Dave Keir

I’m not so naive that I cannot know that any relationship that matters will have its hard times, misunderstandings, disappointments, and even moments of enmity. But I’ve always presumed that we all grow (older and a bit more mature and experienced) and get a little bit more forgiving, understanding and thereby more loving.

Not, so far, has that been my experience. Hatred doubles down on itself and seeks its further justification for its energy. Hatred feeds on itself without trying, while love needs to be worked at. Hatred needs no effort – enduring love does. Why? Why is it easier to hate those you once counted on for love than try to reinvigorate the love that once was there and somehow lost – and then try to recover it? Why do we give up? What is it about us that we won’t try again? One… more… time. Would it be worth the effort?

Life is short. Love is long and hatred is easy.

Dave

My old friend, Chris Eccleshall, passed away on 20th August.

Chris built a guitar for me in 1988 and it remains one of my fondest possessions. You can see it and read about it here.

I’m sad that we lost touch after he moved from London.

I will record something with it soon and post it here.

R.I.P. Chris. And thank you.

I admit that I’ve left this place to gather dust and I apologise to you if you have tried to follow links that have progressively become broken or redundant over the past while. Anyway, I’ve spent some time repairing these and removing things that were out of date or no longer relevant and it should all work now.

In particular I have overhauled and brought up to date the notation and tabs to the songs on the CDs and some “Celtic” guitar things (edit: Celtic notation and tabs temporarily taken down for rework). I hope you will visit and enjoy these. I’ve also included links to my songs on Apple Music and Amazon Music. Also you’ll notice the Spotify widgets in the sidebar on the right!

I should have done all this ages ago but life got in the way.

I plan to make some more improvements as time allows.

My website analytics service shows me that, by far, the most visits my site gets from Europe is from Bielefeld in Germany where in the 1970s I spent a lot of time playing and making friends. That cannot be a coincidence so I must conclude that I still have friends there who remember me and are at least curious enough to visit here.  To them, let me say again (because I’ve written about this elsewhere on this blog) that I remember you with fondness and think often of those golden days.

It would be a special pleasure for me if you would like to get in touch with me personally so that we can say “hello” again. If you would like that, please register / create an account here and leave a comment below and I will respond to your registered email address.

Thanks!

Dave

Well, kind of. It’s absolutely clear to me that doing a day-job in Aberdeen and my residency there during the week is incompatible with performing in Edinburgh – even at open mics and sessions at the weekends. My time when I’m at home in Edinburgh doesn’t allow practice and rehearsal time to do justice to playing out and about. I’ve experienced the discomfort of having to turn down a gig for lack of preparation and being just so damned tired and it’s really not the way I want to go. I hope to be able to come back to it when circumstances permit. I miss it.

Fantastic eclipse of the sun this morning around Edinburgh and the clouds provided a great filter to allow me to very, very carefully take some photos:

2015 is the Chinese Year of the Sheep. Of course, we all remember the Year of the Sheep in Scotland in 1792. And I even had one of my own in 2008.

Meh!