Arnhemland Hi way

Demo 'Rhodos' 2012 produced by Jay Diggins

Rhodos Mix 1 Jay's

Rise and Shine is the first track from Greenheart's debut album "Rhubarb City". Features Scotty Moorhouse (dijeridoo), Richard Young (drums) and James Fraser (everything else)  Thanks for listening folks. 

Rise And Shine

Dijeridoo and guitar Lancaster duo with a bouncy popular track from "Rhubarb City"

Spanish

Recorded "Dot Crotchett & The Raging Harmonies" a Lancaster women's choir for this one - it's a traditional African number recorded at the Gregson Centre, Moor Lane Lancaster - thank you ladies!

Garai Pano

Walk in the Park comes from Greenheart's debut album "Rhubarb City". We love this........

Walk In The Park

Last track from "Rhubarb City" listen to those gulls from Tarnbrook - which is miles from the sea, weirdly. This is the only track we've done with a click, and it sounds different because of this to the rest of our stuff. It's about the things that you want to do but know really that you shouldn't.......

The Sirens

On holidays as young man getting into trouble and alienating locals but really enjoying the beauty and sunlight 

Rhodos Mix3 04

A track recorded with Lee Hilton of Beaumont College Lancaster. She translated my thoughts about the song into Chinese and we recorded the intro over a koto and natural sounds background. The original music recorded on one of those nights in the studio under the influence of lemongrass essential oil in the aromatherapy burner. Drums by Neil Young recorded in Colne at Modern English. I like the track, specially for the koto, which I recorded (blagged, actually) at Beaumont College one day in the summer holidays. It's probably not the correct way to play a koto; apologies to any koto purists out there...just my attempt to get it on a track.....hope you like it! x

Lemongrass

Greenheart formed late 2007 and started by doing some recordings which we put on MySpace. We’d been wanting to put an album out for a year or so and decided to try and get something finished in time for the Edinburgh Fringe 2009 where we were busking and playing a couple of shows. Stuck for a name for the album we named it after the place where we live and work. 


The only dijeridoo I’d ever heard before I heard Scotty Moorhouse play was on Kate Bush’s The Dreaming tune on The Whole Story, and of course Rolf. I didn’t like either, so I was knocked out when I heard him play – I’d asked him up to the studio do some dij on a soundtrack I was doing for Darren Conway’s short “The Slip”. Something about it grabbed me and we soon found out we could work together really 
well and so formed a band. Initially it was a really fresh and basic sound; me on acoustic guitar, him on dij. 


Later I heard about KT Tunstall’s looper and in my usual way just went and tried one out and bought it. This was at a time when the 95 pounds were a fair amount of cash to me so I must have liked it. It expanded the sound as I could do several guitar parts, rhythmic, clicky parts and bassy parts. I had a nice guitar on loan, an old pre-CBS Fender Strat that sounded really good looped. Next day we had our first recording session, and came out with the album versions “Spanish” and “Bone”. We just sat there in studio playing whatever felt good and with Cubase in record. Listening back later it was obvious what was good and what was shite. I added the drums using Nian’s kit (Nian was Milltown Brother’s drummer and is a good friend to both of us). The drums were a bit tricky, (no hihat stand) but we improvised. We put the two tracks up on MySpace. It was Feb ’08. Oh yeah.


Next session of note was at the end of March. Djalu was the dij and there must have been an enchanted evening in the studio because about half the basic tracks on the album were recorded that evening. I think we were trying to record a few tunes to get a gig at a Lancaster vegetarian café called “The Whale Tail”, who never got back to us. “The Sirens”, “Walk in the Park”, “Rise and Shine”, “Banjo”, (next album hopefully), and “Round the Fishtank” just seemed to materialize out of thin air that night. These were also posted on www.myspace.com/greenheartsongs too, in April ‘08 probably.

We decided it was time to make an album and that we needed to take some CDs to the Edinburgh Fringe to sell as we were busking and gigging up there, but also just so we could have a deadline important enough to get on and get something finished and made. So we went back to the MySpace tracks and finished them properly. We also added a couple of new things – Lemongrass and Waggawagga. We also did some recording with a local female choir, “Dot Crotchet and the Raging Harmonies” and “Garai Pano” was too good to leave off. 

Most of the natural sounds on this EP album were recorded round here – the birds in Lemongrass were from the canal at Deep Cutting on the Galgate – Lancaster stretch of the canal; the water sound is a little brook near the wind turbines on Caton Moor. The gulls at the end of Round the Fishtank and beginning of The Sirens are from Tarnbrook Gullery above Abbeystead, and the geese and waterbirds on Waggawagga are from Leighton Moss. These Waggawagga geese must have had an argument and we inadvertently recorded it, they did seem grumpy. But then again it was early.

Rhubarb City is a good album we think, and we are very proud of it. 
There are several local musicians and artists who make the album sound the way it does – special thanks to Richard Young – drums on Rise & Shine and Lemongrass; Mia Wilson – posh vocals on Bone; Lee Hilton for her brilliant and completely spontaneous performance on Lemongrass, Dot Crotchet and the Raging Harmonies for singing up and Justin Murray for additional engineering, energy and chimes. 




James & Scotty
Rhubarb City
Sept ‘09 



Greenheart

Popular tracks