What a challenging year 2020 has been, but as the nights draw in and 2021 starts to beckon there is the hope that with it comes new opportunities and the expectation of a return to normality. The last nine months have been a tumultuous time for so many people who have suffered from their health, lost their jobs, or faced uncertainty for their future.
George and I have been blessed with good health and though we had all our performance bookings canceled for 2020, and postponed our wedding twice, we have tried to stay positive. When the lockdown first took hold back in March we offered to put on a little concert from our balcony to try to lift spirits and bring a little music and joy to our neighbours. The first performance was on Friday 27th March and we were taken aback by the response of our community, so much so that they asked us to entertain them again the following week, we went on to perform each Friday evening for the 15 weeks that followed, learning how to stream the performances to friends and family around the world who could not be with us in person.
We had so much fun and were grateful for the chance to perform, as musicians having that outlet each week kept our minds occupied and left us no time to dwell on the loss of all our paid work for the year. It helped keep us grounded and sane, we were so grateful for that.
After our last concert, we decided to try and record some of the songs that we performed each week as a memento of this period of our lives. Many of our neighbours encouraged us to produce an album so that they too could share the memory of this challenging period. As you know from my blog posts during the Summer and Autumn recording at home brought with it many problems that we had never encountered before recording in a commercial studio and required a lot of blue-sky thinking, duct tape, and a heavy sprinkling of ingenuity.
Finally, the tracks were completed, the artwork completed (thanks for all your input with this) and the album uploaded for distribution online. So today I can finally announce that the album is officially available and if you want to have a listen or download a copy it should be live on all major services in the next few days. iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Deezer all have the album available now.
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This has been a challenge of our resilience and determination to accomplish the task with limited resources, but we are so happy that we now have something positive to remember this year by. We could not have done it without the support and encouragement that we have received from you all throughout and for that, we will both be eternally grateful.