Tales from the Rails – The Barge, the Stars and the Radio

Today I’m at home in London, looking back on a couple of really fun gigs and looking forward to playing in Leicester supporting Paper Aeroplanes tomorrow. On Friday afternoon I took a train from Exeter to Totnes, where dramatic coastlines replaced the usual pepperland-like rolling hills with tiny boats were scattered across the landscape as opposed to the grazing sheep.

There’s no place quite like Totnes. The self-proclaimed Narnians have a high street lined with harp shops (yes, harps), second hand bookstores and local produce food markets. The Barrel House sits on the top of the hill and changes face in the evenings from coffee shop to music venue. I was so pleased to see some familiar faces amongst the crowd, thank you so much for coming out to see me! It proved to be well worth stopping by Totnes twice this tour and I hope to be back again next year.

The next morning I ventured further south all the way to Penryn in Cornwall. Miss Peapod’s is a really cool café right by the waterfront that also transforms into a music venue at night (very impressed by the stage, lights, etc, didn’t expect that after having been there for coffee during the day!). I got to share the bill with Jazz Morley and Rosie Vanier, both of whom I’ve played together with before in different cities. It was really cool to see you again and great to see you play, what an honour to be paired up with such talented musicians! I still can’t believe how absolutely packed the venue was. Thank you for being such a fantastic audience and for making this show one of my favourites of the tour thus far.

By the way, I had another “We’ve come on holiday by  mistake” moment in Penryn. I wasn’t sure where I was going to stay, so was a bit nervous before arrival. However, this turned out to be the best accommodation of the tour – got to stay on a barge right by the venue. Before the show I was treated to a coastline walk, which was absolutely breathtaking. So beautiful was the scenery that I forgot to watch my step and fell in the mud – I’m such an urbanite (word of the day!). The stars came out at night, I didn’t know there were so many.. 😉

So here I am with one day to rest before the ‘Tales from the Rails’ continues. It really has been a great ride; I’ve enjoyed almost every minute of it. And guess what, ‘Red and White Blood Cells’ received its first national airplay last night on BBC6 – huzzah!! You can listen to the show again and download the podcast here.