February has been a busy, but fruitful month. I remain near the end of the sequel to The Triton Run, and thankfully am through a short period when I couldn’t work out how to link what I had to the ending long planned for. Not helping, but I am not complaining, is the need to start work on promoting the book.

It’s traumatic querying agents and publishers, asking for reviews is just as bad! I have sent a few ARCs out but am yet to hear back. I suspect reviewers are snowed under, it’s a congested market. Northodox will also be sending out copies too. If you are interested in reviewing it, get in touch!

February was also a busy month, with plenty of sport and live music.

You really can’t beat live music. It is uplifting in a way that can’t easily be explained and there is nothing better than live music in an intimate, but full, venue. It’s almost a spiritual experience. In big arenas, football stadia or outside gigs its hard for artists to make the connection with the audience, very few are capable of doing that. Springsteen is one who can, over the years he’s learned how to make you feel that he’s performing for you, and to make the big feel small. He never wanted to move beyond arenas but commercially had no choice when Born In The USA blew up in 84/85.

Jason Isbell – Barbican Theatre, London

Jason Isbell is one who also prefers the intimate. I am paraphrasing, but he once said something like he wanted to be popular enough that he could play arenas but successful enough that he didn’t need to. That’s also a sign of someone who loves playing live, ending up playing 5 nights to crowds he could reach in 1 night in an arena.

For me, Isbell is very much in the Springsteen mould. He’s not as much of a showman, but they share the live chops and songwriting. With his band, the 400 Unit, the shows are formidable. Southeastern is an incredible record and Elephant one of the saddest songs you can imagine. More recently, Weathervanes, sees him move into a wider, heavier territory and away from his country / Americana roots towards something Neil Young would be proud of. Try ‘Miles.’

I’ve seen him live a few times, however I couldn’t miss out on the chance to see him do a one man show at the Barbican in London on 10th February. It was his only UK date on a tour to promote his new album, Foxes In The Snow, which as of the time of writing is not yet released.

The Barbican is a great venue. The complex that includes a cinema and other spaces for the arts as well as tower blocks is ugly, I don’t think that is in dispute. The theatre inside it, however, is fantastic. Lots of wood, brilliant acoustics. And we were treated to 90 mins of a one man show – Jason with his acoustic and lots of chat. To some it was a challenging show as 5 or 6 songs were being premiered. The couple sat next to me were fuming, partly because they didn’t know the songs and partly because they didn’t realise the band weren’t about to walk out and join Jason.

Carly Pearce – Manchester

I have been on a bit of an Americana trip musically for the last few years, a bit of a change to my usual tastes. The reason for this is possibly because I have wanted to hear ‘new’ music, but the charts just don’t do it for me. Country artists feel more real most of the time. They write their own stuff, they play live and their live performances aren’t backed by tapes and autotune. Their songs are also more interesting than a lot of modern stuff, with story telling at the heart of everything.

The ability to pivot, change shows last minute and being real was what saved Carly Pearce, or Carl Pearce as she described herself.

Reading social media for the 24 hours before the show I was sure it would be cancelled. Carly had come down with flu, and was clearly struggling – a lot. I am sure most acts would have cancelled, but as she noted these were some of her biggest sold out shows and she was determined to continue. She was promoting Hummingbird, her latest album which I absolutely love.

So instead of a bright coloured, rock show with electric guitar we got a stripped back setlist with the focus on acoustic guitars and the fiddle – but it was still loud! The key was lowered and some of the songs softened to protect her voice yet it was still great. There was a lot of love in the room and the crowd helped.

The Albert Hall (not that one) in Manchester was a great venue, small and with stained glass windows along the side.

I have one more gig lined up for March, then nothing until June but that’s fine as there is a book to promote (and one to finish). There are also some rather important football matches to be played…

Arne Slot’s Mighty Reds

When talking about what I am up to, it’s impossible to ignore the football. Liverpool FC march on, clear favourites to win the Premier League and with a Cup Final on 16 March. Things can’t really be much better than that. The atmosphere at Anfield is great and the team are playing so well.