Song of the week #31

Wake Up!

The original song
I wrote this song in July/August 2018 for my Big Issues album. I had known Martin Niemoller's poem for years; it is inscribed on many Holocaust memorials in the USA…

Song of the week #30

Curious Idea

The song:

A friend asked me to write a song for her. That, simply, was the spark which lit the creative fire for this track.

The opening line came to me easily. The…

Song of the week #29

One Day

This track was my public response to an unexpected and devastating family tragedy which came “like a lightning strike from a clear blue sky”. There was also a private response but that song…

Song of the week #28

I Wish I Was

This track, which dates back to late 2015, blends the styles of two of my favourite musicians: James Taylor and Mark Knopfler. Of course, the two of them got together for…

Song of the week #27

Epiphany

This song, which I wrote and recorded in the summer of 2017, was the track that nearly got away. Let me explain:

When I made my first rough demo of the song the result…

Song of the week #26

Caught in the Glare of the Headlights

My first album “Better Late..” was something of an experiment. With the benefit of hindsight, I now  see that I was trying out different music genres to find…

Song of the week #25

Call Me a Stranger

I wrote this track at 4:00am in late August 2016. About 90% of the words and the guitar riff in its entirety came to me as a trade-off for my lack…

Song of the week #24

Fallen on My Feet

At the time that I wrote Fallen on My Feet in 2016 it was the only track I have ever written on a ukulele and it still has that distinction. It…

Song of the week #23

Don't Quit

I was just three weeks away from my eighth birthday on the “Day the Music Died”. I don't remember much about Buddy Holly's death in early February 1959 at the time that it…

Song of the week #22

Turn Out the Light

This track began life as a simple love song which I wrote on an open-tuned acoustic guitar, but it soon became a lot more complex and serious. I think it was…