“I really feel that these are my best recordings yet. Most of them were posted as special downloads for my patrons, and I am very grateful for their support and encouragement. It is all about continuing to develop, just by doing. Two people who have been hugely instrumental are Dave Koehorst and Greys Lemus. Apart from putting up with me on a daily basis, they have been a constant sounding board. This album could not have been produced without them. I dedicate the album to my friends and all my family, and especially to my little angel Salomé, for being a constant inspiration to live life to the full.” YOU GOTTA MOVE (Mississippi Fred McDowell) – The song was originally written by Mississippi Fred McDowell. I first heard it on Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones. It was the main reason why I got into the blues. It epitomises what keeps drawing me to the blues, this yearning for home, a real spiritual home that goes beyond life and death. The recording is from a live set broadcast from Paris, using guitar, Wavedrum and looper. Harmonies and dobro slide were added later. Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 17th of December 2014 FALLEN ANGEL (with Phil Escott on drums) (Markus Koehorst) – We recorded this specially for a video in a maintenance hangar of a disused mine in Bickerstaffe. Dave and I used to take our dog Jesi for a walk there. We only did two takes because we were expecting the police to turn up any minute to shut us down. Gives it a certain urgency. The acoustics in the hangar are brilliant, and we have been thinking about recording a whole album there, but who do we ask for permission? Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 28th of August 2014 PURNAMADAH PURNAMIDAM (Markus Koehorst) - The first video we recorded in our music attic in Lliber, shortly after we moved. We shot the video footage first, to a groove on the looper, before we even unpacked any of our stuff. I then recorded the song afterwards, synching to the loop. I use my Harley Benton dobro to play the slide part, and the drum sound is from the Wavedrum. Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 23rd of October 2014 YOU DON'T KNOW (with Phil Escott on drums) (Markus Koehorst) – This was part of an hour long improvisation broadcast via the internet, from James Hoy’s studio in skelmersdale. A much earlier version of the song is included on the ‘Blood From A Stone’ album I recorded with GILES. This song keeps popping up in various incarnations, because it is great to improvise around. Phil Escott is playing drums against a Wavedrum and guitar pattern I played into the looper. Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 13th of July 2014 BACK TO THE SELF (Markus Koehorst) – The track was recorded at the ‘natural’ tuning of 432Hz, to see if I could feel the difference. The rhythm is in 5/4, which is a little bit of a departure for me. I seem to remember my son Dave suggesting doing something in a different time pattern. The main riff was recorded on the looper, all with my acoustic guitar called ‘Blondie’, originally bought in Portugal. The most I have ever spent on any guitar, and it has been a steady and reliable friend ever since. The whooshing sound (if you watch the video it makes sense) was added by Dave who created the wonderful video for the song. Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 9th of December 2014 HIPSHAKE (with Paul Routledge on blues harp) (Slim Harpo) - Recorded during a ‘quiet practice’ in the attic. I like it because it has that understated JJ Cale feel. I shared the soundcloud file on Facebook and Paul Routledge said he liked it, so I invited him to record his blues harp as an overdub. Thanks Paul! Would be great to do that live some time soon. Posted to Patreon as a special download (before Paul’s overdub was added) on the 6th of November 2014 ONE WORLD (John Martyn interpretation) – I am a big fan of John Martyn, but I only recently stumbled onto a live version of ‘One World’, with David Gilmour on guitar. John had that fade-in effect on his guitar and I couldn’t let it rest until I figured out how he played the chords. Dave had already been working on footage for our next Patreon pledged video. He then had the clever idea of getting me to sit in front of a big TV to get that green screen effect. This might have been the first video where we ‘went up a notch’. Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 6th of October 2014 YOU STRUGGLE THROUGH (Markus Koehorst) – The first song I wrote in our new home in Lliber, Spain, within days of moving in. One of the easiest songs I have ever had the pleasure of writing. Dave added honky tonk piano and electronic percussion sounds. For the video, Dave was determined to get a ‘dolly’-effect, so we could shoot the whole video uninterrupted. We tried using the bike, but it had a flat tyre. It made a cameo appearance in the video however. We got up very early to shoot the video, on the balcony of a beach property north of Denia. No idea whose it was, but there was no sign of life, so we hoped no-one minded us going up and down about 20 times to get the shot right. Great video Dave! Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 30th of October 2014 EXILED (Markus Koehorst) – We recorded this song for a video at the Castle Gardens in Denia, close to midnight. The gate was about to be closed and the nice ladies at the gate let us in for free. Our Tascam was broken at the time, so the sound is a mix of my mobile phone (in the video you might be able to make it out in my breast pocket) and the video camera. A little compression and voila, a perfectly suitable ‘old style blues’ sound. Sometimes it works to go lo-fi. The version that was posted to Patreon on the 14th of August 2014 was actually the version I recorded with the GILES trio, some years ago. The GILES version was never released, but I kind of prefer this more recent acoustic version, so that is the one that made it on The Patreon Files. SUZIE Q (live online from Paris) (Dale Hawkins) - This was recorded during a live broadcast via the internet, from our hotel room in Paris. Dave and I were on our way back to Spain from the UK. It is a particularly quiet version because we didn’t want to annoy the other guests in the hotel. Suzie Q has been in my live set ever since I first recorded it for the GILES album ‘Blood From A Stone‘. Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 12th of September 2014 RAIN (Beatles interpretation with Tony Rivers) (Lennon/McCartney) - Recorded live in an orange groove close to Tony Rivers house in Oliva, Spain. Tony had invited me to join him at a couple of local gigs and ‘Rain’ had become a special favourite. The groove was created with the Wavedrum on the looper, with the bass part played on guitar with an octaver pedal. Tony has an amazing talent for delicious harmonies, which I hope you will enjoy in this recording. We did the harmony overdub later, and it is not included on the soundtrack for the video, to keep it ‘real’. Posted to Patreon as a special download on the 4th of September 2014 IN AWE (Markus Koehorst) – Recorded on a nearby mountain top in Spain, for a music video. Unfortunately, the video footage got lost somehow, so we only have the audio recording. The song was originally planned for the new GILES album, which was nearly finished but never released. Maybe one day. A different version, recorded while busking at the sea front in Calpe, was posted to Patreon as a special download on the 1st of August 2014. Here is the soundcloud link. One of the reasons I decided not to use the busked Calpe verison for this album is that I had a problem with my power supply and the guitar had a loud noise on it. Unless indicated specifically, everything was played, recorded and mixed by Markus K, often live using guitars, vocals, a looper and a Wavedrum. All bass sounds are from the guitar, using a Boss octaver pedal. As indicated, only some of the tracks that are regularly posted to Patreon made it on the album and some were re-mixed or replaced. To make sure you don’t miss out on any of the new tracks, and to become part of the ‘inner circle’ of fans and friends, please consider becoming a patron yourself. At level 2, you will also automatically get each next album as a free download, so you never have to buy another Markus K album again! For a limited time, level 2 patrons also receive the 4 albums I recorded with GILES.