#Geordie #folk  #toonarmy #Tyne #Newcastle

There”ll Be Nee One Else For Me

My Grandfather’s Clock - is one of those old folk tunes that I have played for years. For me this tune began life as a melody to experiment with, when exploring the guitar playing technique of “flatpicking”. I originally set out on this arrangement to replicate that same flatpicking style but somewhere along the way it all changed and I found myself using a mandolin more than the guitar for the melody.
It is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". The story goes that Henry Work wrote the song after staying at the George Inn in Piercebridge near Durham in the UK. He was told a story, by the innkeeper at the time, of an old case clock that stood collecting dust in the hallway that had never worked since the day the second of two brothers, who had previously run the pub, had died. 

The story was slightly altered by Henry Work in his song and is told from a grandchild's point of view, remembering his own grandfather's old clock. The clock is purchased on the morning of the grandfather's birth and works perfectly for 90 years, requiring only that it be wound at the end of each week. The clock seems to know the good and bad events in the grandfather's life; it rings 24 chimes when the grandfather brings his bride into his house, and near his death it rings an alarm, which the family recognises to mean that the grandfather is near death and gathers by his bed. After the grandfather dies, the clock suddenly stops, and never works again.

My Grandfather's Clock

Tyneside’s Where I Come From

But It’s Mine

Loveland Pass

This was recorded quickly using Soundpaint's Guitar Ambiences, PR-S Clean Guitar and Adastra Chamber Strings. Recorded in two takes: one for the guitar and one for the strings.

Guitar Lullaby

Put on your dancing shoes and get ready for The Arrythmic Dance Contest...
... or better still, sit down and marvel at the other dancers trying to keep up.
This, of course, is entirely bogus. This track is a combination of a variety of Soundpaint's Adastra strings, all trying not to play together.

The Arrythmic Dance Contest

Leave a man alone with a bag of mixed nuts and inevitably, he will start placing them in his mouth to look like teeth. Or is it just me? Almonds, if you are interested.
Following some major reconstruction in my backyard, I have spent the whole of May painting fences, gates, garage doors, carport roof timbers and rendered masonary, leaving no time for jazz. I finished today and have found the time to create this little ditty to go with my fine handsome, ageing gracefully,selfie.

Return Of The Jazz Fuckwits

I was working on this a couple of weeks back when I noticed that Solo (SchizoBrainiac) had beaten me to it! So, I scrapped that one and started from scratch - this is a version of that old Mahavishnu Orchestra track with a slightly inebriated beginning, hence the extended title. I left out the drums and the violin part as a) I can't figure out how to programme my DAW (Sonar) to play drums and 10/4 is not an option on my drum machine and b) I did not know what to do for the violin part. So there is an opening here if anyone want to add something! Hope you like it. I might add it to my new album - In A Mountain Farm.

Dance of the Maya After Visiting Their Local Hostelry

Yesterday (Sat 20th March) we had to get our waste drains unblocked - a perennial problem due to tree roots. Anyway, a very nice man came to jet flush the enormous backlog - this is dedicated to him!

The Shitman

Million Years Ago - is a song written by Adele and Greg Kurstin  and is featured on Adele’s 2015 album “25”.  Although the “25” album has many great tracks on it, this for me was the track that stood out with its poignant message, powerful vocals and understated guitar accompaniment. 
Despite the fact that the guitar is perhaps my first instrument, I felt the need to work out a simple piano accompaniment for the song to make it slightly different from the original Adele track. The guitar does feature a little later when the second verse and chorus comes in. I was determined to keep the arrangement as simple as possible, so as not to dominate the vocals and detract from the lyrics in the song. To this end I added some simple strings to the guitar and piano and left it at that.

The vocalist on the track comes courtesy of Tency Music and “Karaoke Version” who provided the means for me to access this singer for my project.

Million Years Ago

Alreet people Flinty here! This is my tribute to the late great Eric Boswell. Eric left us a tremendous legacy of ingenious folk songs from Northeast England which seem to have been largely forgotten.

I hope they put a smile on your face, and help put Eric’s unique perspective of life and humour from North East England back into the collective conscious.

P.S. - there’s a few songs by another Geordie legend Wilf Mitford in there too - more to follow in future!!!!

But It’s Mine

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