Retirement and travels

 I retired in 2019 and we spent 6 months renovating our house ready to hit the road in our SUV and caravan (aka RV / camping trailer) and circumnavigate the continent of Australia. This is called doing the “big lap”. We signed a 12 month lease on our house and moved into our caravan only to have no where to go as covid hit and travel restrictions meant we had to delay our trip. Thankfully we live on 6 acres and were able to live off grid in our caravan until we could hit the road later in 2020. Many evenings were spent sitting around an open fire playing guitar and singing. We had fun in our own back yard. We’ve now been on the road permanently since late 2020 and hope to keep going for another 2 years or more.

When I chatted to a local friend about our plans, he said with the guitar we’ll be popular on the road. I wasn’t really sure what he meant, as time has gone on, we’ve had some great camping experiences thanks to the guitar. Much of the time I’m playing around our campsite on my own. Then some magical / impromptu moments come along that are most enjoyable. One time, in a state forest, I played guitar in the afternoon outside our camp while a group of young rock climbers set up camp on the other side of a dirt road. One of them came over, complimented my playing and asked if I’d mind coming to their campfire to play some songs. Those sort of requests never harm one’s ego. Another time, I was playing on my own in the camp kitchen and I heard a voice behind me say “That sounds pretty good”. When I turned around it was a young boy, barely a teenage. Soon he had another 4 or 5 of his mates show up along with 3 dads and we had a great sing along. Ghost riders on the storm was a hit the the young boys enthusiastically making cowboy hoot and holler noises. One of the dads shook my hand at the end saying it was part of an annual father son weekend that they’ll remember for a long time.

It was on this big lap that I started to get more serious about recording the songs I do, some of you have seen posts of mine on other threads about recording into a DAW and such. Doing this sort or recording on the road / in campgrounds has it’s own challenges which is why I’ve enjoyed recording next to the sound of running water and living with the more raw sound of a live performance.

I’ve got 3 songs from my repertoire to share here. Disclaimer: These are not fully polished or tidy and have plenty of mistakes that I at least notice. I’m happy with them as they are, and am posting them as a reflection of my progress over 10 years of playing. I started this learning log with an example of my first song and want to give a realistic idea, not a tidied or polished idea of where I’m at with my guitar playing. I’m very happy being an amateur musician and enjoy the raw / live vibe these recordings have. All three of the songs I’m playing here I play completely from memory.

The first song is Guy Clarke’s The Cape that I mentioned earlier. We just love the lyrics of the song and the chord progressions are fun to play.

Guy Clarke's The Cape

Gordon Lightfoot's If you could read my mind

Richard Thompson's Dimming of the Day

Thanks for your patience with my long ramblings, I wanted to present a full history of the learning process I’ve been on and will continue to be on for some time to come. One of the greatest things about music is the community of musicians that we all are, sharing songs, and ideas and frustrations and joy with friends is what it’s all about and this forum certainly is a great part of that experience. I look forward to sharing tunes with as many of you as possible around a campfire, be it on the road or in the virtual community that we have here.

A separate post from May 2022.....

We are traveling around Australia in our RV caravan doing what’s colloquially called ‘The Big Lap’, circumnavigating the continent. It’s a great experience and we’ve been living in our caravan and traveling for over 2 years now and expect to be on the road for about another 2 years.

I pull out my guitar every day to play, sometimes at our campsite, often at the camp kitchen and typically play on my own, yet have had some magic experiences when other musicians have been around or enthusiastic campers who love a good sing along. I’d rate myself as an intermediate player, I have over 50 songs in my repertoire that I can play and sing completely from memory. Mostly I play fingerstyle.

We are currently camping at Katherine in the Northern Territory, real outback Australia.

At the campground yesterday I was playing at the camp kitchen and the campground manager walked by and told me I should go and play at a nearby pop up cafe which is located at a park about 1/2 kilometre away.

So I grabbed my guitar and went down there at about 5:30, it was a great vibe, open parkland and the cafe was a couple of shipping containers with drinks, sandwiches and pizzas, and probably about 100 people either eating or waiting in line, mostly young families.

I sat on my guitar stool and put a cap on the ground and started playing. Fairly quickly I had a number of young kids run up and drop coins in my hat which lifted my spirits as you can imagine. I wasn’t expecting to make a lot but was hoping more for the appreciation.

I played for about an hour and had a fair bit of interaction with the kids, a group of young girls started dancing and their parents were taking pictures and such.

I walked away with a big smile on my face for the experience and a hat full of just over $13. I did notice my voice was a bit sore and I realize I was singing louder than usual given the spread out park area.

Would definitely do it again.