Living in the Land of Love by Hank Wedel
The 2020 global pandemic lockdown afforded me the chance to reorganise and retrieve
much of what had been left scattered in the wake of 35 years of raising a family and making music while being based in Cork City...
I'd rather have been at liberty to travel widely and make music with all kinds of people as always...but that is not the way of 2020.
In March 2020, our backyard garden was an unruly, overgrown jungle. Now, at the time of writing, September 2020 it's a concrete patio with a wonderful, flower garden border.
Our youngest son, Oisin arrived back from pandemic panic in NYC in late March and we both really got stuck into this particular project, Oisin eventually headed back to NYC after 2 months, as the panic and lockdowns eased off a bit in June and our eldest son, Ruairi, who now lives in East Cork
got seriously involved...
With a couple of in-laws involved in the lifting, we got a new back yard! by mid-July I probably never would have gotten around to doing this work but for the lockdown all supervised by my wife, Eileen, of course!
While all this was happening outside, on the inside, I was sorting out the mountains of
written and recorded evidence of the music and songs I'd been involved in since basing myself in and out of Cork City since 1985.
In short, I revisited An Open Kitchen on Princes Street, listened to all the Small Town Talk while sitting in a bar called Charlies on Union Quay with The Medication Blues...
Scraps of songs, photographic images and forgotten computer sound/video files have all been reordered as to be immediately accessible for release in one form or the other.
You may have seen various expositions of all this, dear reader, on various internet events
since lockdown in March.
Princes Street 1980s (Hank Wedel, Arty Lorigan, Mick Geraghty, Edel O'Suilleabhain, Martin Moylett and Brian Carroll)
When the lockdown eased up at the end of May, I venture out to reconnect with longtime friends and made a couple of videos of requested songs. This is a version of a song Brian Carroll and I wrote entitled, "That Was The One". It was great to sing and play again after such a long break.
I also managed to write new songs/record some brand new tracks with some good friends in June. Add to this some serious online tributes to fallen heroes John Prine, Rory Gallagher and Mick Crowley along with special event live appearances online or in person at various North Cork nursing homes and that's my 2020 experience...
https://hankwedel.bandcamp.com/album/mighty-fine-the-album
Here's hoping to see y'all for real when this blue mist lifts!
Hank Wedel