Today my fetish for notebooks excelled itself – I bought THE biggest book ever, 12 x 18″ maybe. Excessive I know, but no more excessive than a big sketchbook.

Each album recording begins with a new book..there’s lots of organising to do making records…lots of production notes…lots of scraps of paper to piece together. The scrapbook makes it real…it’s symbolic. Progress is mapped…a destination awaits.

Welcome: Album No. 4 Notebook

Isn’t life bizarre…you can now buy a book about me on Amazon, although it’s information that was already free on the internet, and it’s $69. Goodness knows what else is in there.

Who comes up with these rip off schemes? Please don’t bother to buy it. As for my own book, perhaps it’s time to publish those poems of mine after all…

Are you a virtuoso?
Can you play pretty much anything by ear?
Do you like listening to people like Ray Lamontagne, Dylan, Mitchell, Indigo Girls, Jeff & Tim Buckley, CSNY, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Jack Johnson….the list could go on and on, but you get the drift…
Do you listen, and not noodle over everything?
Do you play any of these well – acoustic & or electric guitar, piano, cello, banjo, electric & or double bass, horns?
Can you sing?
Have you experience gigging, recording, playing professionally?
Are you reliable?
Modest?
Easy to get along with?
If you answered yes to most of these, please get in touch via the contact page, or Facebook.

So we’re nearly into February, with new ventures on the horizon.

But before we leave behind the remnants of 2011,  we thought we’d post up last years  download ‘charts’ courtesy of The Orchard.

There’s some real surprises there, not least the fact people are downloading music in countries we never released in the first time around (USA, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, France, Japan). USA is still the most popular country for downloads – UK is number 6. No surprise ‘Hallelujah’ is top of the charts, but The Longest Night at No. 9 – very surprising.

Thanks everybody for spreading the word.  Your support is very much appreciated! Hopefully new material will be traveling round the globe as soon as funding’s there. In the meantime, watch this space…

Top 10 Tracks of 2011

1. Hallelujah
2. Flesh ‘n’ Blood
3. Let’s Go Home
4. Barefoot In The Park
5. Everyone’s Lonely
6. My Love
7. Glittering Creatures (Remix)
8. More Than A Storm
9. The Longest Night
10. Wooden House

Top 10 Countries 

1. USA
2. Canada
3. Germany
4. Australia
5. France
6. United Kingdom
7. Switzerland
8. Sweden
9. Japan
10. Denmark

Top 5 Releases

1. Hallelujah (e.p.)
2. Greetings From N.Y. (Mini Album)
3. Life Is Beautiful (Album)
4. While You Were Sleeping (Album)
5. My Love (e.p.)

It seems strange to think when we started out with the Hallelujah e.p. back in 1997,  downloads hadn’t happened yet. Haven Records pressed up 1000 CDs and thus the crazy journey began.

Who would have thought 14 years on ‘Hallelujah’ would be as popular as ever, with last year’s downloads (legal ones at least..) reaching 642.  Not bad for a first demo. Looking forward to throwing some new music out there in 2012.

Incidentally, most of the back catalogue can be found on iTunes, Amazon, the usual suspects. Where as the next record will be pressed up first onto a lovely CD,  promise.

And so here it finally is:  steaming in with 2012, the spanking new WordPress website with bells on arrives – hurrah!

Stuffed with as much as we could squeeze in for now – with pictures old and new,  of Angelou and now, info on releases, a mini shop, diary, news and more to come.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Bragger, Blagger, Chatter aside –  we welcome you to the all new home of Holly Lerski.