Eight Winds Available Online

Eight Winds Released

We are extremely pleased to announce that Eight Winds is now available online.  It has been a while in the production;  I started composing almost as soon as Craftsman was released and a couple of the songs date back to the 1970's.

Eight Winds comprises 11 guitar instrumentals with a bonus re-arrangment of one of the 11.  Eight of them are Bob originals and, a special treat for me, three are duets co-written by my long-time friend Duncan Woodcock.  In case you haven't seen some of the earlier blog entries,  Duncan and I met in school back when dinosaurs were still the dominant life forms.   When I first started learning to play guitar, Duncan showed me how to play finger-style and that way of playing has stuck with me ever since.

We have always been attuned musically and back in the 1970's we co-wrote two guitar instrumentals but never had good recordings of them.  This past May, Duncan came to Lunenburg on vacation and we had the perfect opportunity to record them.  They are good enough pieces to include them on the album and with Duncan's approval and active participation, Eight Winds includes the two songs.   While he was here, we composed a third piece and it too is on the CD.

As with the previous instrumental albums, Eight Winds owes a great deal to David Findlay of Otitis Media in Lunenburg.  Multi-instrumentalist Dave adds his considerable musical talents to the CD and is responsible for mixing, mastering and overall production.    For more information on the album and the process that went into the production, please read the feature article written by Michael Diamond of Music and Media Focus.  You can find the article here.

Listen Online

You can listen to Eight Winds online at my website.  You can also listen and purchase the CD direct from Bandcamp. The album is also available on iTunes, Amazon and CD Baby if you prefer those outlets. 

Leaving For Lancaster 

I was Leaving for Lunenburg on Come From Away but now I'm packing my bags to leave for the UK. I have been invited to perform at the Lancaster Music Festival October 8-12.  They have booked me in for 6 performances throughout the weekend.  Duncan lives in Lancaster and I'm very pleased that he will be joining me on stage throughout the festival.

Full details of dates, times and locations are available on the Shows page of my website.  All of the festival venues are in the heart of Lancaster and complete details of performers, venues and much more information are available on the festival website.

While I am in the UK, I also have the great pleasure of performing an opening set for one of my musical heroes, Wizz Jones.  Wizz is playing at the Folk - Blues and Beyond Club in Hope, Derbyshire on October 15 and it will be a great honour for me to share the stage with one of the masters of English folk music.  Details on the club website.

That's all for now.  Hope you enjoy the new music and I hope you can make it out to one of the shows.

Cheers, Bob
bobardern.ca