2020 - A Year Of New Experiences!

Before the end of March this year, I'd never heard of a software programme called Zoom. I had used Skype once or twice in the past, but when a friend suggested to me that we “have a video chat on Zoom”, I could only reply “What's Zoom?”. In the last six months, I would say that I have used Zoom at least a couple of times a week. Whether it's taking part in a virtual “pub quiz” with friends, staying in touch with family, or going to a Zoom concert courtesy of CES Virtual Shows, it's all been a very steep learning curve. Just one of several new experiences for me this year.

Since it started in January, I've been a regular listener to the “Voice of a Woman” radio show which is broadcast on a Sunday evening on Claremorris Community Radio in Ireland. Not being a resident of Ireland, I've been listening to the show online. Linda, who presents the show, does a fine job of promoting female singer songwriters, focusing on country, Americana and folk music. This ties in nicely with where most of my music listening lies nowadays and I've enjoyed chatting to Linda about music and female artists on many occasions.

I was delighted when Linda asked me a while ago if I would be interested in putting together my own episode of the show. Delighted and also at the same time a little daunted. I've never liked the way that my voice sounds in recordings. I believe that this is not uncommon but, even so, it was something of a concern. What I lack in skill in many things, I feel like I make up some ground for in my preparation.

I conducted some testing to decide how I would go about recording my voice for the spoken parts of the show. I tested my webcam microphone, built in laptop microphone and also simply recording speech using my mobile phone. I was somewhat surprised when the latter provided the best quality of recording.

My next conundrum was just how I would manage to select music for a show that only lasted an hour. There are so many great female artists worthy of recognition and so it felt like a herculean task to narrow it down. From a selfish point of view, obviously I wanted to choose my favourite artists and songs. However, I also had to consider the types of music that the listeners would want to hear. I tried to play a mix of newer music and also music from further back in time, well known artists but also one or two lesser known that I wanted to introduce to others. I feel that I more or less achieved this objective and I was very happy with the end result. I've posted a link to the Spotify playlist at the bottom of this post if you want to check it out!

Towards the end of the show, I made a general comment on how tough 2020 has been for many people. Obviously this includes the artists. The live music industry has been absolutely destroyed this year as a result of the pandemic, a lot of artists have had to seek other ways of making ends meet. Creative forms of merchandise have emerged and also there has been the growth of the live stream, where fans are encouraged to tip the artists. This part of the show was the most difficult part for me to record. As I was talking about it, I don't mind saying I felt emotional about it and it took about five attempts to record this part before I was happy with it. In the grand scheme of things, I know that being unable to see live music isn't all that important but it is one of my main social outlets and something that I've not been able to do now for eight and a half months.

“Voice of a Woman” is the only radio show I listen to now and it is so important that female artists are given as much support as possible. It's a controversial topic I know, but there is no doubt in my mind when I say that in my opinion female artists don't always get fair treatment compared to their male counterparts. I've read stories of radio DJs in America being fired because they played two songs by female artists back to back. This just seems to me to be ludicrous. Good music is all about the story, the songwriting, the voice and the musicianship. Good music is good music, regardless of gender, sexuality, creed or race.

Here is the link to the playlist: Voice of a Woman - 15.11.2020