Two new guitars
I bought two new guitars one in Italy and one in Royston, illustrations, gigs and more...
Dear subscribers,
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In this edition you will find: two new guitars, a new music video, something about a new song, gigs, illustrations and recommendations from Bity.
Bity with the Cuenca guitar and Percy.
Two new guitars
After many years of not purchasing new guitars, this month I bought not one but two second-hand guitars. Two good deals which I could not say no to. The first beautiful one is a Cuenca all solid spruce top, pictured above. I found it on Mercatino Musicale, an Italian second-hand musical instruments online shop. The guitar was located in Umbria in a town not too far from where my parents live in the countryside.
For the people reading this that do not know my full story, I grew up in Umbria, and my parents live in the same house where I grew up which is also my father’s art studio. I often go there in Umbria to spend time in the countryside and see the animals but I live full time in South London.
I tried to arrange a meeting to see this guitar twice before, the seller Luigi, did not seem keen to sell it. The first time he said that the strings were old and rusty and therefore I could not try it. The second time he was not available because he was on an island in Tuscany. The third time, after a few messages, he finally agreed. My parents gave me a lift on a hot Saturday afternoon, we got lost in between viaducts and country roads but we managed to find Luigi’s house. A concrete townhouse on the outskirts of Perugia. I went upstairs all sweaty as it was very warm. I greeted Luigi, a man in his 40s, neatly dressed, with a very clean flat and a mustache, and then I went straight to open the case, a shiny beautiful guitar there for me to try, with a beautiful smell of spruce, how exciting. There is something magical about meeting a guitar for the first time. I loved it straight away but at the same time I felt guilty for my other guitar (the Almansa) the one that I use all the time. I also felt guilty about the money that I was about to spend. Living in London is very expensive, as we all know, so I need to assess carefully my purchases, and everything I buy comes out of months of savings from my day job and my little music & art earnings. I sat down on the soft clean couch in Luigi’s house. I could hear him talking but I was not listening to his words, I was nodding and just staring at this beautiful guitar in my hands. I played ‘Love Can Pay The Price’ and a little bit of ‘My Pony and I’ and ‘Parrots in London’. I did not sing. I liked the feeling of my fingers on the fretboard, I loved the sound, clear and warm. I could hear his voice far away, but only 4 meters away, finally I grasped a sentence: ‘Vuoi un caffè?’
‘Si’, I replied while playing.
He came to me with the coffee which I basically drank in one sip. I kept playing and asked him about the story of the guitar. He told me he is a guitar teacher and that he purchased the guitar in a music shop in Bergamo. He wanted a guitar to use during classes and end of term concerts but then this guitar proved to be a bit too nice for this purpose, he noticed that could be ruined very quickly if he kept using it at school so he decided to get another ‘less nice’ guitar and sell this one to someone that would give it more attention and care. At some point I sent a text to my parents to come upstairs to see the guitar, I wanted a second opinion before agreeing the purchase. In the meantime Luigi brought out his other guitar to show me, with me providing very little attention to this showcase as I was focusing on my future new guitar. While they were coming up I managed to get the price down by fifty euro by explaining to Luigi that to bring it back to London I would have to purchase an additional seat on the plane or pay the cost of the musical instrument luggage which is sixty euro now. Luigi was not very keen on lowering the price but in the end he agreed. My parents liked it too, I liked it, I loved it. I paid Luigi and all of a sudden I was in my parent’s car with the new guitar. Excited and happy. We went to a music shop to buy some new strings.
I spent two days at home in Italy just basically looking and playing the new guitar, practicing new songs and comparing it with other guitars I have there. The guitar is currently at home in Italy, I will organise to bring it back by purchasing a seat on the plane when the prices are very low, probably this autumn. In the meantime I will think about it and play it again when I am there. Patience, Bity, patience. I will get it to London.
The beautiful Cuenca guitar in Italy.
But if one is not enough, a few weeks earlier I was looking for a guitar on Ebay. I came across another beautiful gem located in Royston, UK. A Prudencio Saez from the 1970s in excellent condition for £200. I have another Prudencio Saez in Italy, purchased online there which sadly arrived cracked by the courier. I never really got past the fact that the guitar arrived cracked. I kept it and fixed it with my father, but it is cracked at the top. Anyway there was no option for me but to collect the new guitar to avoid another cracked Prudencio Saez. I made an offer on Ebay for £150 and it got accepted, this a guitar that would be about £800 new. Also, in excellent condition and from the 1970s, if you know my music you probably can tell that I have a sweet spot for music from the 70s. I decided that I would go and collect the guitar on a Saturday, in Royston, near Cambridge, just about an hour from London. This weekend (yesterday) my partner and I went to collect it. It is always a gamble to purchase a musical instrument without trying it but the price was just too good and the guitar looked fantastic from the pictures. The collection was a matter of getting off the train in Royston and meeting Mr George and, I suppose, his smiley girlfriend in the car.
He was standing near the kerb with a guitar case so I went straight to him, I shook his hand and he showed me the guitar, fantastic, just as the pictures, the strings very old, I did not play much, I just checked if the fretboard was straight and then closed the case and asked him about the guitar. He said that his girlfriend’s grandpa had gifted it to her but she never learned to play so as he sells furniture on Ebay they decided to sell it. I like it very much, I was happy to make the purchase. We decided to go for a little walk around Royston, perhaps to watch England playing the football match, even though I am not a keen football watcher, we did not find anywhere so our trip ended up on a train back to London and shortly after I was again in my living room cleaning the guitar and talking about changing strings.
The Prudencio Saez in South East London.
A new music video for ‘Summer will Return’
While I was in Italy, last weekend, I went for a walk in the countryside. I had my phone on me, and everything looked so beautiful with the summertime breeze, grass, sky and insects that I decided to just film some footage to maybe make a music video for my song ‘Summer will Return’ (from Dreaming in the Morning EP, 2022). I was on my own so it was difficult to balance the phone on a wooden pole there, but I managed, I got some nice footage over just 30 minutes. It was very warm so I did not even look at it, later that evening I just assembled it into a video, added a bit of effects in the transitions and it turned very nice, I think.
I am excited when I am able to create something beautiul with no budget. I give it more meaning and value to something that I have to pay for. I did not dress for the video, I did not brush my hair, it just happened. It is free, unplanned and spontaneous. I hope you enjoy watching it, comments and shares of the video are very much appreciated. The song is included in my ‘Dreaming in the Morning’ EP, available on CD and 7” vinyl on Bandcamp.
Something about a new song
I recently wrote a new song titled ‘Love is like a swallow’, if you came to my gig with George and Gemma at The Elephant Cafe at the beginning of June you have heard it already.
I was inspired to write this song by some swallows who make their nest every year in the storage basement at my parent’s house. Hopefully you will be able to hear this song at my upcoming gigs and also on my new record or EP (TBC). If you watch the video below you can see the two swallows, and the nest (and also Wilson the cat eating her food). When the baby swallows grow a bit my parents will be careful not to let the cats in there to keep them safe while they learn how to fly.
Gigs
On 11 June I went to perform at Cryer Folk in Carshalton. The audience very much enjoyed my song about the story of Walter Raleigh’s head, Bess and West Horsley Place. If you have not listened to it you can watch this video, spontaneously filmed by the talented Minus Tone when I went to play a gig in his house in Windsor.
About the song: This song is inspired by Sir Walter Raleigh, his wife Bess and West Horsley Place in Surrey. The story goes that when Walter was beheaded for treason, his wife Bess at the time living at West Horsley Place, kept his head in a red velvet bag to keep him close to her. The bag was allegedly found in the attic at West Horsley Place. Following Bess’ death, Sir Walter’s head is understood to have been placed in a cupboard under the stairs at West Horsley Place. The head was then buried in the side chapel of neighbouring St Mary’s Church, West Horsley.
On Thursday evening, last week, I went to perform a few songs at The Lantern Society at The Betsey Trotwood. I liked it very much. I performed ‘Mr Sparrow’, ‘Love Can Pay The Price’ and ‘The Crow’. The audience really loved ‘The Crow’ and the book especially, one copy was sold to another keen musician, thank you Rob, I love when artists support artists. The first picture below is from this Wednesday, the other one probably from circa 2013.
Gigs coming up…
I have some lovely gigs coming up, it would be so nice to see you there.
Saturday 27 July, The Music Workshop, Folkestone, Kent
Saturday 3 August, Acoustic Anarchy at waterintobeer, Brockley (donation)
Saturday 10 August, La Notte Del Re di Biss, Civiasco, Italy
Tuesday 3 September, De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam
Saturday 7 September, Cranfest, Cranbrook, Kent
Sunday 22 September, The Gladstone Arms (bark presents), London
Most gigs are free/donations, more details to come, TBC. If you want to keep up to date with my gigs, the best way is to subscribe to my gigs updates on Songkick.
I always keep them up to date and add details there.
Illustrations: 3 Moons and 1 Sun
I have made four new illustrations. I have not posted them on my Etsy Art Shop. I have decided that I will post less and less originals on there to sell, first of all because I do not like to sell everything I make, I want to cherish my slower approach to making and selling my art and perhaps keep the things I make to create a collection and maybe organise a little art exhibition one day. I will still bring some art to sell at my gigs occasionally. I hope you like the Moons and the Sun below.
Recommendations
Music
Carol Kleyn - 'Return of the Silkie’
‘1983's third chapter in the as-yet unfinished saga of the nomadic West Coast harpist, Carol Kleyn, offers a slice of the wild and free utopian dream that changed so many lives in the '60s and '70s. Pure and simple, harp and vocals, accompanied only by scattings of harbor seals and sea lions, this loosely woven concept album includes gentle reminders that life is short -- take it in while you can’ Read more here
Tele Novella - The Unicorn
Wonderful cover version of The Unicorn by Peter Grudzien. I love this album and their approach to music, I have purchased the pink vinyl from Banquet Records in Kingston. This album got me through some long days at my day job, thank you Tele Novella!
Here’s also a podcast I enjoyed by Performance Anxiety with singer Natalie Ribbons.
Peter Grudzien - The Unicorn
Thanks to Tele Novella I discovered the music of Peter Grudzien. He was an American outsider country/psychedelic singer-songwriter. Read more about him here. Also listen to his original song below, just fabulous. We would have definitely been friends, I also found out he released a cover of Malvina Reynold’s ‘Little Boxes’. I am yet to hear it. One day I would love to own this record below on vinyl, it is too expensive for me.
Recommendations
Reads
Julian Cope - Copendium
It will probably take me ages to read it because it is huge, but I enjoy a chunky music book. Read the review here.
Hellebore Zine - The Animal Issue
I love this dark folkloric zine, take a look here.
Recommendations
Food
I am obsessed with this salad, called Pantesca, typical from the island of Pantelleria. It is so good, easy to make and fresh, perfect for a summer lunch! Check out the recipe here. So good.
This is all from me, for now. Thank you for reading! If you have not yet subscribed, you can do so via the link below.
Thank you for supporting my work. If you would like to support me head over to my Bandcamp music shop or come to one of my gigs, I hope to see you soon. I am spending my summer days mostly recording at home in London on my tape machine.
With all love and good wishes,
Bity x