Something different my beloved readers, I am more than thrilled and overjoyed to see my contribution to the new Blaze Foley book in print – .
I would like to express a huge thank you to Kai and Carmen Nees for their tireless work in promoting and spreading the word about this largely unheralded songwriting genius.
To give some context, I was asked during the quiet (for touring musicians!) days of Covid if I would write some words about one of my favourite Blaze Foley records and the impact it has had on me. I considered it a real privilege to be asked and another just as great to have this rare opportunity to pay tribute to one of my own songwriting inspirations.
Please read more about the project here, this latest publication is for now only available in German, but it is intended to also publish it in English at a later date.
And if you’ve never heard Blaze Foley’s music, please take the chance to investigate it when you can, you will not be disappointed.
Greetings from the madness of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where I shall be presenting not one but two shows every Thursday to Monday – :-).
So, do you have your tickets yet?!
Please click here to buy tickets for the new song-based show ‘You Can’t Win Every Time‘ and if you’re on Facebook, feel free to dd yourself to the event here.
And for the instrumental duo guitar show ‘Songs Without Words’ with the wonderful Paul Tasker please buy tickets here.
Come to one, come to both, please spread the word, share far and wide and if you know anyone in Edinburgh this month, please send them along – .
At last, more than three years after I started composing the title piece during the first lockdown in Spring 2020, my debut album of classical guitar pieces is out and available to purchase here.
I’m beyond thrilled to be finally presenting the pieces live, and to have them become part of my upcoming performances, and hope you will enjoy hearing them as much as I have enjoyed creating them.
You can watch the video for the piece ‘Tblisi Nocturne’ here to give you an idea of what to expect across the whole album, which is a reflective and pensive record, a musical search into the depths of our very being. The distinguished writer and a personal close friend of mine, Josep Llobera Capllonch commented that this was very much a record for nighttime listening, and I would concur – the music definitely works best when listened to alone, at night.
Many thanks for reading, and I look forward to hopefully seeing you somewhere on the road, or in Edinburgh, in the next few months.
As many of you reading this will know, romance has of course, always been an influence upon my music.
Please watch my new video here, filmed in 7V-Studio on my recent tour of Germany which showcases an example of exactly how – a performance of the piece ‘Till Death Do Us Part’, written for two close friends of mine on their wedding day, hailing from the ‘Onwards She Travels’ album.
This was recorded in early March on my last tour of Germany, but it feels timeous to release now with ‘Moonrise Over Mostar’, my debut album of classical guitar pieces, arriving shortly.
Please let me know what you think, and of course, like, share and subscribe to the channel here.
Love to you all, and thanks for reading, as always.
I am overjoyed, thrilled and delighted to announce the upcoming release of my debut album of original compositions for the classical guitar ‘Moonrise Over Mostar’. This is an album I feel impossibly close to, and I really can’t wait to share it with you, and of course to perform the music live.
You may recall the stunning video Martin Forry shot for one of the pieces ‘Tblisi Nocturne’, which was filmed in the beautiful environs of the old St Peter’s Seminary, near Cardross – please view it here. This piece will feature on the album alongside 11 other new and original compositions.
The album will be released on Friday the 23rd of June, but I will be taking and fulfilling pre-release orders before my European Tour starts on the 22nd. Please stay tuned here for more details.
I should mention I can be booked as a purely instrumental and/or classical guitar act for a house concert etc and would be delighted to have more opportunity to perform these pieces, and indeed the whole album in entirety, and give them the audience I feel they deserve. Please just contact me through the website or at simon@simonkempston.co.uk to arrange.
Thank you all for reading, can’t wait for you all to hear it.
Thanks to Victor of Suizer Imagen and my wonderful host Maria, here is the official video for ‘Still So Far To Go’ –Â . The full story will follow later.
Please watch, like, share and subscribe to my YouTube Channel here
It’s not every day your song is performed live on the Buenos Aires Underground – have a listen here to the talented Gonza Universo blasting out the riff to ‘Vulnerable Man’ from my 2016 album ‘Vanishing Act’.
Songs are wonderful beings, once they are finished and sent out into the world they can take on a life of their own. For this particular song, which has become a live favourite of mine for my audiences the world over, I’ve also had the good fortune to have the song sung by three incredible and fantastic vocalists:
Ekaterina Chemisova, in this wonderful version by her fantastic Novosibirsk based-band the Street Fiddlers you can watch here
Brownyn Claire Asha, as performed recently on our three European Tours together.
Caro Curci, a beautiful and original talent, who sang the song with me in a recent concert in Buenos Aires alongside the aforementioned Gonza Universo on some blistering blues harp.
And all of this, whilst not forgetting that the video for the song on YouTube, which you can watch here, was filmed by the talented Milos Itic in Nis, Serbia, the only Scottish-Serbian music video collaboration in existence…..for now!
It is safe to say that ‘Vulnerable Man’ is a song that has travelled the world, with and without me, very much the quintessential songwriter’s dream.
Here’s to many more tunes with Gonza Universo on the Buenos Aires Underground (Subte) – :-).
And if you’ve read this far and aren’t yet following me on Instagram, please do so – just click here and hit follow.
May 2023 bring you all that you wish for, my beloved friends and followers.
I have to say 2022 was definitely one of my best yet, and an incredible return to the world of live music after the Covid-induced droughts of the years before…..my best yet? I’m not sure, I’ve a soft spot for 2019 as everyone reading this knows but it’s up there for sure.
Without further ado, and I know how you’ve all been waiting here with baited breath, here are my Top 10 SK highlights for 2022:
1 – Returning to Sweden for the first time since 2011, and only my second time as a professional musician for a wonderful tour, stacked full of laughter and adventure. I’m definitely not going to leave it 11 years until the next time.
2 – My first ever tour of the unique country of Italy, having only played a handful of shows there before, I certainly relished the downtime in this inspiring place, not to mention the wonderful audience.
3 – My best ever tour of Canada….and that’s saying something! Five provinces, two new to me, and experiences the length and breadth of this magnificent country that have provided me with the inspiration to create again and again.
4 – A welcome return to the Edinburgh Fringe after a four-year absence with my own solo show (which received a lovely review you can read here) and the launch of a lunchtime instrumental guitar show Songs Without Words with the wonderfully talented Paul Tasker (a Fringe musical highlight according to Edinburgh Live . Stay tuned for further possibilities for this show for 2023 please.
5 – The release of the video for ‘Impunity’, filmed on a glorious evening in Nanoose Bay with two fantastic collaborators Rachael Dudley & Bronwyn Claire Asha, the end result was even better than I’d hoped for. Have a gander here, and please don’t forget to subscribe to the channel .
6 – After three long years in the making, finally releasing my best album yet ‘You Can’t Win Every Time’. Thanks to all those who made such vital contributions, in no particular order – Ian McCalman, Peter Haigh, Graeme Hogge, Bob Miller, Kirsty Miller, Rebbe Rebbestad, Rory MacDonald & Neil D Mart. Loving the audience reactions to the new songs and album so far, and thanks so much for all your support.
7 – The critical response to ‘You Can’t Win Every Time’ here in Scotland has been really heartening to see. In addition to radio play on BBC Radio Stations across the UK, both the Scotsman and the Herald wrote some very kind words about the album.
8 – The ‘You Can’t Win Every Time’ tour with Bronwyn Claire Asha in September/October 2022. After only meeting at the end of June (see numbers 3 and 5 above!) Bronwyn arrived in Edinburgh in August and with limited time to rehearse we put together a show based around the new album. It was a blast with so many great experiences, taking in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.
9 – My 12th annual Autumn European Tour in late October through early December. This time taking in Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic (my first shows there in seven years!), Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium with the first half of the tour solo, and the second half again with Bronwyn.
10 – Finishing the year on a high with this great feature article about the song ‘A Tale Of Two Unions’ in The National which you can read here.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to anyone who has hosted a concert and/or helped me on the road in any way, attended a concert, purchased an album, subscribed to my YouTube Channel or Instagram Page, read my posts and website blogs and written supportive messages and comments. Once again the support has been amazing, and I simply could not continue in this incredible yet insane life of a troubadour without you all.
I can confirm 2023 is set to commence with an almighty bang – stay tuned!! And expect new music later in the year, along with new collaborations and development of existing ones – .
Here’s hoping 2023 shall be a successful and prosperous year for us all – may you all be healthy, wealthy and wise in the year to come.
Well my beloved blog readers, it has certainly been some time indeed, for which I humbly apologise. I have been, as you are no doubt well aware, busy engaging in the touring and promotion of my new album ‘You Can’t Win Every Time‘. It has been an incredibly hectic year, about which I am overwhelmingly thankful after the Covid Droughts, but this time of year does finally offer one the opportunity to pause and reflect.
August, the madness and the chaos of the Edinburgh Festival where I was performing a rigourous schedule of two shows a day, seems so long ago now. Audiences seemed as happy to be back as we were to be performing to them, and the fabulous lunchtime instrumental Songs Without Words show with the wonderfully gifted Paul Tasker was selected as one of the ten musical highlights of the Edinburgh Festival by Edinburgh Live. You can read the full article here – Paul and I were in fine company! And my own solo show was also very well received by audiences and critics alike, receiving an excellent review from the Quinntessential Review which you can read in full here.
This was also the month where another fruitful and inspiring musical collaboration came into being after a chance meeting on Vancovouer Island earlier in the summer, with the multi-talented Canadian folk singer and fiddle player Bronwyn Claire Asha arriving in Auld Reekie. Exhaustive and intensive rehearsals began in earnest to arrange and prepare the new songs for the autumn European Tours, in which we were to present the album as a duo. This was demanding, challenging and time-consuming but ultimately, as our audiences would hopefully testify, worth it – ‘nothing good comes easy‘, if I can be so bold as to paraphrase myself – ;-)!
After three long years in the making, not helped by the rude interruption of lockdown, which forced the whole project to be placed on a reluctant hiatus, I finally released what I believe to be my best album yet (please do let me know if you agree!), ‘You Can’t Win Every Time’ on September the 26th.
I have been so pleased with the reaction, by both audiences and critics alike – an extensive and at times relentless autumn of touring took in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Audiences responded and reacted really well to the new songs, to the new duo format, to Bronwyn and her own enchanting music, and we were both treated everywhere with kindness and generosity in spades. I cannot express enough my gratitude to the many people who helped us, looked after us, and went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure we felt at home on the road – it is always such an unfathomable pleasure to reconnect and renew old friendships, whilst at the same time forging new ones.
Back to ‘You Can’t Win Every Time‘, and I was further delighted to receive such positive reaction from the printed press in Scotland, from both The Scotsman (read here, a four star review, one more than one of my inspirations Simple Minds who I was to meet the very day the review was published!) and the Herald Scotland, which you can read here (published in the printed press on my birthday!). Last week, Scotland’s pro independence newspaper, The National, also published a feature article focussing on the track ‘A Tale Of Two Unions’, which you can read in full here.
I know, I need to update my reviews page….I will, it’s definitely on my neverending list of things to do, fear not! But for now I’m focussing on beginning 2023 in the best way possible and after much delay, finally releasing the album of classical guitar pieces ‘Moonrise Over Mostar’, which those of you close to me will know has been a real labour of love not to mention a collection of compositions I feel impossibly close to, and I hope will define me in the years to come. This may in part, explain the delay!
You can watch the video for ‘Tblisi Nocturne’ here, one of the pieces which will feature on the album – and please subscribe to the channel here if you haven’t already, it would make this Scottish troubadour very happy.
Thanks for all your support this past year, and I’ll be back on social media (and will repost here for those who don’t do social media) with the Top 10 highlights of 2022 now that the touring year is finally at an end.
Finally, here at last, my new album ‘You Can’t Win Every Time’, available to purchase on this very website here.
I can’t express how delighted and excited I am to share with you all 13 brand new songs all penned by my own fair hand and featuring the wonderful musical talents of Bob Miller, Lars ‘Rebbe’ Rebbestad, Kirsty Miller, Rory MacDonald and Neil D Mart.
The album is released as a CD only for now, complete with lyrics booklet in a lavish 6-panel sleeve, and all copies purchased from the website shop will be signed, and with a personalised message of your choosing as you wish, please just detail this at checkout.
I am extremely happy with how it looks, and am even more happy with how it sounds, which is, of course, the most important thing. I am currently on tour in Europe presenting the songs for the first ever time, in another first with Canadian folk singer and fiddle platyer extraordinaire Bronwyn Claire, who features in the video for the lead single ‘Impunity’ (which you can watch here – please subscribe to the channel). We are both enjoying immensely the opportunity to present these songs on stage to audiences for the first time, and travel onto Switzerland today after a lovely show yesterday afternoon in Gunzburg.
Hope to hear from you soon and thanks as always for your support.
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