"Have Singer Songwriter Mind,Will Travel" was what I was thinking around the time I put together the songs that would become my first album 'Breech Birth' (2006)Songs that came out of a paper mache of home recordings and demos,promissory notes to myself in my early twenties,encounters with people and musical situations that I was encountering post university and family home where I grew up in suburbia south Dublin.Songs that took on a story like narrative,a form I had observed in the songwriting styles of Rickie Lee Jones,Ron Sexsmith,Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III.International grass roots grown troubadours who would make their annual one man show visits to the city.The old school is the new school I was thinking when I began to seriously investigate the DNA of the song that alchemy of detail and hindsight,experience and perspective.The Situation Songwriter thats what I wanted to be.Take the audience scene by scene through the short films that are my songs whether its a song about a quirky choir with belly dancers and revolving conductors and tap dancing altos 'Medieval Dukebox Delight' or a hair product I use thats not commercial enough to have a jingle written about it but I wrote one anyway 'Bed Head Manipulator' or a step by step guide to going in search of a New Years kiss,seduction in the west of Ireland 'Cheekbones'.I wanted to bring the audience into my anecdote but equally an anecdote they can relate to like a jovial conversation after a few liquors.Around 2004 I met and befriended local veteran musos Michael Carass and Lucy Johnston (once of late 60's harmony folk group The Johnstons) and every Sunday for a year we met in Lucy's house and went through my song repertoire with two guitars and two vocals the most natural way to bring out the flavours of each song we thought and I recall many a juicy evening of wine and conversation and commentary on Dylan.Joni,Elvis and The incredible String Band our favourite vintages too.Later that year Michael and I collaborated on my first album 'Breech Birth'.The title alludes to giving birth but needing support in the process.The title was inspired by my sister Julie (Miss Betty Boop) and my mother who were both nurses and former mid-wifes.Michael was the ideal collaborator on my songs.He knew them inside out and was able to provide his toy instrument orch touches to my finger picking tunes in such a way that you would come back to those songs again and again and hear something you hadn't spotted before .The tuba on 'Not an Irish Pub House in Sight' or pump organ on 'Cheekbones' added to the brass band trumpton town like atmosphere of the album.The most consistent comments I've heard from the people that have 'Breech Birth' is that it rewards repeated listening.
I'm always delighted to hear this as I'm generally concerned that the album as an art form is dying.Not that this would stop me making more.Once made I was ready to leave the nest with album ammunition in tow.I was hungry to soak up as many experiences as possible and like a barrel of freshly cut wine grapes rock and roll myself around the old cities of Europe.
Like a budding young sailor I imagined playing in the haunts and dives of the tiring blues and folk club scene taverns spread out across Belguim,France and Holland.
What I found instead were theatres,clubs,whole scenes fighting it out for the soul of fresh original live music as opposed to the dinosaur rock n' blues brigades which had become part of the rotting furniture of these places.In 2006 I saw the city of Amsterdam at the heart of this musical sea change.A city that was always an epicenter for many the journeyman musician finding a foothold on the european landscape.A crossroads from where one could bring ones muse as far east as Berlin in winter and as far south as Portugal for the summer festival season.The city that became my home away from home.A city where I met home grown luminaries such as the Americana styled (with a topping of Beach Boys) Reaganesk,the dark brooding and desirable chanteuse siren (with a touch of eastern) Selma and the little boy blue tongue in cheek ragtime theatre of Lucky Fonz III and International ones such as the Chilean fingerpicking firefly Nano Stern,an Englishman in Amsterdam (and my favourite songwriter since Ray Davies) Tony Chapman and the American Lake Montgomery (carrying the torch for Nina Simone).A city schooled in the tradition of Jazz and Classical Conservatories and Pop Idol competitions but they built a monument to the Situation Songwriter in the form of the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild to educate the freethinkers with its headquarters Cafe Sapphos.My friend and fellow Irishman Albert Niland recounted to me once that we travelling tunesmiths were like the young Irish Catholic Missionaries of old being sent off to some far away outpost to spread the word to the people.
Well the more I travelled as a songwriter the more I began to write songs in the mantra like form wanting to bring my word to the people simple and direct.I wrote a song called 'Meemantras' about a mother who bores a son and its a hard labour and the son realises when he grows up that hard labour must continue as a way of life and he must push himself as is the way of the world, "Push the Boy".... so the chorus goes.I wrote 'Home Sweet Continental Home' after experiencing a beautiful folk dance festival called Andancas in a place called San Pedro de Sul in the Portuguese countryside I was invited to play at.The song is about how a relationship is like a dance, who leads the dance.the timing and the pace of the dance and to enjoy the ride of the dance whatever upfalls or downfalls there may be.I wrote 'Drop' about Amsterdam and that time in the small wee hours of the morning after a nights playing when a musician wishes to sit and reflect with his drop of beer and doesn't wish to be disturbed especially by the barman and his closing times.The song is a like a mantra warning to barmen everywhere and always gets a laugh when I give the obligatory "cheers" at the end of that song.I was fortunate in 2007 and 2008 to travel on a mantra missionary to several outposts as far east as Bergamo and Milan to perform,The Clock Towers in Bergamo is a favourite "Even the Vatican City should be checkin out this medieval delight.The cosy hearth of T'Floere Fufke in Gent ,Belguim where I played a show with nine fingers was a real rites of passage although they tell me there its part of the ritual.Tavern De Waag of Haarlem,Netherlands where these herculean iron doors open up to reveal a 15th century oil painting of some amorously drunken musical minstrels lounging at their beggars banquet thus creating a very fitting and ancient atmosphere to sing in.I travelled as far south as The Altar Cafe in Porto,Portugal where I danced some traditional scottish jigs with the ladies in between sets,oh how "Home Sweet Continental Home remembers me".As I "Push the Boy" into 2009 I hope to release my second album 'MeeMantras' which is currently undergoing some fine tuning at the hands of my producer guru Santiago Alcala in Barcelona later in the year.The Album has carved out its own map and legend all the way from a two week recording session in a chateaux in the Belgian countryside where I gathered at a cultural crossroads with Chilean Nano Stern (Renbourn to my Jansch) and Belgian chanteuse Rose Dumon acclaimed accordionist and violinist with much loved ensemble Savouree where they added some continental vibes and colouring to my acoustic mantras.Although we three have gone our very different ways since for a moment it seemed we could have taken our musical soupings anywhere ,to a Boombaal Dance night, to an intimate acoustic evening in a Zuiden van Europa or a Mezrav Tea Room or folk n' rolling it in a Hotsy Totsy club.I believe thankfully however that this energy is reflected on 'Meemantras'.In May 2009 after returning to Amsterdam to perform at the legendary Sapphos Cafe with Miss Lake Montgomery I can reflect better on the last few years as Amsterdam always acts as a benchmark by which other people,places and moments will be judged.Again its like coming home and what a long strange trip its been.See you on my travels.....G.. ..>
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