Early in 2015 in San Jose, California I found a 1944 Martin guitar. It was battered, bruised and had been unloved and gathering dust in a vintage guitar shop for far too long. I played it once; it sang softly but straight into my heart, but I couldn’t afford to buy it, even in its sorry condition. So I left it and returned to England. But fate had other ideas and after 2 years and a lot of kindness, that sweet little guitar arrived at my home in Somerset, fully restored and ready to sing again. I made a private promise there and then I would repay all that kindness in the best way I could, and record a long-overdue solo album.
In December of that year I wrote and recorded ten songs. The songs that came out of me
then were broken love songs, songs of heartbreak and abandonment. I can’t say that this was entirely intentional; as a songwriter you have to accept that there is a sense in which you are not wholly in control, sometimes the heart will lead and sometimes the head; like my little guitar, songs tend to emerge with a voice of their own. If these are songs of loss and of heartbreak, then there was something cathartic about writing them; a kind of healing both for me and my newly healed instrument. I called the album ‘December’.
Listen to ‘Smarter Than Me’ from the album. PREVIEW & BUY ‘DECEMBER’ ON ITUNES
Perhaps I am better known for the songs of characters and history and social comment, or
maybe for the storytelling, but ‘December’ is different from all of that. ‘December’ seemed to come from a place that was more personal, darker and more shadowy, but as much as any story of bravery I could tell you in song, these songs are true. They are real and honest to me. These songs are the sound of my voice in that month of December. ‘December’ is just me and the quiet voice of an instrument that had not spoken for a very long time.
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Photography: Sue Foll, Peter James Millson, Kath Leeder
