Welcome to this update from Tom Doughty Lap slide guitarist. Steel guitar player, singer/songwriter, dry stone ball builder

NEWS & UPDATES

Request: A quick one! I’ve re entered my virgin short film and discovered that one of the judging criteria is the number of comments it receives. So as the Ice Cream man said, ‘please stop and give me one’
Go here: THANKS.

Recent Gigs

Lymm with Tommy Allen/Johnny Hewitt was a blast: A good crowd who were really appreciative and interested. A pleasure to play for; leading nicely into the weekend at Worthenbury Blues festival. What a well organised day with such a contrasting approach and line up – a band followed by an acoustic act with immediate turn around using separate sections of the one massive stage. The audience were up for it too; the weather was great and its really good to meet someone else like me; a peer group; and in some ways there’s not many of us about. I’ll explain: A cervical spinal injury is a pretty specific thing. The obvious bit is you become a wheelchair user; but less noticeable are things like changes in body shape, posture and hand function. However, for those of us who have been injured in this way, its easy to spot another. In a world where you are a very small minority, identifying another like you is really easy and usually a pleasure; and in theory, physically, you know what the other persons life is like. So it was at Worthenbury; from the stage as I was singing my first song, I noticed this bloke in the audience who was just like me. Except, that he was a lot smarter, sporting Blues Brothers suit and pork pie hat. After my first set, we met and instinctively, he knew exactly what he could say to me. it was something along the lines of ‘how the fu##in hell do you do that’? to which I replied ‘not telling you’ followed by ‘there’s a bloke hiding around the back playing the guitar’ Life at that moment was light, fun, in the breeze and we were friends on a level of mutual understanding. I love situations like that. Life’s twists and turns. Of course the disability peer group is only one of hundreds or thousands I belong to, but its an obvious one. The photo was taken by Victoria. She captures the difference between my tin full of picks and my slide verses just some of what you need if you’re a serious drummer! My thanks to Pete Evans and the team of volunteers who made such a great job of the festival.

Concerts for Spinal Units
This is an idea I’ve had brewing for some time but a number of recent events have brought it to my attention again. I’ve played at the Regain National Dinner thing in London at the sublime Intercontinental Hotel and my film ‘Including you’ also is about Spinal Injury and my musical journey; I’m teaching 3 folk, through the internet; all of whom are tetraplegics, just like me. The idea would be to visit each spinal unit in the UK (there are 14) over a three week period and hold a workshop and play a concert for patents, ex patients, professionals and members of the public. It needs funding…..but this is the idea.

House Concerts

Now we’ve moved to Slidey Towers, there’s a music room with space for concerts. Fabuloso. What’s more, the first one is on Friday 19th August and features my old muckker Jim Crawford. Its by invite only and places are limited, so e mail me QUICK if you would like to join us.

There’s loads other stuff too, but for now that’s my musings done!
Till next time
keep picking it …whatever you’re picking