Songs
As I've said on my homepage, I've long been a low-key singer-songwriter-guitar-player. "Low-key" in part because my music has always played "second fiddle" (not the most appropriate metaphor given that I play guitar, but you know what I mean!) to my writing and academic work. Even so, listening to and creating music has been and continues to be a vital part of my life and has sustained me in more ways than I can say. In particular, I have long admired the compression of thought and feeling that can be squeezed into the few minutes it takes to sing or listen to a song. My heroes in this area are acoustic singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne, Bruce Cockburn, John Gorka, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills, James Taylor, David Wilcox ... and so on.
Here, then, are some simple, one-take home demos of some of my own songs:
- The Traveller's Wells -- God help you if you're out there on the parched plains and don't stumble upon the Traveller's Wells.
- Old, Old Story -- "It's an old, old story about love and its glory, but it's always a good one to tell."
- Dilapidated Soul -- About being worn down by the workaday world. You've never felt that way yourself, right?
- Saviour -- About what really saves us.
- The Taste in My Heart -- Which way will it go?
- Seize the Day -- Remember the Captain and his mandolin.
- Everything but the Girl -- "You know what 'the thing is'? The heart just yearns and yearns."
- These Days -- About breaking free from one's ghosts.
- Heaven's Call -- On hearing a woman with the sweetest voice singing in the London Underground.