The Fillmore Five World Tour

...or how to circumnavigate the globe from the comfort of your own living room.

Now that we have our home back to ourselves I took some time yesterday evening to reacquaint myself with my acoustic, Blackie. I have to say that she was sounding good. Vibrato was flowing freely, and, possibly due to the inevitable reduction in callus thickness from not playing recently, I felt like I could feel the guitar better. Often when I'm jamming I'll start off plucking notes from an Arabian sounding sextonic scale, which I've blogged about before, and last night was no exception. At some point I decided to head west, segueing into a North American minor blues pattern. Pretty soon I found myself adding in British Blues tonality of the major pentatonic colour notes, as favoured by Mr Eric Clapton. A hop, skip and an arpeggio later and I found myself back on the magic carpet ride of the sextonic. How many Air Guitar Miles did I earn for that trip, eh?

It's come time in the project to s**t or get off the pot, as Tim's Mom says. I've made a couple of potential contacts through the Partysounds website so I'm gonna drop them an email. After all, Summer's here and it's time for dancing in the street.

In other news, I've finally found time to listen to a couple of the albums I've bought recently. A couple of weeks ago, in preparation for his upcoming London show (July 7), I purchased Jason Mraz's "We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things". On first listen most of the songs kind of washed over me, leaving no real clue as to the longevity of the album. Stylistically, it's a departure from his early work, following on from his previous offering, "Mr A-Z". The mixes are fuller, the vibe is more laid back. The funky white boy has brought in a horn section! There's a smidgen of Jack Johnson stylee island rhythm here and there. The overall vibe, though, is lounge jazz without the Mraz trademark street corner rappin'. For me, Jason was at his best when it was just him, his guitar and Toca Rivera on congas. It's always difficult to adjust to his more produced releases, but I'm still looking forward to seeing him live as that's really where the boy's character shines through.

I was extremely pleased to have Magic Ship debut album "LoveTel Motel" drop through my letterbox and to find that it's good. Really good, in fact. It's consistently rocks with an upbeat feel good groove. Right from track 1, Magic Ship kicks the door down with "Fly!", a definite crowd pleasing stomper. From there on in the tunes just keep getting stronger and stronger. The album peaks at song number 7 with the title track. The band keep the pedal to the metal for "Love & Glory", bringing it home with "Tumbling & Falling" and "Lifeboats For The Dead". It's a credit to the Magic Ship boys that as Colin Gillman's gruff vocals fade out on track 10 you're ready to hit 'play' and listen to the album over again. If you're looking to hear something new and fresh, go on, buy British! Buy the Magic Ship CD.

I still haven't touched a Tom Petty greatest hits album I bought along with the Jason Mraz CD. I've never really listened to Mr Petty's stuff before, but I have high expectations that I'll like it. We shall see!

Three Week Look Ahead

As regulars around here will have noticed, there's not really been much actual progress on The Project lately. I won't rehash all the stuff that's been going on, but suffice to say that the planets are starting to align and soon I should be ready for another big push.

July 1 is a major project milestone, so I think it's worth looking forward to that date to see what's on the horizon. As June passes into July, not only will the UK be celebrating the half-way mark of the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament (and moaning about how all our players were knocked out in the first round) but I'll be celebrating the mid-point of The Project. Exciting times! It's all downhill from here!

The in-laws will be with us for a couple more weeks. After we've had our farewell hugs and dried our tears they'll board the big shiny bird headed west and I'll start my new 'commuter-friendly' job, creating shedloads of free time. As soon as possible I'm hoping to hook up with some folks who messaged me recently via the Partysounds website. The plan is that we'll drink some beer, shake the tree and see what falls out.

On the concert front, having started off the Summer 2008 run with Rufus Wainwright, we've got Robert Randolph lined up at the end of June, then Dolly Parton, Jason Mraz and Macy Gray in July. Still unconfirmed, but possible depending on other commitments are Little Feat (IndigO2, July 11) and Drive By Truckers (Electric Ballroom, August 4). Oh, and while I think about it, I've been getting a lot of hits lately from people looking for Oli Brown information and my review of his band's debut album "Open Road". I won't be able to make the show, but for those of you in London who can, Oli is supporting The Blue Oyster Cult at the Kentish Town Forum TOMORROW NIGHT (June 11). Go along and check him out!

So, for the next few weeks you, The Reader, can expect general banter, the occasional iPod DJ entry and general project water-treading. After that, though, watch out! It's full speed ahead!