Redemption (2017)

I’m very proud of this one. My previous albums were essentially eclectic collections of songs, and although the style and consistency was starting to come together and my songwriting and performances were getting better, I felt I hadn’t moved on from writing individual songs to developing an album. So when I set out on this project- I worked hard at making the songs work together- in their sound, in their style, in their themes, in their production- and I think I’ve achieved that whilst also having enough variety to avoid the pitfall of “heard one, heard them all” type albums. I worked particularly hard on the arrangements and performances- to keep them strong, simple & restrained but genuinely creative and hopefully a little addictive.

Definition: The Alternative | Acoustic | Blues & Roots Sound and Style.

Take me to the Badlands, Mamma (2017)

“Take me to the Badlands, Mamma” is my next project- a collection of live performances of iconic 1970’s hard rock and heavy metal songs performed with just acoustic guitars and drums. It embodies the Alternate | Acoustic | Heavy | Roots style I’ve been creating and steps back to visit some of the songs that in part inspired Redemption. The songs have been interpreted and arranged in a way that keeps the strength of the originals but tries to open their emotional heart. The twin acoustic rhythm guitars playing either side of the heavy and hard hitting drums create a truly unique sound and I have to say, I’m very excited about this set of songs- I think I’ve done them justice in these interpretations and I hope you like them.

Third (2014)

My third album- with that terribly uncreative title- was quite a milestone for me as it contained several songs that I was really very proud of in terms of their composition and creation. The track, Even though Paul Kelly, I think is the best song I’ve ever written and if I ever write another like it- I’ll be very very happy. The musical style is quite eclectic, but it was a major progression over my first two albums. My Hope is My God and I’m in Love with You Tonight I like a lot and Hell it’s Hot Down Here and God Made the Devil I think are just as strong. There’s two ballads- My Boy and If I Could that are a bit too long but are very moving songs at their heart along with She Dances– a sweet song for my girls. Lullaby is there to keep up the instrumental tradition of previous albums and When it Rains  is I think a good new interpretation of the version off Delicacy. So I’m quite proud of this album- it was quite a leap for me in my writing.

Delicacy (2012)

Delicacy was recorded very quickly over a summer in a visit to Miami where I had lived for five years. The songs have a country influence in rhythm and style and it was a reasonable achievement for me in my early songwriting. The recording quality is patchy in parts, and the songs are ok, but for me- it’s still very much a formative work. It still had a few instrumental compositions on it- like Pennies for Tomorrow- but I’d shifted more towards songwriting and developing my lyrical efforts but having never had singing lessons up to this point (and never really sung seriously) makes it a brutal effort listening back at times. You Wake Me Up, although being reminiscent of a toothpaste commercial jingle, is a sweet song I still play regularly and And She Cares I think is one of the nicest instrumentals I’ve composed (although the arrangement is a bit sleepy…)

Pennies for Tomorrow (2011)

This is my first album and came at a time when I was just finishing 20 years in the corporate world. I’d had one song- Sweetheart– an instrumental jazz piece that I wanted to record with some friends from my time in Miami but then all these other songs started coming out. Despite having played guitar since 1985, this was the first time I’d written songs and composed music. The album is very eclectic- jazz, blues, ambience, instrumental rock, country- even hokum (saucy swing). It amazes me that I wrote Sweetheart because when I pick up a guitar I really never play jazz or anything in that style- I’d bought a new guitar one day in New York and somehow that song just came out. At the Honkytonk still gets a regular outing with Swamp Dawkins but my secret favourite it Be Cheeky.  the last track, A Thought Late in Summer, I think is beautiful and worthy of any nature documentary. It’s inspired by a poem of the same name by the American poet Louis Bourgeois. Tremendously sad piece. It was a fascinating experience to have all these songs just pop out of nowhere once the pre-occupation with work had gone. They’d spent a long time waiting to come out I’d say.

I have grown too old to live among society. I will take my few meagre things and head for the woods. I know of a place not far from here where there is a pond in the deepest part of the forrest. Hardly anyone knows about it. I will go there and build a small cabin. There, in total isolation from the brutality of man and woman, I will exist like a tree, a rock, the stillest pond. I will think of these forty years of life as a dream lived out to the death by someone else. The nearness of death is our sweet sonata

A Thought Late in Summer (Paris, France) Louis Bourgeois.