Argos Barks (but ma dug can write)

Hello folks! You’re looking positively refulgent, you classy devils. I’ve been busy writing (the good kind, not the other kind) and doing plots and plans and schemes and things. I’ve also taken to wearing a very small hat. It’s a crazy time. I also took some time recently to make a wee playlist for Argos Barks, featuring some of the braw folk who make braw folk and can regularly be found making my ears happier. Some are more obvious than others, given that my usual partners-in-crime are featured, but so are some heroes and people I’m resigned to admiring from afar. The playlist is as follows:

• Andrew Lindsay – The Boat Outside
• Reverieme – Weans
• Beans on Toast – Coke
• Where We Lay Our Heads – Wondering About the Fall
• Daniel Versus the World – One Night Hug
• Kitty the Lion – Split Ends
• Laura Marling – My Manic and I
• Loch Awe – The Ocean in Me
• Second Hand Marching Band – A Dance to Half Death
• Shambles Miller – Things That Make Me Angry
• Loudon Wainwright III – Motel Blues
• Emily Barker – Fields of June
• Julia and the Doogans – Borderline
• Billy Bragg – Waiting for the Great Leap Forward
• Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road

A mighty bag’o'tracks to be sure. Mr. Barks (as he will always be known in my mind) also says some lovely words about me, which I’m very flattered by. He must be wise and handsome. To hear the playlist in full, head over to Argos Barks right this very minute! Your ears would thank you, if they could speak, but they can’t. They’re ears. They have neither the agency nor ability to do so.

In other news, I have gigs soon! I’m playing a couple of shows with Dave Arcari and it’d be great if you could make it along, the dates and times are below, along with the facebook event pages where you can also find links to buy tickets online! Hope to see you there!

• Wednesday, 22nd June, Sneaky Pete’s
• Thursday, 23rd June, Captains Rest

Oh and I recently updated my bandcamp with physical STUFF, so take a gander. And yes, the picture of my dog, Dusty, is only really up at the top of this post because of a rather tenuous “barks” link. It’s my blog, I’ll do what I want. Put the kettle on since you’re up, would you?

Til next time folks,

love Shambles x

Talentedlovelyfolkies!

Hello folks! You’re looking well-rested and content. Good. Good. I know you’re already reading THIS thing, but THIS thing is mostly to recommend you read OTHER things. What things? THESE THINGS!

Reverieme’s interview with The Spill!

Andrew Lindsay’s interview with Last Year’s Girl!

Andrew Lindsay’s (him again? gee-wizz) with Peenko!

Also, I’d like to congratulate these aforementioned talented friends, because Reverieme, (accompanied by Mr. Andrew Lindsay, the lovely Florence MacDonald and the ever-handsome Jamie Hewitt) is playing at the Wickerman Festival AND the T Break stage at T in the Park this year! Exciting! Go see her/them, you won’t regret it. Promise. You can trust a promise from me; that’s why they call me “Honest Shambles” (no-one calls me that). See? I can’t help myself.

Til next time folks,

love Shambles x

Get Folked!

WARNING: EXPECT FOLK PUNS AND OVERUSE OF THE WORD ‘FOLK’ IN GENERAL.

Hey folks! Well folk me, you look folking fantastic today. As you might have guessed from the above flyer, I have a gig coming up! You already know about me and my shenanigans, so I thought I’d give you a little info on some of the other acts.

Julia and the Doogans

Despite facebook protestations of the band being “pop not folk” they’re getting folked right along with the rest of us. Why the folk not? They’re a great band, with great songs, led by the eponymous Julia Doogan. Check them out, they have a website and everything.

Andrew Lindsay and the Coat Hooks

There’s a bloody good chance you’ve heard of this man already. My partner-in-crime, brother from another mother, ginger-bearded afrobuddy will be performing songs from his soon-to-be-released record “The Whittling”. To listen and preorder, click this link right nice, folks.

The Miss’s

Four young ladies. Soulful tunes. Bad punctuation. Two out of three ain’t bad and four’s even better. Check these guys out on the nicer parts of the internet.

If this gig was a cake and I was about to eat said cake, the cherry on top would be the fact that I get to play this gig with my band again! And with a new song in tow, no less.

The gig is this Thursday, the 10th of March at the Liquid Ship. Free entry! Can’t say fairer than that, can you? Can you?

See you there folks,

love Shambles

x

Soundcheck #5 – Just Goes To Show…

In the week of writing the following article, I played three gigs, self-censored, hung WAY over and went “oh…right”.

Gig #1: In the basement of a bar with a silly name. I knew almost nobody was coming to see me, I assume partly because they’d never heard of it and the door charge was a bit steep. I was also nursing an horrendous hangover.

Gig #2: Not, as I first thought, in a little inn somewhere in deepest Ayrshire, but outside in its lovely beer garden. On a sunny day. Near a stream. Free entry. For charity.

Gig #3: In the 13th Note, one of my favourite Glasgow venues, sharing the bill with my partner-in-crime Andrew Lindsay and the excellent Julia Doogan. Judging by the event page on facebook it would be well-attended, partly thanks to the student discount on the door, I expect.

Let’s start with Gig #2. (Hey it’s my article, I’ll mess around with time if I want), one i’d been particularly looking forward to: a chance to stretch my wings and play to people who had never heard me before. Outside of my own comfort zone, my city. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the venue I was confronted with an obstacle to my performance. Several, short obstacles, running around with their faces painted. No, not carefree midgets: they were CHILDREN. As I understand, songs with stories about a man who once shat in a washing machine and the effect of too much alcohol on the libido aren’t entirely suitable for kiddies, so I was forced to drastically alter my setlist. I cut half the songs and replaced the remaining expletives with radio-friendly alternatives, like “flip” and “pretty”.
As a result, I was extra-nervous. Also, not many folk were listening. It was early in the day and to be fair, I was only really needed for a bit of background music. I made some silly mistakes and never really got comfortable on stage. I was glad when it was over. An experience gathered and a lesson learned.

Now Gig #3 I was REALLY looking forward to, as I love the 13th Note and I knew I’d be able to fill my set with as many expletives as I liked. While it was a good gig with some great musicians who all performed brilliantly, it wasn’t as busy as was anticipated. But hey, who really wants to go out on a rainy monday night? You’d miss The Bill, or something. Some of the folk who did attend however, were guilty of the crime I mentioned in my last edition of this column, and as for my actual set, I think it went down well, judging by the reaction afterwards. Onstage however, I didn’t get much back from the audience and the atmsophere felt a little stilted.

Oh dear...

Finally, the dreaded Gig #1. A gig which I knew almost nobody was coming to. A gig in a basement with mirrored walls and leopard-print seats. Hungover as FUCK. The only gig I’ve ever played where I didn’t have a drink before, after or during my set. Minutes before I was due to go on there weren’t even enough people in the room to allow me to dedicate each song in my set to a different person.

Fine minutes before going onstage, the crowd was getting pretty rowdy...

One minute to go. A friend shows up! And he’s brought his friend! My audience has doubled! I shake their hands warmly and take to the stage just as the other acts return and take their seats along with their respective friends and girlfriends. I’ve gone from playing to four people to a respectable crowd. My songs go down great. People laugh in the right places and any talking is relatively quiet. The atmosphere is exciting and my incredibly hungover between-song banter even stumbles towards coherence and the odd laugh. I leave the stage and immediately sell a few CDs and badges. Folk shake my hand and tell me they enjoyed my set. Afterwards the promoter tells me he’ll give me a gig anytime I want one. So #1, the one that looked like a surefire disaster turned into one of my best gigs of late. I even had enough money to buy my missus lunch the next day. I had provided for my partner, and with music no less! All thanks to a gig almost nobody came to.

It just goes to show, you should never judge a gig by its cover.

This article originally appeared on Stereokill.net.

Sketchy Recollections…

Hello folks! You’re looking lovely today. Me? I’m feeling PRETTY rough. I did have a rather fun day yesterday though, so my sluggish state today kind of balances it out. I don’t mind a hangover if the day before was worth it, and yesterday certainly was. It was the day that I played the Lounge Act Stage in Sloans Courtyard as part of the Merchant City Festival. It was great fun and really exciting to share a stage with some other great acoustic acts, such as my old partner-in-crime Andrew Lindsay and someone I’ve really been looking forward to seeing live, Matthew Healy, otherwise known as We, the Plural. Also on the bill were my old sparring partner Martin Wright, Reptile House and a few more acts to boot. Everyone seemed to have a really good time and despite the odd sound problem I think things wen’t pretty well!

One of the best bits of gigging is getting to meet some lovely folk and I was lucky enough to do just that. Even if some of them I only met very briefly due to a mixture of politeness and parking problems :P (thanks for the photo by the way).
I also got to say hello to my friend James Clark Jones, who came to see me all the way from Canada! (Ok so he was coming to Scotland anyway, but my version makes me sound cooler). He’s playing a gig this thursday at Bar Ten so I suggest you go along and check him out.

After my set I spent the day and night…well, lets say over-indulging, with friends and later on with my parents. Once my dad and I open a bottle of Jack Daniels it tends to be a late night, hence my tender state today. As I said though, definitely worth it. My dad also did a lovely thing: he bought a sketch of me from an artist who had a stall near the stage and was sketching all the acts. I’m really chuffed with it, especially since it makes me look like an Actual Man.

Not bad eh? He told us he might make copies to sell, so if you stop by his stall at Sloans on Saturdays you might just see some wee copies of my sketchy mug for sale.

I had a lovely day so I did, so thanks to everyone who came, everyone who played, and of course the guys at Lounge Act for putting the stage on. It was a genuine pleasure, as always.

Til next time folks!

love Shambles x