I'm now well into preparations for a summer to be spent as a working musician again. I'm currently downloading a stack of mp3s from Suzie Leblanc and David G: lots of songs and tunes to learn for the sessions in Montréal in a few weeks' time.  I'll burn off a CD tonight and listen on my walkman for a week or so before trying to figure anything out at the keyboard. And I've been spending a lot of time doing my homework on Geminiani. It now looks as though I might have at least 20 minutes' worth of harpsichord solos on Alison's record, so I'm picking the music carefully, and tomorrow will go and look at Glasgow University's copies of some of Geminiani's books, including The Art of Accompaniament [sic]. 

I've just got back from the eye hospital across the road: over the last month, I've seen three doctors (all of them unfailingly efficient and polite), got three different diagnoses, and three different corresponding courses of treatment. The second of the three was the one I was expecting, and the most immediately effective. Today's diagnosis was less than convincing. After a while your confidence starts to waver, and you feel like taking back some more of the responsibility for your own health. It's a bit of a contrast to my red-eye experience in Pittsburgh when I saw three doctors, and then they all talked to each other, compared notes and agreed on something before signing me out. 

Out of the blue this afternoon came the chance to spend a day producing some of the next Ricordo album in York in a few weeks: I said yes on the condition that some of my fee is paid in beer (not that I drink much of the stuff these days, but when I lived in York it was an essential part of the diet).  Speaking of recording, I was tipped off last week to listen to the new Loretta Lynn album, produced by Jack White of the White Stripes. It's the most thrilling noise I've heard on record in ages, and a real production masterclass in terms of sequencing, atmosphere, and pretty much everything you can do with three chords. If it doesn't win several Grammys there is no justice. And my tolerance for country music is not high.