I wrote this song on a tour of Ireland when we were staying in Bloom's Hotel, Dublin. It was a bit of a rock n roll, writers type hang out and downstairs was Yesterdays Bar. I saw many famous faces there and drank a few famous whiskies and even made heroic attempts to drink Guinness but failed. But I did get this song out of it and I snarfed a few leaves of hotel notepaper before they changed the name.

Arrested

Yesterdays Bar - Reg Meuross

All songs by Reg Meuross
Produced & Mixed by Tom Jobling at Mill Farm Studios
Mastered by Guy Joyner at Sine-Post Audio

4.  Good Morning Mr Colston
In the late 1600’s in Bristol there were four major sugar refining businesses and one of the most influential merchants, a partner in St Peter’s Sugar House and an official in the Royal African Company was Sir Edward Colston. It’s estimated that Colston was directly involved in the transportation of at least 80,000 slaves who were forcibly kidnapped from their homeland, then transported in horrifically inhumane conditions, sometimes in up to 6 month voyages. 

Reg Meuross: Vocal / Guitar
Jali Fily Cissokho : Kora
Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne: Concertina
Roy Dodds: Percussion
Tom Jobling: Percussion
Reg / Cohen / Jaz Gayle / Katie Whitehouse: BVox

04. Good Morning Mr Colston

TONY BENN’S TRIBUTE TO EMILY DAVISON written and sung by Reg Meuross

Reg makes songs with the sensibility of a great storyteller. In 'Tony Benn's tribute to Emily Davison' you can visualise the shady corridors of Parliament as the determined campaigner of women's equality summons all her courage to find a place to spend the night in the dark crypt so that the next morning she can proudly announce her address as The House of Commons. And 100 years later you can imagine the wise politician surreptitiously screwing a plaque to the door of the chapel where his hero slept while the current leader of the opposition keeps watch.  

She slips through the doorway
Away from the crowds down the stairs – she steals through the night
Just a plain looking woman
Concealed in her coat and her cares – pursuing her right

In a tangle of corridors
Furtively turning the locks – the day growing dim
Footsteps in the distance
She hears the men coming her way – the last door gives in

There in the dark with the mops and the brooms
She opens her handkerchief makes herself room
A small piece of bread and a small piece of cheese
And a jar filled with water between her knees

By the light of a candle she reads a small book
and she waits – and she waits

On the third day of April
Nineteen eleven she woke – and she gave her address
‘These houses of commons
houses of men and now me’ – she smoothed down her dress

‘I’m not asking for favours
Just claiming what’s rightfully mine’ – she cried to the world
‘To rebel against tyrants
Is to show your allegiance to god’ – she cried as she fell

A hundred years later he slips down the stairs
And he senses her purpose he breathes in her air
He’s made her a sign which he nails to the door
He knows the equality Emily gave her life for

He lights a small candle to honour her name
And he waits – and he waits

www.regmeuross.com to book Reg: katie@fromthewhitehouse.com

Tony Benn's Tribute to Emily Davison by Reg Meuross from the album England Green & England Grey

England Green & England Grey

"I wrote this song about Harry Farr - a WW1 Soldier who was shot for 'desertion' and finally received a pardon 90 years after his death. His trial had lasted 20 minutes. His family had always argued that Harry was suffering from shell shock and should have been hospitalised or sent home but instead was executed for cowardice." Reg Meuross regmeuross.com

the moon is slowly sinking the final moon i’ll see
my head is tired of thinking there’s just the rosary
an empty place at table and my mother’s eyes are wet
the hand of god came down last night
and jesus wept

if i’d been a captain they would have sent me home
but i am just a private condemned to die alone
the firing squad’s been drinking it’s a dawn they won’t forget
the hand of god came down last night
and jesus wept

sound the drum for their young precious years
but no glory will shine on my poor mother’s tears

a soldier’s good for fighting that’s what my father said
and if the man’s not fighting he might as well be dead
shame has drawn the curtains and the neighbours won’t forget
the hand of god came down last night
and jesus wept

i got the shakes on tuesday i cannot go i said
they sent me down on wednesday by thursday i was dead
i fought for king and country 2 years without regret
the hand of god came down last night
and jesus wept

we all fall in the cause of the free
when the sun sets on england will you think of me?

in unmarked graves in flanders lie 300 boys and men
killed un-loved and frightened by those they thought were friends
a nation’s guilty secret is this generation’s debt
the hand of god came down last night
and jesus wept

Powerful and extraordinary storytelling through song. Imagine the likes of Harry Farr, Victor Jara, Emily Davison and Sophie Sholl and others in one room for a night or a festival set “Meuross is one of the most talented storytellers of our generation.” Penny black Music.

To book Reg: katie@fromthewhitehouse.com

And Jesus Wept by Reg Meuross


For Sophie (This Beautiful Day) 
in memory of Sophie Scholl

You walk the university your suitcase in your hand
High upon the landing by your brother’s side you stand
The voices of the innocents echo round the hall
The flowering truth on paper Sophie makes the petals fall

The greatest act of duty to your country and your friends
Is to stand up for the righteous cause and give your life for them
You could have lied or made a deal you could have walked away
But the wall of shame would bear your name and that’s too much to pay

CHORUS
These are the eyes of the child you saved
Aryan blue Hebrew brown and grey
These are the hands that in gratitude pray
For Sophie’s life on this beautiful day

Seven sermons seven lessons seven calls to arms
To the workers in the factories the workers on the farms
One life for ten thousand when good hearts ‘gainst evil stand
Your future’s only safe as this one heart and these two hands

Sophie at the window Sophie lights the lamps
To free her country spread the word Sophie buys the stamps
And in the jail one final kiss her brother and her friend
To end in terror’s better than a terror without end

The brilliant child of Germany has turned his mind to war
He hears the windows breaking but he doesn’t know what for
The ghettos’ strangely quiet just the constant trains go by
But Sophie takes his hands and Sophie opens up his eyes

I was commissioned to write a song on an extraordinary subject; on 18th February 1943, Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and their friend Christoph were arrested having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich. They were tried and four days later on February 22nd convicted of High Treason and executed by guillotine on the same day. Sophie was 21 years old when she died for her role leading dissent and active resistance to the rule of Nazi Germany. Their tools of revolution were words, paper and a printing press. After the students’ death the sixth leaflet of the movement was smuggled out of Germany and used by the Allied Forces, who showered millions of copies of Sophie’s work over Germany just a few months after her execution. 
Sophie’s story is a true lesson in dissent and serves to remind us that we have a responsibility to ensure that we never sleepwalk into such darkness again.

Sophies final words:
“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?”

Reg’s solo gigs have always brought beautiful songs from his highly acclaimed albums, performed with depth and spellbinding delivery. Within these collections sit characters whose stories Reg unfolds tenderly and masterfully: “There’s something special about the way he writes and delivers a song” Townes Van Zandt. 

Powerful and extraordinary storytelling through song. Imagine the likes of Harry Farr, Victor Jara, Emily Davison and Sophie Sholl and others in one room for a night or a festival set  “Meuross is one of the most talented storytellers of our generation.” Penny black Music.

www.regmeuross.com to book Reg: katie@fromthewhitehouse.com

For Sophie (This Beautiful Day)

Reg tells of the final days of a great modern folk-hero Victor Jara. Victor was a Chilean Teacher, singer and activist and was amongst the many that were taken to the Chile Stadium in the early 1970’s where they were tortured and executed. 
www.regmeuross.com

Reg’s solo gigs have always brought beautiful songs from his highly acclaimed albums, performed with depth and spellbinding delivery. Within these collections sit characters whose stories Reg unfolds tenderly and masterfully: “There’s something special about the way he writes and delivers a song” Townes Van Zandt. 

Powerful and extraordinary storytelling through song. Imagine the likes of Harry Farr, Victor Jara, Emily Davison and Sophie Sholl and others in one room for a night or a festival set  “Meuross is one of the most talented storytellers of our generation.” Penny black Music.

www.regmeuross.com to book Reg: katie@fromthewhitehouse.com

Victor Jara by Reg Meuross

REFUGEE

He took the bus to work today he never turned or talked to me
When they see his face they look away I hear them whisper ‘refugee’
I hear them whisper ‘refugee’

It hasn’t always been like this, stacking shelves from 9 til 3
He studied law, had a wife and kids but now he’s just a refugee - CHORUS

He left his job he left his home, torn from his wife and family
He watched them cut his brothers down they smashed his future and his history

‘We’ll pass your mother round’ they said ‘unless you come and fight with me’
And as she ran his mother said ‘My honour’s not your currency’

She gave up everything she loved ‘My sons won’t die because of me
Or fight for a cause they don’t believe, I’d rather be a refugee’ - CHORUS

He put the children in a boat to save them from the bloody knives
Wrapped his wife in his only coat, he’s no idea if they’re still alive

12 hours they said to reach dry land, after that you’re lost at sea
Precious lives in greedy smuggler’s hands you’ve got no choice when you’re a refugee - you’ve got no choice when you’re a refugee - RPT

Half a nation cast adrift condemned to wander aimlessly
Three hundred thousand torn and dead, lucky to be a refugee - CHORUS

Seventy one in the back of a chicken truck sharing out the final breath
Still born child in a jungle camp while his mother slowly starves to death

And when they’ve no tears left to cry the tear gas brings them to their knees
You’ll learn to beg if you don’t die be glad to be a refugee - RPT
Be glad to be a refugee

He took the bus to work today he never turned or talked to me
But it hasn’t always been this way he wasn’t born a refugee – CHORUS 
He wasn’t born a refugee - he wasn't born a refugee.


www.regmeuross.com
In March 2016 I met Ahmad, a young Syrian refugee from Aleppo. 
I had already been involved in the Concert to Calais series, staged by Tom Harvey to raise funds and supplies for the refugees in France. Ahmad had been in the Calais camp but was now staying with volunteer hosts near London. His mission now was to raise awareness of the plight of his people by giving talks in Parliament and theatres around the country wherever people would listen. I was about to launch my new album December at The Green Note in London and I invited Ahmad to come. On the night it suddenly occurred to me that this was a perfect opportunity for him to tell his story, not only to me but to an intelligent and sympathetic full house. What followed was almost too much to comprehend; the brutality, depravation, separation and horrors that young man and his people had experienced. I came home and wrote this song, all of which comes from either his actual experience or from the experiences of his fellow refugees. Ahmad wasn’t born a refugee any more than you or I, he was just unfortunate to be born in an area of the world where the terror and brutality of ISIS was a daily threat. 

Since escaping that terrible place he has had to face the new threats of alienation, and exploitation, and of being unwelcome and unwanted by other nations. I wanted to show as much as I could in a brief piece of music how we are all humans. When a country is virtually destroyed by inhumanity and hatred the least we can do is show them some love, make them welcome, open our arms to them, try to imagine if it was us in that situation. Many have but too many haven’t. Because they won’t be part of a murderous regime they are suffering horrendously, their only hope is that other good people will give them refuge and love.

Ahmad says "'Refugee', for we all are humans. We have the same blood colour, the same heartbeat and we share the same blue sky which gives us refuge from the battles and hardships we all face each day."

Photo Sue Foll

Refugee

REFUGEE by Reg Meuross

www.regmeuross.com
for live dates www.regmeuross.com/events

Reg Meuross is currently touring solo with latest album “December”. Reg is a true modern day troubadour – commenting on life as he sees it, with some of the most beautifully disarming songs and lyrics ever written. As FolkWords says, his songs are ‘the hinges upon which swing the doors of perceptive English folk’. Reg plays songs from the new album as well as unfolding stories and characters from his 10 previous albums and some brand new songs hot off the Meuross press.
www.regmeuross.com
My Name Is London Town https://youtu.be/2V4F3-oPOsg
England Green & England Grey https://youtu.be/KdewAuU3nMc
https://soundcloud.com/regmeuross/sets/reg-meuross-taster
“The gentle enchantment and genius of Reg Meuross” David Kidman, Fatea Magazine
“…sounds like a forgotten, American 60s classic with echoes of Dylan, Tom Paxton & Leonard Cohen” Robin Denselow, The Guardian
“Meuross, quite simply, is one of the best”  Malcolm Carter, Pennyblack Music

Smarter Than Me by Reg Meuross, from the album 'December'

Available on the album Faraway People https://bit.ly/regmeurossshop

This one's for all the doctors, nurses, care workers and ambulance service staff and everyone struggling to do good in a beleaguered NHS.

On January 11th 2017 I had a message from a friend who is a nurse saying she was huddled in her coat in a cold and drafty corridor in her hospital where a state of emergency had been declared, and she was steeling herself for her shift and the challenges ahead by listening to music. She added that although she felt unwell herself there was no way she could not go in. I wrote this song. What can a song do? I hope at the very least it will offer some acknowledgement to these people who are doing one of the most vital jobs there is, under extreme pressure and in near impossible conditions. I also want to draw attention to the crisis in the NHS. Please listen the song, download the song, please lobby your MP, please let’s do anything we can to stop the gradual privatisation of a service that has been the envy of the world in terms of health care for so long.
Reg 
FULL ARTICLE: goo.gl/6fDLJz 
CONTACT FOR INTERVIEW/QUOTES: katie@fromthewhitehouse.com

Nurse - Angel In A Blue Dress

She grabs a cup of coffee
And she drops the kids at school
She pulls into the car park 
But every place is full
So she blows an hours wages
In the public parking lot
Just another little piece of her
The government has got

The drivers sit in silence
Clutching mugs of tea
‘What’s up?’, she says. ‘No beds’, they say
It's a state of emergency
So she pulls her coat around her
She puts her headphones in
There's only room for music
Underneath this skin

She's the queen of soul
The Diva of Distress
Compassion makes her whole
She's an angel in a blue blue dress

Her brand new friend is dying
Last night a new friend died
If it wasn't for the music
She knows she would've cried
She knows about the sickness
The loneliness & pain
And she knows what doesn't break her
Will soon come round again

She's the queen of soul
The Diva of Distress
Compassion makes her whole
She's an angel in a blue blue dress

Written and played by Reg Meuross January 2019. 
Thanks to Gunter Pauler, Stockfisch Records for audio recording.
www.regmeuross.com

Faraway People

Angel In A Blue Dress

Nurse - Angel In A Blue Dress by Reg Meuross

William Brewster Dreams of America by Reg Meuross from the album Dragonfly. www.regmeuross.com

WILLIAM BREWSTER DREAMS OF AMERICA
Reg Meuross 
 
William says to Mary "We’re strangers in our land"
Mary says to William "Will i understand"
"What about the children?" "We’ll give them what they need.
Give them truth, clothes and shoes and something good to eat"
 
Through the fens in darkness, from Boston they set sail
Two miles out at Scotia Creek the expedition failed
The English captain robbed them and turned the ship around
And working for the king’s own coin the catchpole took them down
 
Mary took the children, Patience, Love and Fear
She bore them to God’s calling, God didn’t call them here
She’d take them to the New World, a new life waited there
With passage on the Mayflower William turned to prayer
 
Oh say can’t you see by dawn’s holy light dreams of America
Innocent pilgrims drawn from the night to dreams of America
 
Of those who sailed from Devon’s shore barely half survived
From disease and deprivation and broken hearts they died
Leaving just four women to fifty youths and men
But William slept with no regret said he’d do it all again
 
Seven years of hardship and Mary had passed on
Patience was a weak child she’d follow before long
Love & Fear bore children, and William held them dear
His legacy that man be free lived on in Love and Fear.
 
They sailed by the moon the first giant leap dreams of America
On star spangled oceans to faith’s righteous sleep dreams of America

Dragonfly

William Brewster Dreams of America - Reg Meuross

“From everyday victims crushed by an uncaring society to unsung heroes taking a defiant stand against the darkness of tyranny and oppression, Faraway People goes the distance.” MIKE DAVIES

Faraway People is the title track of Somerset singer-songwriter Reg Meuross' new album. Release date 28 July 2017. If you are interested in interviewing Reg or want the track for radio play please get in touch regmeuross.com/contact

The people named in the song are just a few actual cases of the tens of thousands of people who have died in Britain directly as a result of bedroom tax and government cuts to incapacity benefits.

Following the Grenfell fire, Reg has added a new verse to the song which he will sing in live performance:

They cut the police & they cut down the firemen
With the money they save they fill their own urns
The corporates thrive & their friends rise to power
While the food banks increase & the tower block burns

LYRIC ©RegMeuross

Carl Payne, Leanne Chambers and Terry McGarvey
There but for grace luck and fortune go we 
Wayne Grew, Linda Wootton and poor David Coupe
But for the whim of our government go me and you

Stephanie Bottrill lived only on custard
While her small income paid for a bedroom unused
One cold winter’s day she walked under a lorry 
Her benefits cut and assistance refused

CHORUS
These are the voices of faraway people
The man in the street and the hospital bed 
The scandal of governments unfit to govern 
Look down look down look down
You’ll be unfit to work when you’re dead

Julian Little was bound to a wheelchair
His machine in the spare room to keep him alive 
‘it’s a luxury people like you can’t afford’
Said the council and Julian withered and died

Seven ropes swinging and seven souls singing 
Lifted from poverty lifted from pain
Freed of their guilt and relieved of their burden 
For the price of a hotel or lunch on the plane

CHORUS

For 300 pounds you spend a day on the benches 
And award for a week just a sixth of that fee
To a man who faced death for this land in the trenches
And sooner than starve hangs himself from a tree

Look into the eyes of Nicholas Barker
Barely able to hold up the gun
Or young Christelle Pardoe clutching her baby 
As she leaps 5 months gone into oblivion

NEW VERSE: 
They cut the police & they cut down the firemen
With the money  they save they fill their own urns
The corporates thrive & their friends rise to power
While the food banks increase & the tower block burns

Writer and radio present Mike Davies says, "The big picture is important, but sometimes you only get there via the small details. None of the names have been changed to protect the guilty, some you may recognise, others not, but all those mentioned in the lyrics have died as a direct result of the government’s cuts to incapacity benefit. They are the faraway people, but they could be your neighbour. They could be your family. They could be you."

Faraway People by Reg Meuross

This new album, a new retrospective of 12 Meuross favourites, will be released by the cutting edge audiophile studios Stockfisch Records, Germany, on July 13th 2018. The UK launch gig is at Holywell Music & Folk, Oxford. regmeuross.com/events Limited signed copies will be available at that gig.
Order the album here goo.gl/vEJa3q

SLEEVE NOTES 
Thank you Mike Davies / Writer for "Melody Maker" and "Sounds" in the late 70s, has written for local, national and international music publications for over 40 years. Currently presents "Alternative Roots" on Brum Radio and is a regular music reviewer for various publications. 
"Love, death, politics, social commentary, these are all tools of the singer- songwriter’s trade and, whether drawn from life or imagination, Reg Meuross wields them with the best, crafting songs that touch the heart, stimulate the mind, leave you in a warm glow of contentment or a fire of righteous indignation in equal measure. That is certainly true of this collection of songs revisited from across his career. 
Sounding a political note, England Green & England Grey details factory closures, corporate greed and the dismantling of the NHS to the backdrop of a hymnal tune that conjures the ‘green’ of a cultural folk tradition embodied in names such as John Bull, Cecil Sharp and Lennon and McCartney. 
Two world wars find their way into the songs here. And Jesus Wept tells the story of Harry Farr who, in 1916, suffering from shellshock, was shot for desertion. It’s dedicated to Farr’s daughter Gertrude and granddaughter Janet whose efforts led him to become the first of the 306 British soldiers executed in such circumstances to be granted a posthumous pardon. Likewise, advancing the years to WWII, For Sophie (This Beautiful Day) tells another true story, that of Sophie Scholl, a young student at Munich University who, appalled at the activities of the Nazi Party, founded, along with her brother and friends, the White Rose movement dedicated to non-violent resistance and was executed for treason in 1943. 
Another true story can be found with The Band Played 'Sweet Marie, a tender piano waltz about the violin bought by Maria Robinson for her fiancé Wallace Hartley, the bandleader on The Titanic, who, according to legend, played her song as the ship went down. 
Looking for Johnnie Ray references another real figure, Ray being a massive singing star in the 50s, best known for his recording of "Cry" and dubbed The Prince of Wails on account of his performing style. The gently swaying song uses him to exemplify the ideal man for an unlucky in love woman searching for “a guy who’s not too tough to cry.” Ironically, of course, in real life Ray was both gay and an alcoholic. 
Love, its questing, comfort, fallout and heartache, fuels several songs - the prospect of returning to a lover’s arms in A One Way Ticket To Louise, the pain of a broken relationship that aches through Jealous and I Need You and the longing and loneliness that infuses The Shoreline and the Sea. 
There’s loneliness too in The Man in Edward Hopper’s Bar as, far from home, the singer sits watching the nighthawk barflies that haunt the early hours of a back street dive, while the poignant Good With His Hands sees a song relating memories of his carpenter father, ‘hopeless in love’ and broken inside after his wife leaves him. 
But after all the hurt, all the sacrifices and all the injustices, Worry No More serves to remind that there is yet a still small voice, whether that be the god of your chosen faith, a friend in need or just the man in the moon there to listen, to support and to bring light in times of darkness. Just like these songs."
Musicians
Reg Meuross vocals, guitar  Ian Melrose guitars, flute  Lutz Möller piano, keyboards
Justin Ciuche violin  Lucile Chaubard violoncello  Jean Kelly Irish harp
Antoine Pütz fretless & electric bass  Hans-Jörg Maucksch fretless bass
Beo Brockhausen tenor & soprano sax,bowed psaltery, autoharp

Reg Meuross (Stockfisch)

Reg Meuross

Good With His Hands - Reg Meuross (from the album REG MEUROSS - the Stockfisch recordings)

A Song Cycle by Reg Meuross about the Hull triple trawler disaster of 1968, and the tireless safety campaign that followed by ‘Big Lil’ Lillian Bilocca and her ‘Headscarf Revolutionaries’, as described in Dr Brian Lavery’s book of the same name, featuring the voices of Reg Meuross, Sam Martyn & Mick McGarry, and narrated by Brian.
This album is dedicated to Virginia McKenzie (Bilocca), Ernie Bilocca and Harry Eddom, and all those people, mostly from the City of Hull who still live with the painful memories of those terrible days.

Buy the CD here: https://goo.gl/M5z95r

See the live show at Hull Minster on November 8th 2018: https://goo.gl/DNvVWL

Wash Her Man Away(excerpt - lead vocal Mick)
I Am a Fish House Woman (excerpt - lead vocal Sam)
John Barry Rogers (excerpt - lead vocal Mick)
The Man the Sea Gave Back (excerpt - lead vocal Reg)  
Sleep You Safely (excerpt - lead vocal Sam)
12 Silk Handkerchiefs (excerpt - lead vocal Reg)
Closing Narration. Time & Tides poem (excerpt)

12 Silk Handkerchiefs - Reg Meuross song cycle preview

The song is Track One on Reg's album, RAW, released November 2019. 

RAW will be the third in Reg's solo trilogy, following on from December and Faraway People. 
regmeuross.com

In conversation Reg said this:

“The first verse is about when I went to Dachau, the concentration camp, and I remember how suburban and leafy and comfortably middle class it was… with the camp hidden behind some trees. I thought about how those people would've seen the trucks but never questioned it. The second verse is about the dictatorships that even we seem to be under now with Trump and our own Government and the fact Mugabe hung on so long and Gadaffi… and how they continued to get away with unbelievable atrocities - the rivers ran crimson - and still they weren't deposed.. With Trump and Johnson it's less obvious but it still feels like we're being destroyed by them. And the last verse is about the environment, the Extinction Rebellion protests, the overwhelming proof of global warming ignored by governments.

I’m not trying to be accusing but just feel we should be more aware, and we should find our voice and speak up, and take action where we can. And I question the fact a lot of people don't even use their vote"

WE LOOKED AWAY lyrics

When the leaves were softly turning
And the constant engines rolled
And the ancient air was rich with summer turning
While the war was far off raging
We were safe behind these trees
And nothing changed but something distant burning

There was talk and there were rumours
Those who never came back home
Troops on the streets and cries behind the curtains
Those unsafe by their religion or the colour of their skin
Yes we heard the news but how could we be certain?

No we never asked the questions
We were busy with our day
We looked away we looked away

His eyes were bright with promise
And they shone with his great gift
And a nation swore allegiance to his vision
And his word rang like cathedral bells
Calling all lost souls to join
And praise and to rejoice in his great mission

While the rivers turned to crimson
We were busy with our day
We looked away we looked away

In the north the ice is melting
And the oceans fade to grey
And the whales cry for the dying of their nation
And the earth is stripped and wasted
Greed and progress have their way
While it sickens more with each new generation

Roll the blinds and draw the curtains
We are busy with our day
We looked away we looked away

Come the hour of your judgement
Would you take the stand and say
I looked away I looked away?

We Looked Away - Reg Meuross

Martin

Martin waits inside the chapel all around the city wakes
Martin's talking to the angels and prays as morning breaks

he prays for those who wake in prison or the grief of their own chains
those consumed by bad religion to free them from their pains

    'I will wrap my coat around you
    I will share with you my bread
    you are safe and you’re protected’
    Martin said Martin said

Martin lives beside the river no temptation free from sin
many come to hear his wisdom and he welcomes each one in

Martins mother called him to her saying "he gave wisdom to my joy"
but Martins father wouldn’t listen saying "you raised a crazy boy"

they build the temples with their money they fill the mansions with their greed
but Martin lives beside the river his faith is all he needs

he feeds the hungry from his kitchen he leads the homeless to his door
he gives attention to the lonely and his wages to the poor

he saw the beggar in the doorway his clothes were torn his body thin
'I’ve all the clothes I need said Martin and he gave his coat to him

that night he dreamed that he saw Jesus dressed in the coat he gave away
and from that night he knew his calling and Martin knelt and Martin prayed

regmeuross.com

Songs About A Train - new release Feb 2018

Martin (The Ballad of St Martin)- by Reg Meuross (Songs About A Train)

Reg Meuross - SHINE ON

As the news reels and press conferences continue to bring us terrible stories from across the world, one glimmer of hope that shines on is that, as society changes, community remains.

From the singing balconies of Italy, to the claps, pots and pans ringing out across the UK each Thursday evening, the ability of the human spirit to endure can lift the darkest of glooms, and with that message close to its core comes Reg Meuross’s new song Shine On which will be released as a single on May 1st.

“Reflecting on our current situation and how the Corona Pandemic will be seen as hugely significant and world-altering, I felt a desire to write.” says the renowned songwriter.

“I thought in particular about the health workers, who are working beyond the call of duty and about the urgent need for global realisation of their true worth. There is such a need now for all of us to pull our weight, to be responsible and kind, to observe guidelines and still to shine in the darkness, to inspire, and encourage and support each other”

Accustomed to bringing people together in the folk and music clubs across the land, it was inevitable that, even under lockdown conditions, Reg would find a way to create community through the power of song. 

As you’d expect from the man who wrote Faraway People, We Looked Away and Angel in a Blue Dress (featured on BBC Radio 6’s Saluting Key Workers playlist), Shine On carries a strong message of not forgetting the ‘fragile and the weak’, of ‘city lords making laws’ and nations ‘falling to their knees’ but ends by encouraging us to ‘shine on - like the spirit of mankind’.

Created through remote collaboration with past and present collaborators from Devon to Scotland, and embodying a truly DIY ethos, the song and accompanying video provide a shining light in the current darkness and a reminder that we can produce something of worth by pulling together, whilst also not shying away from the reality of the Covid-19 situation. 

Although an extensive spring and summer tour in support of recent album RAW has been postponed, Reg is still managing to maintain the connection with his loyal fan base through a successful Patreon channel and regular ‘Lockdown Jukebox’ sessions available on his Facebook page, where Reg brings a taste of the communal spirit of a live performance to the online community.

With the immediate future still uncertain, Reg Meuross, described as “assured a place in the pantheon of great folk songwriters of our time” (The Living Tradition) can always be relied upon to bring a little light into the world when it is needed and, with Shine On, he hopes to do just that. 

Stay safe. Protect the NHS. Save lives. Shine On.

for press/radio/interviews contact katie@fromthewhitehouse.com

Special thanks to the nursing staff at the Chest Clinic, Royal Preston Hospital

The team: 
Song written and performed by Reg Meuross 
Additional vocals Harbottle & Jonas 
Cello: Bethany Porter 
Violin and viola: Marion Fleetwood 
Bass and Cuatro: Vince Iddon 
Music and video production: Moth Wing Music mothwingmusic.com
Artwork: left-bridge.co.uk 
Conception and inspiration: Katie Whitehouse fromthewhitehouse.com

Reg Meuross - SHINE ON

Track 14 from The Goodbye Hat (1996 - reissued in 2020)

I toured this song with Alison Jones on fiddle as part of The Iceberg Project, raising awareness of domestic abuse throughout Britain, and sharing stories and other works by victims and supporters. 
Reg 

BUY THE CD HERE http://www.regmeuross.com/product/the-goodbye-hat-cd/

The Goodbye Hat (Special Edition)

She Fell Down The Stairs - Reg Meuross

Jonti Willis dedicates a whole show to Reg Meuross’s 6 Retro Reissues on this show.

Roots & Acoustic Music is on Sine FM Sundays at 11am: https://www.sinefm.com/category/roots-and-acoustic-music-show

Buy the reissues https://regmeuross.com/shop

Featuring:

1) The Goodbye Hat (2)
2) She Fell down the Stairs (14)  .....................The Goodbye Hat 1996
3) Good with his Hands (5)
4) The Man in the Moon (8).................................Short Stories 2004
5) The Man in Edward Hoppers Bar (3)
6) It's Me or Elvis (13) .........................................Still 2006 
7) And Jesus Wept (8)
8) William Brewster Dreams of America (13)............Dragonfly 2008
9)Looking for Johnnie Ray...(3)
10) Victor Jara (10)................................................All this Longing 2010
11) My Name is London Town (9)
12) Emily's Pages (10)...........................................Leaves & Feathers  2013

regmeuross

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