It is late Saturday night as I write this weeks blog update. I am back in Dublin and the “storm Desmond” is howling outside. I got back to Dublin on Friday afternoon. The storm was already making it self known and I must say it was the roughest landing I’ve done this year. But now it does feel good to be back home. Mind you, I’ll only be here for two and a half weeks, then I’m off to Poland to spend a bit longer Christmas holiday.

I have a funny relationship with Christmas. I do love the few relaxing days, but I am not a big fan of the build up to it. We seem to be loosing a sense of reality in our spending. I mean, our expectations are getting bigger all the time. Our grandparents Christmas was a very different experience. It was not about how many presents we got. It was not about getting the latest iPhone, or Playstation. It was much more about spending time together. The thing is, we have gone so far, that I don’t know if we can turn back. Few years ago I wrote song called November, which you can check out HERE. It touches some of the subjects I struggle with Christmas.

In fact I look forward to January. To me January is always an exiting month. It is a new beginning, where everything feels possible. What’s your relation ship with Christmas?

This week has taught me a lot, so let’s get into it.

1. Following your heart is sometimes a hard thing to do, but in the end it always pays off. I really needed to be reminded of that.

2. D’Addario EXP17’s are the best strings I have ever tried, I did ten shows with one set of strings. I knew they were good, but this was the ultimate test. I wrote a review of them awhile back, which you can check out HERE.

3. In music, as in many other things in life, there are more than one way to “skin a cat.” You just need to open your eyes to see them. Step out of your comfort zone.

4. In the past two years I have created an online presence which includes my blog, social media, songs and lately the vlogs. As a result, having a good internet connection is vital for me, even when I travel.

And now on to this weeks blog posts. It was definitely a vlog heavy week. I am really getting into this stuff. In away I feel like I can give you guys more personal experience. Hope you are enjoying them as well.

This weeks song was a love song. It’s been a while since I wrote a good old-fashioned love song. Check it out here:

My Old Ways

The vlog 24 was our first full day in Tel Aviv. We take a walk around the town, I talk about the 5K runner app and show you few nice street food tips for Tel Aviv:

Vlog 24 To the beach

This Quick tip talks about how musicians need to be realistic about their expectations of entitlement:

Quick tip 231 What you did in the past does not guarantee anything

In the vlog 25 I take you to one of my favourite places, Jaffa:

Vlog 25 Getting lost in Jaffa

Choosing who you work with in the music business can be hard, but very important:

Quick tip 232 Choose carefully

In Vlog 26 we finally get into some music 🙂

Vlog 26 Soundcheck’s are boring

We are so fast to blame others when things go wrong during live show. But at the end of the day, it is you as the performer, who is responsible:

Quick tip 233 Who’s responsible

In Vlog 27 I wanted to show you guys the wonderful piping of Stephen O’Connor and the music me, Stephen and Des played on the tour. The Vlog 27 starts with a full set of tunes that the sound engineer recorded from the desk, so bit better sound quality as well:

Vlog 27 Coffee as a headache cure

In most cases, show must go on. But there are times when you are better of live to fight another day:

Quick tip 234 Live to fight another day

When things go wrong, complaining rarely does nothing to solve the problem:

Quick tip 235 Complaining won’t get you anywhere

In the last vlog of the week we are in full work mode. There are live shots from our last show in the Oscar Wilde as well as our first show in Molly Bloom’s, us rehearsing during the soundcheck and me messing a round with a disco classic 😉

Vlog 28 Molly Bloom’s

And that wraps up the week. There are still quite a lot of video footage left from our trip, so even though we are already back home, the travel vlogs will continue next week. So stay tuned. Little bit of house keeping. If you enjoy what I do, the music, blog posts, vlogs please consider supporting me on Patreon HERE. Patreon is a platform where you can pledge to support me monthly, starting from as little as $1 a month. It all makes a massive difference and will help me continue to do what I do. Hope your week is great. And thank you for once again sharing another week with me.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE