I’ve had a good workout on the upright bass today. First of all, I spend a couple of hours down in the town centre, contributing double bass and some singing to a choir event organised as part of the Loughborough Churches Partnership’s “June project”. Jane and I had contributed a couple of songs but the highlight for me was busking along with a choir from the Redeemed Christian Church of God. In what I’ve learned as typical African worship fashion, they used a few simple chord sequences which shifted from time to time to support a free-flowing expression of worship – a dream situation for someone like me, who likes to listen and jam in response.

After that, we headed to the Saturday Sing-around, presently still hosted at All Saints, Thorpe Acre with Dishley. I arrived a bit late after the previous event but set up just as the circle was coming round to me, so I kicked off with a rough and ready version of Down in the Hole by Tom Waits. For my next contribution, I turned to the jazz classic, I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Billy Taylor / Dick Dallas) but with an extra verse quickly penned to mark my recent Scottish holiday (“O I wish I knew how it would feel to be free of this awful cloud of midges that’s hungering after me. Oh I wish I didn’t say those things I shouldn’t say, when I’m being eaten alive by those wee little beasties!”). For my third go, I ended up opting for Diving Duck Blues (Sleepy John Estes but based particularly on Taj Mahal’s version from the late 1960s), as we’d had a run of contributions that weren’t easy to follow 12-bar blues.

That was my lot for the day but plenty of chances to support the other performers with some bass work too. All in all, about four and a half hours of having the bass out and ready so, understandably, I’m feeling a little tired tonight.