The live music scene here in Cornwall is extremely vibrant, compared to Warwickshire, where I moved from.  Cornwall is the ninth largest of forty-eight counties, but fortieth by population, with just 572,000.  And yet there is a huge love of live music here.  There is a very strong sense of community amongst the villages and hamlets, and people use their local pubs, unlike in other parts of the country where many pubs have closed over recent years.  I also notice that village halls down here are avidly used by locals, with most booked solid with dance and exercise classes, garden club meetings, and so on.  Almost all pubs feature live music of various kinds and there is a plethora of bands, duos and solo singers, offering a wide variety of music, from the popular sea shanty variety, Celtic genres, punk, through to the usual pop cover and originals bands.  DJ's are a rare breed here - audiences like it live!   The holiday season provides a further boost, with lots of well-run camping sites running regular live music nights.  Summer also sees a large number of music festivals happening across the county.  But all this activity also means there are a lot music acts chasing gigs, so it's also a very competitive scene and fees are modest.  And because of the size of the county, it's usual to drive an hour or so to bookings. 

Blue River is Born   In mid-2022  I advertise for musicians in order to start a brand new band.  Chris Stevenson responds.  He's a good guitarist, with experience and we get along well.  (It's a small world dept: we both had spells in the parcels and distribution industry in our pre-retirement lives - I was with Federal Express UK for some years - and we found that we knew a lot of the same people from those days.)  Chris is Cornish born and bred, and has played guitar in various bands for almost as many years as I have.  He's affable, a calm presence, non-moody (a big plus from my experience!) and works at his song parts.  An ideal partner.

We set out on the hunt for a top-flight female lead singer.  We try out a few, but whilst some meet some of the criteria, such as being able to sing in tune, we can't find one that ticks all of the boxes.  And I wasn't about to repeat mistakes of the past, accepting someone who almost fits the bill, but not quite.  Eventually we try out a young Polish lady called Kasha, (full name Katarzyna Iwanowicz), and she's a revelation.  She not only sings beautifully, but also plays excellent guitar with a lot of jazz and blues influences.  She has confidence too, and well used to performing.  Soon, we're getting a great trio together under the name of 'Blue River'.  Kasha's singing and playing experience both here and previously in Poland, was usually in a duo performing in small lounge or bar settings, and not in a 'full' band.  But rehearsals go very well, and we also find that Kasha has lots of contacts for music venues, and is good at 'beating the bushes' to obtain gigs.  So within a short time we start clocking up the live appearances.

Kasha performs now and again with other musicians she knows on the local scene, which doesn't present any problems for us ... for now.  Kasha is also a talented grapic designer and makes a living designing web sites.  We soon have an eye-catching Blue River logo, as well as a basic web site and Facebook page.

Not used to playing in a band setting, Kasha obtains the odd gig which isn't feasible in terms of band equipment logistics; it takes a minimum of fifty minutes for us to load into a venue and get everything setup, including PA, lighting, etc.  We play a couple of festivals where the organisers (bless 'em...) expect successive bands to dismantle and remove their gear from a stage whilst the next act tries to load in and assemble their equipment in the same space, all in fifteen minutes or so.  Impossible.  We vow not to accept any similar bookings in future.

Kasha is with us for just over a year, leaving in September 2023.  She never explained why she became disenchanted with Blue River, having contributed so much.  I guess it was a combination of (i) having kept her hand in with the 'duo/solo scene' she preferred that more easy-going format instead of our more amplified, and rigid, setup using backing tracks for bass and drums, and from what little explanation she gave, I think she wanted Chris and I to consider ditching Blue River as a project and instead join that loose bunch of accompanists, (ii) having trouble hearing her own singing in our band, even though she used her own PA and foldback amp to good effect, I thought, and (iii) wanting to play material where she always used her guitar skills (even though we tried to encourage her to do so in our lineup).  These partings are rarely fully open and honest, and are often like those "It's not you, it's me" breakups, where the reverse of that phrase is often the case!  Still, we enjoyed Kasha's time in the band and we all have to find the music-making setting that best suits each of us. 

Photos - Top: Kasha at rehearsals, with her beautiful Gibson ES 175 guitar.  Bottom left: Crafty Festival, Kynance, 16th July 2023

Middle right: Charles III Coronation community party 7th May 2023

YouTube link bottom - Our version of the Isley Brothers' 'Harvest for the World' with Kasha on lead vocal and guitar