Please find below my latest newsletter - I hope you enjoy it !

CMJ New Music Marathon, New York, October

As most of you will know my last album 'Love Unspoken' has been released in the USA by Sumthing Distribution/Converge Records in New York. My first visit (of many I hope !) was last month. I was playing a showcase organised by CMJ (College Music Journal) in New York but managed to fit in loads of other stuff.

Andy's NYC Journal
Day 1
Get the bus into New York from the airport and get a Metro card. Find my hotel in Chelsea. Not as fit as I used to be - hard work negotiating the tube with 2 rucksacks and a hard guitar case (thank god I left the keyboard at home !). Meet my manager Stephanie Levine at the Hilton Hotel near Central Park where the event is based. Basically hundred of acts - converge on New York for 4 days of gigs in all the clubs in the city and a music conference. About 10,000 college kids come too from all over the USA . Great to meet Stephanie at last after billions of e-mails.....

Day 2
Get up early and after a 'delhi wrap' (learn pretty quickly that US meals last you for double the time of UK ones) head up to the Hilton for a panel on 'Big in Belgium' - basically how to reach different markets other than your own.... Some important poeple on the panel including a larger than life rock photographer whos 'photographed everybody from Bowie to the Stones MAN ! - thinks Bowie is the most charming man on Earth (yes spinal tap is alive and kicking in New York !). Oasis get slagged off bigtime as a lazy bunch of thugs (they offended everybody in the USA as soon as they got off the plane apparently) - they take politeness seriously over here....

Have lunch in Central Park - had to visit Strawberry Fields (the Lennon Memorial) - he was shot about 100m away on the steps of the Dakota building. Means a lot to me - a poignant moment - there's hippies singing 'It's only love and that is all why do I feel the way I do .....' and there's CD's from Liverpool on the marble imagine mosaic.

Anyway catch a sleep and then head out to the Baggott Inn for my first NY gig. I meet up with my long lost fiddle player Chris Payne. Great to see him again after he emigrated to the US with his american wife. We get a 45 min set and it goes well - they have a keyboard at the club so I get to do half guitar/half piano. It's a nice venue in the heart of Greenwich Village where the likes of Dylan played in the 60's. New songs such as 'bosum of love' and 'bag of sugar' go down well.

Day 3
Meet up with Chris to hit some music shops. I'm very late as I've changed hotels and moved to Time Square. There's a street similar to Denmark St in London with loads of shops off Broadway and W.48th. The guitars are fantastic over here - in $s what they are in 's in the UK. Especially love Ruudy's Guitar Shop and the 'Taylor' guitars. Think about trading in my Ovation - but they don't like Ovations - oh well next time. Chris buys an ethnic wooden flute.
In the evening we have our showcase at the Satalla World Music Club on W.24th St. I'm knocked out when I find the place has a Grand Piano - Hurrah ! Much easier to play a piano than a keyboard. When we start we're on fire - great sound on stage and Chris's accompniment is phenomenal as usual and we're guessing each others every move in mood and dynamics. His electric violin sounds like a whole string orchestra at times. The set is :
Half Me Half You
Coogee Bay (new)
Bosum of Love
the onto piano for
Maid of The Loch
Bag of Sugar
Our Gang
back to guitar for
Real Love
England in the Summer
Whiskey Priest

The audience is with us all the whole way - and we have a full club that is silent ! We're really chuffed as the compliments come in afterwards and a couple of people said they even cried in the sad songs..

The next band Jabali Afrika are a great Kenyan band who flirt with all of the ladies in the room and it's great fun ! A festival organiser from Mt Fuji in Japan says hello as do some DJs - well worth the visit....

Day 4

Hit the Hilton big time to hang out with Stephanie and network. Go to several more conferences about publicists, DIY promotion - 'how to sell 10,000 CDs a year'. A highlight of mine is meeting Derek Slivers of CDbaby - a really charasmatic guy. Tells us how buying a music industry big wig a pizza when he was hungry got him a job at Warner Brothers ! His ideas are the highlight of the panels for me.

Truly 'musiked' out that night so head for China town for a huge very cheap meal - feels good to eat something nice - you could live on Burgers over here..

Day 5

Walk through the financial district and pay my respects at Ground Zero. Very scary the scale of the catastrophe. Catch the ferry to Strateb Island and enjoy my visit to the Statue of Liberty. Brings home that this great city has been built and populated by immigrants from every country on earth. Start reading 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith.
In the evening head to another club for an spot - the C-note on the Lower East Side. Meet a vivacious English girl who's flown to New York to 'make it' with out so much as a demo - good luck ! It's an open mike night here and even though I'm on time I'm 15th in order to play !! There aren't really any folk clubs in NYC but it's bursting with singer/songwriters and boy is there competition.... I see more harmonicas in neck braces than in 15 years in the UK. The restless spirits of Dylan and Young roam this city !!

Day 6
Check out the music stores to check my CDs available. They've sold out in Virgin in Time Square so I'm a happy man ! Then head down to try and get on at a radio station and do a live session. It's bucketing it down - weather as changable as back home. I try WNYU - university of new york radio station. Don't have any joy cos they've scrapped their live room but speak to the MD and she at least has my CD and I get a feeling for how these stations run.
Nightime I go back to the Baggott for an open mike. A great night - number 6 on the list tonight and they all love my songs and English take on things. Meet an entertaining pro golfer and an irish bar maid and have quite a laugh...

Day 7
Fly back after buying lots of presents for my family, saying goodbye to New York is a drag. A great city and I've had a wonderful time musically and spiritually. Have written loads of new songs and feel inspired. Hope this is the start of more musical adventures on foreign fields ! Listen to some great music on the flight 'O' by Damien Rice and a great USA songwriter called Dave Matthews. Arrive back exhausted and the trains from Gatwick are delayed and cancelled. Back to reality !

Other News

New album will be ready in the new year. It'll feature some band stuff, some piano+strings, some orchestral arrangements by Chris Payne and some acoustic/spanish guitar stuff.... Getting there !

Gigs - i'm booking up gigs and festivals for the New Year- may be on the Borderline singer/songwriter festival in Jan. May be heading to the USA again (Texas) in March and maybe Japan in July...

Will let you all know more as I do. Also my album 'Love Unspoken' can be purchased from many on line stores including amazon.co.uk/andysmytheCD . There's a great review at folking.com album review . You can also purchase the CD (+others !) from my website at www.andysmythe.com and there's a really cool video on the site now for 'Our Gang' which you can download for free.