John Cunningham - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Been playing and writing for about thirty years now. Mainly acoustic stuff, mainly solo.
I got most of my experience performing in public at the Pietermaritzburg FACMA in the late 80s and early 90s. I was in a band called Ripping Yarns for a while and I've put some of the stuff we did on MySpace - you can get to the Ripping Yarns page be clicking on the picture in my Friends Link
The first two songs I put on the website were recorded in the mid 90s at Houston Folk Club in Scotland.
Last year I put two more recent recordings on; "You Live In Me" which is about my father, and "You" was inspired by my lovely wife, Louise. We were married on the Isle of Arran, Scotland, in August 2007.
"Camusdarach" was actually composed at the time my main picture profile was taken in 2005. It was a mood piece, that is meant to remind you of sitting on a beautiful deserted beach in the West of Scotland. For the version included here, I've interspersed some of the instrumental passages from "You Live In Me".
In November 2008 I added two videos recorded in Marchon a beautiful beach on Arran, overlooking Kintyre. The sound quality is very poor, but at least you can watch the scenery!!!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/20/2007
Band Members: Solo performer, most of the time.
Influences: Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Capercaillie, Gallagher and Lyle, Dougie MacLean, John Martyn, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Karine Polwart, Don Mescall, Yes, Queen, Johnny Clegg, Pink Floyd, Davy Spillane, Gnidrolog, Paul McCartney, Gerry Rafferty, Steely Dan, Mick Daley, Elvis Costello, Squeeze, New Celeste, Mark Knopfler, Wolfstone, Buddy Holly, Dick Gaughan, Fleetwood Mac, Sting, Neil Young, Camel, Gretchen Peters, Steve Howe, Gillian Welch, David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, Martin Simpson, Steve Newman and Tony Cox, 108, Plagal Cadence, Roddy Woomble, Joan Armatrading, Elton John, Rickie Lee Jones, Neil Finn...
...not forgetting Poco, Dire Straits, The Eagles, The Kinks, Alison Krauss, The Who, Free, CSNY, Slade, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Eric Clapton, Roddy Frame, Steve Hillage, Jack Savoretti, Lindisfarne, Rob Cato, Focus, Ilan Lax, George Harrison, Francis Dunnery, Don McLean, Sandy Denny, John Lennon, U2, Led Zeppelin, Tracy Chapman, Planxty, Carole King, 10cc, Kate Rusby and numerous unknown or little known musicians....
...and, getting back to the start, The Beatles for making me listen to music properly for the first time - still my favourite songwriters and band of all time; Eric McCracken, my guitar teacher back in 1976; and the lad who was playing Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" to his girlfriend on the Arran ferry in about 1972. He looked really cool and she was looking at him so adoringly that I realised that this lark was for me!!
Sounds Like: You tell me!
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

New video "Hopeful Song"

I've just uploaded a video of Ilan Lax's "Hopeful Song" recorded earlier this year on a beach on "the other side of the island" (Arran). The sound quality is pretty naff, because it's only done with a...
Posted by on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:10:00 GMT

Playing tonight

I'm looking forward to playing at the Railway View, Byrons Lane, Macclesfield tonight (7th Oct 08). There's an informal session there every second Tuesday.
Posted by on Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:53:00 GMT

Ripping Yarns!

Hello everyone. Just to let you know I've set up a MySpace music site for Ripping Yarns, the band I was in in PMB, South Africa in the early 90s. I've uploaded a few songs - quality a little lacking a...
Posted by on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:36:00 GMT