My second CD, 'Powder of the stars', is now available on iTunes. There's a link in the 'Sounds like' bit of my myspace page, or you can go to the iTunes store and type 'John Meed' in the little box in the top right hand corner. If you do the latter it will probably also ask you whether you meant to type John Deed, which is both somewhat deflating and rather puzzling as if you follow the link he seems virtually non-existent! Please do have a look if iTunes is your thing.

I'm in the midst of my third CD, provisionally (but hopefully not literally) called 'When the music ends'. If all goes well it should be ready in the spring at some point. I'm really enjoying working with Lester and Cliff on it.

I've also at long last got round to creating a youtube account (http://uk.youtube.com/user/johnmeed) and you can see Oliver's lovely video of Rocks and stones there.

Lester and I (and Jill and Isabelle) ventured out into the wilds of the fens a few weeks ago, just as the icy winter wind decided to set in from the far north. We fetched up in Kings Lynn for a gig at the Acoustic Kitchen. A nice venue organised by the excellent Pete Kitchen and frequented by a friendly audience but safely one of the worst performances I've ever managed. The sound was iffy - when Lester asked to have his guitar turned up, they turned mine up, and when I asked to turn mine down.. you guessed it! We recovered from this only for the virus that had been threatening all week to remove half my voice. At least now I can see the funny side of it. I hope the audience could.

The Acoustic Routes Christmas charity concert was altogether better. Jo (Hurwitz) and I played Fairytale of New York, Bernard filmed it all and you can see the result at http://uk.youtube.com/user/bernardhoskin - not to be missed! The acts that night were all rather good too and there are further videos on the same site.

My best wishes for 2009 to everyone!