singer | songwriter | musician | writer
This is my cover version of a song by my friends Fiona Thom and John Farrell, of Ms Fi and the Lost Head Band. (It starts very quietly!) I’ve loved the song Box of Tricks since the first time I heard it. The soaring chorus of I fooled them all is one thing, the elusive … Read moreSongstories #23: Box of Tricks (cover)
Put a small bunch of songwriters in a ski lodge in May with food, drink and recording equipment and what do you get? A lot of fun, some songs we’d never have written, some some recordings we’d never have had and an album to follow up last year’s. Meet on the Lodge I’ve never doing … Read moreLiving it up in the country – Orchy Sessions 2018
This past weekend I was at the Glasgow Songwriting Festival 2017. A weekend course rather than a festival. Here’s what happened and what I got from it. Govanhill Baths The course was held in one of strangest venues I’ve been in. A hundred-year-old building housing several swimming pools, rows of private bath cubicles and a … Read moreGlasgow Songwriting Festival 2017 – swimming in the air
I remember a quote attributed to Bob Dylan about songwriting although I’ve never been able to verify it: Q: How do you write a song? A: Take a song you know, change the words then change the tune The weather’s been glorious and I heard it’s going to break tomorrow so I decided to put … Read moreSongwriting on the hoof – take a song for a walk!
This is one for all the performers among my friends. Tonight I wrote a song. The first time in a year, during which I thought I either couldn’t, or didn’t need to, write another. So I’ve written one, and I think it’s good. Big deal. Why is that such a bitter sweet feeling? The myth … Read moreIt’s just a song, after all …
Sometimes when something’s difficult you can manage it by making it a different kind of difficult. I’ve been confounded for most of the year by a big ‘ol baddie that sits on my shoulder saying ‘ You can’t write anything, certainly nothing as good as you used to, nothing as good as <name anyone>, and … Read moreRestrictions make you work better