Whalebone

Sunshine, blue skies, birds singing, a hot air balloon drifting overhead, and a audience filled with friends, just about the perfect setting for our first ‘proper’ concert since early 2020. On Sunday we made a somewhat emotional return to our spiritual home to play for the wonderful folk at @quatt_village_hall, though to give ourselves a little more room to spread out we moved next door to the courtyard of Quatt Farm Shop & Cafe, who looked after us beautifully. It was an opportunity at last to perform some of our newest tunes to a live audience, along with some of our older material. A heartfelt thank you for everyone who came along, along with the Quatties who made it happen, we're very grateful. As someone said on the night…’you can’t beat live music’. 🎸🎉🙌 📸 Thanks to Steph, Gill, Carol and Simon for the pics #whalebone #whalebonemusic #livemusic #liveoutdoors #quatt #indiemusic #independentmusicians #musiciansofinstagram #instaguitars #acousticguitarist #backtolive #gig #shropshiremusic (at Quatt Farm Shop & Cafe) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTkR4gFMEf2/?utm_medium=tumblr

🌅 New Release! ☀️ Litha is the old Celtic name for the solstice which occurs on 21st June. It is a pause, a time of stillness. From this point the Earth will move to a different cycle, with days shortening or lengthening. It is a time for us to take stock, to look back at where we've been, and forward to where we want to be. We've tried to capture the elusive feeling of fleeting tranquility with our composition, featuring acoustic guitars, with a subtle sprinkle of mandolin, tenor and electric guitar adding to the mix. The cover art features an ancient yew tree near our studio. It has seen thousands of Lithas in its lifetime! Link in bio or listen and download from our website here: http://bit.ly/Litha-Whalebone Or stream from your preferred service here: https://gyro.to/Litha This is our first release with @soothesoundsaus and we couldn’t be happier with all their help and support! Hope you like it! #whalebone #whalebonemusic #newmusicfriday #newmusicalert #litha #acousticguitar #acousticmusic #celtic #celticmusic #indiemusic #musiciansofinstagram #peacefulguitar #relaxingmusic #solstice #yewtree (at Shropshire) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQQ_8GjHxkj/?utm_medium=tumblr

Hola Weg! We have a new tune released today ☺️ Have a listen, stream or download on our website (link in bio): 🎧 👉 http://bit.ly/HolaWegWhalebone 👈 🎸 A bit of background on how it came about... Another musician’s joke… ‘Do you requests?” - ‘Only if we’re asked’. We know, a career in stand up comedy beckons. Not. Our latest release, Hola Weg, came about as a result of a request. We had an email from a lady we’ll call Barbara (as that’s actually her name). Barbara is married to Les, and Les had a significant birthday approaching. The email contained a simple question - could we write a tune as a present for Les on the big day? Well, we’ve never done anything like this before but we said we’d see what we could do. A little while back we’d recorded a few bars of an idea onto a phone voice recorder, and called it Dimpsey, a West Country word for twilight or the quality of the light just before dark. (For an instrumental band we’re pretty fond of words.) We’d been intending to work the fragment of music up into a complete tune at some point, and thought it might work as Les’ tune, so we set to work. As often happens between the spark of an idea and the finished recording, a note gets changed here, a chord there, phrasing evolves as we rehearse the piece and the final result is a tune that sounds similar but different to the original sketch recorded on the phone. That was the case here, not least due to the addition of low whistle and Shruti Box to the final recording. And Dimpsey didn’t really fit as a title any more. In the countryside around our studio there are several sunken green lanes, or holloways, which we’ve enjoyed walking many times, and these gave us the inspiration for an alternative title, ’holloway’. And then we discovered that ‘holloway’ comes from the Anglo Saxon Hola Weg (thank you Robert Macfarlane) and we had the final title for the tune dedicated to the birthday boy. Happy Birthday Les! #newmusicfriday #whalebone #whalebonemusic #celticmusic #holaweg #intrumental #relaxingmusic (at Eardington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLwHpmLHaUY/?igshid=1adi8wt22xng4

Four million ‘thank-you’s! We’ve reached a significant milestone for us in the past few days when we clocked up our 4 millionth stream on @spotify, and not for the first time we’ve been musing on how a guitar duo recording in a tiny studio in rural South Shropshire has been able to achieve such a thing. In one sense the answer is obvious; lots of folks all around the world have played our music lots of times. And in these troubling times we take great comfort in that. There’s been a lot of talk regarding the loss of income faced by musicians, performers and artists of all sorts during the pandemic, and rightly so, but what is less talked about is the loss of opportunity to have your work validated by being seen and heard out in the world. To put it bluntly, we don’t do it for the money, we do it to make music. As musicians we create in order to entertain, to communicate emotions, to resonate with the listener in some meaningful way and above all to connect, and Covid has deprived up of the chance to do all these things in front of a live audience. Which is why we’re very grateful to all the listeners on Spotify and other online music websites who have created a different, but just as valid, audience for us. While we wait for the return of face to face music making we’re happy that we’re still able to have our music heard, to hopefully entertain and above all connect. So to everyone who has been part of our online audience in the past 11 months, a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU from both of us. #thankyou #thankyouspotify #whalebone #whalebonemusic #4million #indiemusic #gratitude #milestone #achievement https://www.instagram.com/p/CLeiBcyHEVI/?igshid=qqh3ox8chbya

Though we’ve seen many changes during Whalebone’s decade and a half existence, there’s been a single constant at the heart of what we do - we’re still just two guitarists with a passion for playing guitars. Although we’re known as an acoustic guitar duo, right from day one we’ve enjoyed sneaking an electric guitar or two into the studio, starting with The Devil’s Chair on our first album There to Here way back when. Our latest album, Totally Plucked, was recorded as something of a love letter to all the guitars we’ve played and performed with, and several of the instruments we used on that first CD found their way into the studio, including the same Les Paul that we used on Devil’s Chair, now a little older and more worn but still singing and oozing tone. Listening to the recordings, that tone sounds to us like a thread of continuity running back through the years and the the tune it features on was named with this awareness… All The Way Home. 🎧 Listen on our website - link in bio #instrumentalguitar #whalebone #whalebonemusic #indiemusician #guitaristsofinstagram #telecaster #lespaulspecial #allthewayhome #totallyplucked (at Shropshire) https://www.instagram.com/p/CK37iOHn_aR/?igshid=gez58pzdf41j

Happy New Year! Here’s to a 2021 being full of happiness, laughter and music 🤗 We thought it was muddy in the first pic, then we entered the next field, and the field after that! #muddyboots #muddywalks #muddyfeet #happynewyear #whalebone #whalebonemusic (at Aston Eyre) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJgx8wJHhom/?igshid=bqz1mr5w8gmj

We’re getting towards the tail end of 2020, and what a year it’s been. It’s hard to imagine that anyone’s life hasn’t been turned upside down in the last 9 months, and for us our working lives may well have changed for ever. The fact that we’ve been able to carry on creating is totally down to the huge support we’ve received from everyone who has subscribed, downloaded, streamed and bought our music, and so the main purpose of this, the last post of 2020, is to say a heartfelt THANK YOU  to all of you. You will never know how much your support has meant to us in this difficult year.  If variety is the spice of life then we’ve had a very spicy year. We’ve created Shropshire folklore-based videos for the FOLK group of artists, recorded music with our workshop collective The Covid Chorus, written and released some mellow tracks digitally and finally, released Totally Plucked, an album that is a distillation of the last two year’s worth of dreaming, writing, performing… and then not performing. It’s been great to share the fruits of our labours with you.  All that remains is to wish you and yours a fantastic Christmas and a better New Year. And once again, thank you.  See you in 2021!  Char and Steve, December 2020 (at Bridgnorth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJLW2A9nyzV/?igshid=1osmgpkeg2izv

Our new album Totally Plucked is now available on @spotify! We hope you enjoy it and thanks so much for listening 🎧 14 tracks featuring acoustic guitars, a Les Paul and a shruti box 😊 Link in bio #acousticguitar #guitarduet #relaxingguitar #peacefulguitar (at Bridgnorth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CI8lUn5nV8_/?igshid=4lptxf6n0mb3

NEW CD OUT NOW! Totally Plucked is here! After a year of writing, rehearsing and recording, our first guitar duo album since There to Here is finally on the shelves. We feel the music on it really captures twelve months of influences and experiences, from playing live in 2019 to the dreamy, nature-filled days of early summer this year when the air outside our Brewhouse Studio was filled with birdsong and the gentle hum of bees. Covering a wide range of moods, from nimble fingered traditional tunes to more reflective pieces, the album's 14 tracks showcase steel and nylon string guitars along with mandolin, bouzouki, tenor guitar, bass, shruti box and low whistle. To order a copy, head over to our website: 👉 https://whalebone-music.com/buy 👈 link in bio! CDs (which come with a free digital download) are £10 plus £1.50 P&P and digital downloads are £5.00 🎧 #whalebone #whalebonemusic #cd #newcd #newalbum #newmusic #newmusicfriday #totallyplucked #acousticguitar #guitar #instrumental #instrumentalmusic (at Bridgnorth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIYYbn0nk2W/?igshid=1nskawi3egn3m

We're having a clear out sale to make room for a delivery of our new album 'Totally Plucked'! All our CDs are £5.00 including the Understories CD and Poetry Book! Purchase securely via our website 💿📀🎧 👉 https://whalebone-music.com/buy 👈 Link in bio 👀 #whalebone #whalebonemusic #cdsale #sale #makingroom (at Bridgnorth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH7nd4PnKAS/?igshid=nrg3dqdkyo4t

New Release! Follow the River is a tune written a few months back, in the strange, balmy days of early summer. The traffic noise had ceased for a while, birds were singing and the sun was shining, and cocooned in our studio we came up with this dreamy, mellow piece played on nylon string guitars. The title is a nod to our ever-present neighbour, the River Severn, which flows past the studio. You can listen via the blog on our website here (or see link in bio): http://bit.ly/FollowtheRiverWhalebone Or scan the code in the image and stream, add and save on @spotify 🎧 We hope you like it ☺️ #whalebone #whalebonemusic #spotify #instrumental #relaxingguitar (at Bridgnorth River Severn) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGLQ6-4HVq-/?igshid=e678m4ncpffm

Three million streams! Spotify didn’t exist when Whalebone first started and the idea of our music being played around the world would have been pretty unbelievable back then. Now our tunes are being played in over 70 countries worldwide… what a mad idea! Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us to reach this milestone ☺️🙌🙏 Link in bio to stream our music 🎧 @spotify @spotifyuk @spotifyforartists #whalebone #whalebonemusic #spotify (at Bridgnorth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CF9Nm8lnneZ/?igshid=1tbct1oy2sitq

We're making some of the final recordings for our forthcoming 'Totally Plucked' album, which will feature some of the lovely guitars we toured with up to March(!), along with some old friends. We spent yesterday recording a Les Paul/Tube Screamer/Fender Twin set up... Guitar Heaven! #fendertwin #royermic #whalebone #whalebonemusic #recording #newalbum #newmusic #creating #recordingmusic #recordingguitars (at Shropshire) https://www.instagram.com/p/CF1kubPHSWs/?igshid=k4fwgzfs2u7p

'Caer Caradoc' is our latest release, and it’s out today! Named after a hill in South Shropshire, which we've climbed many times, Caer Caradoc is the latest tune in our dreamy, laid back nylon string guitar side project, and follows on from Éan an Anro released a few weeks ago. Caer Caradoc is a hill shrouded in mystery, especially when mist swirls around the iron age hill fort at the summit which gives the hill it’s name - the Welsh name of Caer Caradog translates as Caradog’s Fort. We’ve tried to capture some of that mystery with this tune. Copy the link here to listen on our website (or follow the link in our bio): http://bit.ly/CaerCaradocWhalebone where you can also see the Spotify and Apple Music links to stream and add to your playlists :) Hope you like it and have a great weekend ☺️🙌 (at Bridgnorth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFj8jxhHP3X/?igshid=1t0356qq52rgo

We're debating on the merits of CD vs digital for our next album release - and we'd love to know how you prefer to listen to music! If you have a moment, please leave us a comment below or read more on our blog (link in bio): https://whalebone-music.com/blog/blog/let-s-get-physical-or-not-we-need-your-opinion (at Bridgnorth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFb0ZwCnzyn/?igshid=c6rdgt26p77y