What comes next? Five ways to help…
The Johnny Blue’s Well EP is out in the world doing its thing. It’s a strange feeling for me — letting it go. It’s a bit like that parenting moment when you abandon your child at the school gates for the first time and realise you have very limited control over the next phase of their life.
So far, the reception of the EP has been very positive, although I doubt people would be taking the trouble to get in touch if they hadn’t liked it!
There have been some very welcome radio plays —particularly on the Iain Anderson Show on BBC Radio Scotland where it’s always a pleasure to find your songs in stellar folk music company. I was also the featured artist on The Folk Club radio show this week too, which gave me the chance to introduce three of the five songs. You can catch up with that here. Many thanks to Stuart Green for the opportunity. I also spent some time yesterday pre-recording an interview about the EP with Janice Russell for her show on Heartland FM. Janice is a legend: she has been a big supporter of my music (and of lots of DIY artists in Scotland). Looking forward to hearing that chat on air next week.
There has also been a little press coverage, via the Paisley Daily Express, which ran a story about the EP (and about the eponymous local landmark) here. I think my childhood local paper, the Barrhead News, might be running a story too. I had a lovely time sitting on the damp moss atop Johnny Blue’s Well while their photographer took some excellent musician-in-the-wild shots. Here’s one of those:
Beyond trying to find ways to get the recordings to an audience one way or another, I’ve also been rehearsing hard for the launch gig on 27th April at the Dream Machine in Glasgow. Tickets are available here. It’s going to be a proper BYOB launch party. I’ll be joined by regular bandmates Alison Urie (on vocals) and Les Back (on Dobro guitar), but we’ll also have the dream-team rhythm section of Louis Abbott (on percussion) and Graeme Smillie (on bass). To cap it off, I’m delighted that one of my favourite singer-songwriters, Olivia Rafferty, is coming up from London to play a set. Olivia has a debut album coming out next year. I had the privilege of being one of her ‘beta-listeners’ at the mixing and mastering stages and I can tell you that it is a gorgeous record, intriguingly themed around her love of geology. Have a listen to Olivia’s 2021 EP ‘Hurricane’ here. It too is gorgeous.
Alison, Les and I are also trying to put together a campervan-enabled acoustic mini-tour of house gigs and highland gigs. And this brings me to the question of how you can help… So, here’s a list you can choose from, if and only if you like the EP, obviously ;)
Buy the EP on Bandcamp as a digital download and/or as a CD.
Stream the EP and playlist the songs.
Recommend it to your friends.
Buy a ticket (or two or three) for the gig… but do that soon as space is limited.
Contact me (info@fergusmcneill.com) if you’d like to explore hosting a house gig… If you’ve never hosted or been to a house gig before, they are lovely, intimate events where a small group of friends share food and drink, and enjoy the music and the conversation it stimulates. It’s also a lovely way to support any DIY artist since there is no middle-person to pay, meaning very reasonably priced tickets (and merch sales) go direct to the artist.
Thanks as always for your support. Maybe drop me a line and let me know if you are enjoying the songs, and which is your favourite?
Fx