Whilst living in Edinburgh I attended the first year of a evening course in Scottish Cultural Studies. Tutors included Murdo Mac Donald and Cairns Craig and I met Robert Alan Jamieson…
Category: Songwriting
Black Tin Barns – the story behind the song
As a child they were all around but as developers moved in they faded away..the last ones behind my grandfather’s house now being turned into an Eco Museum for Trees! Musically I…
Prodigal Son – the story behind the song
Another play with classic americana themes. Here the black-sheep boy returning home. Based on people I knew in Didcot very loosely. Some added harmonica and guitar. One of the strange influences…
The Devil’s Address – the story behind the song
Well my mother’s father and my uncle were both truck drivers all their lives but I don’t drive which kind of sad considering how many times driving features in my songs!…
Man with no name – The story behind the song
‘Unknown man with my step-grandfather’ Photograph Long Wittenham 1920s. Aubrey my step-grandfather is on the right. This song goes way back. Probably mid 1980’s in first version . This 1995 rendition…
These Three Rooms – The story behind the song
A love song to poverty or those three rooms in South Edinburgh..our tiny flat…we somehow survived two years in and were still together. It took Oxford and a bigger flat and more…
The Ballad of The Orange Tree – The story behind the song
This entire series of songs are the most personal and autobiographical I have ever written. I have never delved so deeply into folk and personal stories as here a sign of the…
The rain pours through the roof – The story behind the song
Latest addition to the Black Tin Barns album on bandcamp. This song is about the slow decline and eventual closure of the British Leyland Rover factory in Cowley. My Uncle John…
My Little Town – the story behind the song
MY LITTLE TOWN There’s a road runs straight through my little town Half way down it there’s a picture house Now they’ve turned it into a bingo hall They don’t show films…
Black Tin Barns and River Ghosts: The Edinburgh Tapes 1995-6
I and my then partner Ana from Zaragoza got on a train and moved to Edinburgh in August 1994. It was a spur of the moment idea and we then lived there…