I wrote this instrumental for my Morris dancer friends. I was never into flicking handkerchiefs but these guys could drink!

Country Dance

I have always been a big fan of Leonard Cohen. His songs are poems written to music for me. So I thought I would write this for him and use his song titles and fragments of song verses to construct something that he might like himself!  I try to make the cadences and structure  similar to his sort of waltz song style and if you can find all the references then you are a  Lenny fan too!  I hope you like it.

Song For Leonard (Halleluja Let Me In)

I wrote this as a tribute to the miners in the miner's strike of 84.  My dad was a miner all his working life (from age 12!) until he was invalided out with pneumoconiosis - and no compensation.  He never worked again so poverty came knocking on the door.  In South Wales the mining communities were strongly knit by history, culture and a very hard way of earning a living.  That is pretty much gone now and its death knell was under the Thatcher government with the strike in 84.  My dad died in 82 so never saw this happen. I saw the miners march back to work after a lot of suffering and then the whole industry collapse.  The economic reality anyway was that the high quality anthracite coal was too expensive to mine and could not compete with open-cast coal imported from Australia even.   So it was "gone" even though there is still plenty there.  This song is dedicated to a community that fades into memory.  Go sing the chorus in a pub somewhere! I always had a vision of a Welsh male voice choir belting this out at some big concert.  Dream on. I might do a different arrangement one day.
For those who don't know it, a "tommy box tin" was a miner's metal lunch box. It was square at one end and rounded at the other.  My dad had a rusty old tin like that.  


How Proudly They Marched

So I had a go at another one I learned back in the 60s - Alice's Wonderland by Bert Jansch again. This was sometimes mislabelled as "Veronica", but I heard him playing this in the Tredegar Working Men's club back in 1968.  He was very drunk at the time but still gave a great show.  Again this is not too easy a piece to play and if you know Bert and John then you know that they transitioned between jazz and folk (listen to Pentangle for that!) and this piece can't make up its mind what it wants to be for me.

Alice's Wonderland (Bert jansch cover)

Recovering (I hope) from a chronic condition so I thought I would put up some simple stuff.  I have always been a big Dylan fan and I have been singing this for a LONG time. Apologies to Bob fans who love the original and the bad guitar he plays on.

Dont Think Twice It's Alright (Dylan cover)

This song - written by Cyril Tawney - is treated by some as a sea shanty, but really it isn't at all. It has a nice tune but for a "sea song" never sounded much to do with the sea to me.  So I wrote a guitar part that "ebbs and flows' like the tide.  I develop it as the song progresses until the full riff is heard right after the last verse.   I might have overdone the reverb and multi-layer harmonies a bit but I hope you like it!  As sung here it bears no resemblance to any other version I have heard and certainly not Cyrils's!  The Corries did a great version way back when and so did my hero  Bert Jansch.  

Sally Free and Easy (Cyril Tawney)

Always love d this song and I forgot I used to sing it. But this arrangement is not with a guitar but with an octave mandola . It is a very simple single take with reverb.  Nothing else. It doesn't come even close to Joni - but who does?
I do this for a friend who used to like this song a long time ago so I hope she likes it too!

Both Sides Now (Joni mitchell)

I have always like this song. Emotive. It is posted for a friend.  Not perfect but in my simple style I hope you all like it.

You Were Always On My Mind

If you have ever heard Eve Cassidy sing this song you will know the emotional power of her voice. Truly beautiful. And she died too young of melanoma.  I really love this song so I wanted to be able to play a straight acoustic version of it.  Most of the acoustic backing parts are a little overcomplicated so I play my own so that I can get into the vocal range that is comfortable for me.  It is a one off I wasn't going to post and I haven't put in the instrumental part as it sounds a bit contrived to me.  No post-processing either. But I have begun to like the recording. Hope you like it.

Fields Of Gold

After a long and rather sad period (I haven't posted in years), I'm back and this is composed for someone who changed my life with a real and passionate love.

Peace Of Mind

I learned this from Ralph's record back in the 70's.  I can play Johnson's original but this version is just my favourite.  
I haven't recorded much since I divorced, moved back to Switzerland and remarried. But here we go.

Kind Hearted Woman Blues (Robert Johnson/Ralph McTell)

Playing around with my old AKG mike via a Scarlett 2i4 interface with Logic X so I decided to record my acoustic version of Hurt  by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. This version is close to the Johhny cash version which was very pertinent to his state of health at the time and his history of drug and alcohol addiction.  It is one of my favourite songs to perform live as it is short and packs a lot of emotion.  When you face demons, sing about them...

Hurt

I found this old recording of me singing Donovan's fairly popular song so I thought I would upload it for any school friends who remember me singing it in the school folk club and locally. The recording is about 28 years old now and has a bit too much reverb. But my wife likes it...so...

Walt the Wiz

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