A little faith...

I played at the Soul Cellar last night. No biggies, I've played there a few times, it's a nice little cellar bar in Southampton.

When I arrived the place was dead apart from a few friends (4)of the guy that was playing at the time.

He was thrashing away, acoustic guitar and mic plugged into an amp, a Marshall I think.

There were about 3 other random chaps hanging about but they buggered off after a while.

Young Jack Martello played next. He played his usual set of covers and original songs.

The previous guy and his mates had pissed off by this time. Solidarity brother!

Around halfway through Jack's set the place started to fill up a bit. The reason being was that the drum and bass club upstairs was due to start and a few enthusiastic D&Bers had turned up early and wher taking advantage of the cheeper drinks downstairs before it all kicked off.

I was standing next to Mrs Nick and remarked that this would be a great opportunity to play Pure Acoustic ie no mic, no amp just me on stage singing with a guitar.

She, understandably, was unsure. "People won't be able to hear" she said. Looking round at the young crowd of around thirty, mainly male average age around 20  I thought she may have a point.

I've been toying with this theory that if you play Pure Acoustic, people will  talk quieter and some will even listen EVEN in a big noisy bar.

This theory was borne out last night. At first people didn't notice and probably wondered when I was going to start. Nevertheless they did clap when I had finished so at least they noticed thaty I had stopped.

When I cracked into my second tune, the ones that wanted to listen did and the overall sound level had dropped considerably. I was playing ballads and getting a great reaction and by the time I got to the end of my set the louder funky tunes went down a treat!

So, Pure Acoustica DOES work, people DO listen.

Matt Stevens

If you haven't heard of Matt Stevens then it's not for his lack of trying. just "Google him" and you'll see how how far he has spread himself on the web. He's one of those talented independent singer/songwriter types that I feature on my podcast. I've actually been a champion of Matts for many a moon and  we have become great webfriends to the extent that we have come up with an great idea for a feature on my podcast. I'll say more once we have firmed up how we're going to do it.

Here's the kind of thing he does

  Matt Stevens - Dolls House by mattstevensguitar

His songs are featured on most of my podcasts including the newest.

Click on the links and spread the word

There is a podcast about the blog

Podcasts

I have started new blog that is soley dedicated to my podcasts leaving this one to concentrate on non podcast stuff.

For all your "Is This Thing On Podcast" needs run to http://isthisthingonpodcast.blogspot.com/

Go on!!

Schemes and Plans explained

A few people have questioned me regarding my Schemes and Plans post.
I may have given the impression that I was going to hand in my notice at my day job and devote all my time to developing my musical career. As tempting as that sounds, that is not the case. If I had no responsibilities, daughters, a wife, a mortgage etc, then that is what I WOULD do.

What I am doing is putting things in motion in PREPARATION for leaving my job.

There is a chance that I might completely lose the plot and quit anyway, but that's ok as I do have other skills I can earn money from.

Keep clicking you beautiful people!

Podcast number 14...at last!

At last, number 14! A bit of a shoddy one as it's been a while since my last one, so I'm not properly back in the flow so I thought I'd better play some good music. The fantastic Tom Caulfield from Weymouth and the amazing Matt Stevens from London. I managed to slip a newish one of mine towards the end. Hi if you're a new listener and welcome back if you are a regular. I'll try and keep these a bit more regular. If you have some music that you think I should feature, give me a shout.


Best place to listen is via iTunes, click on the link on the left.


If you don't do the iTunes thing then go direct to nicktann.podbean.com or you can listen via
The "Playa" on the right


Pip Pip!

Schemes and Plans

I thought it might be a good idea to lay out my plan for this new year. I spread myself around the internet and I hope that this will answer some of the questions that I get asked regularly.

1) The Vinyl Project is still a going concern. It's a big project and will take time (*something that I do not have enough of) to fully develop but IT WILL HAPPEN. All the money that has been given is sitting in a special bank account and will not be touched until certain milestones have been achieved. By that I mean sufficient funds to start recording and a certain level of publicity to make the whole thing viable. I promise that despite my dwindling personal funds I will not touch the money collect and THIS PROJECT WILL HAPPEN.

2) Pure Acoustica Despite The Dolphin (our main venue) closing Pure Acoustica is far from dead. I have found a great venue to carry on. More details to follow. If you're interested in Pure Acoustica either from an audience point of view or as an artist either pop your email address into the reverbnation widget on the right or if you're a Facebook person click here.

As well as the live element of Pure Acoustica, I have also started a Pure Acoustica label. I have 2 great artists Tom Caulfield and Emmy-Lee signed up already. I am three fifths of the way through Toms album and have yet to start on Emmy's but will do *very soon.
I'm also half way through recording a new album of tunes, NOT THE VINYL PROJECT, that I hope to finish in the next 4 weeks*

3) Is This Thing On pod-cast I'm itching to start again but it's the lack of time* that is once again holding me back. The main thrust will still be independent (ie poor) composers and musicians as well as the usual rants, opinions, crazy ideas and some of the best non signed independent music I can find as well as that I have some interviews lined up.

4) I have promised to do a few live radio spots for some of my friends who have regular shows and will let you know as and when they happen.

I'll also continue to play out in Southampton as well as anywhere else that I can find and will continue to do musical odd-jobs for Watch With Mothers and anyone else who wants me.

*TIME.....All the schemes and projects I have suffer from me not having enough time to commit to them so I have taken the decision to give up my day job later this year and go full time on musical projects. It's a big decision as I have bills, mortgages and daughters to consider. But if I don't do it now, I never will.
I have a few things I can fall back on if I need some part time work (the docks are just up the road sweetie) and a very supportive wife so it should work eh EH EH?


To follow my progress you can follow this blog, to be kept up to date with gigs, radio appearances etc pop your email address into the first reverbnation widget on the right (the Nick Tann one), I also have a facebook group here  or you can come and stalk me at Twitter
If this is your first time here, welcome. Have a listen to some of my tracks and if you like then tell a few people eh?