlin, Edinburgh.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along for making it such an enjoyable experience for us - definitely our favourite gig so far! We loved playing for you. Download the show for free here.
J

Setlist
Icarus
Romans 7 ->
My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own (Butch Hancock)
Loop Jam (as yet untitled)
Part Trust+
Frustration
Fly (Moxy Früvous) ->
Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty)
It's All In Your Mind

----set break----

Hitchhiker's Guide Theme* ->
Infinite/Intimate ->
Lazarus
Missing+
Puzzle~ ->
Ghostbusters Theme (Ray Parker Jr.) ->
The Final Countdown (Europe) ->
Puzzle
Farther Up and Farther In ->
Amazing Grace
Puzzled?

*first time played
+Jo solo
~contains section from Phish's "Twist"