New Album: 'Fish House Blues' almost finished

 

I am 45, I hope that means I am at least ‘middle-aged’. In the strangest year of my life, we have all faced mortality in different ways. Some have turned to creative outlets but we have all also been ‘hibernating’ in our own ways waiting for the spring rays of light to crack open a new world. 

 I have been working on a ‘Songs from Somerset’ type album since I struggled out a collection called ‘Little Boy blues’. That album dealt with things like fatherhood and being a husband. New song ideas between then and now had been explored and often recorded with different bands and projects, some became whole releases. (three Minor Works Unit releases, Work with Mr Keep Calm & The Cancelled Cheques, Mossflower: Moorage Heart). With the song ‘Fish House Blues’, my ideas and sound started to crystalise. The themes explore my place in my village where we live on the Somerset Levels, the wetlands. The whole of history behind me and the future stretching out in front: it turns out to be a strange and different one. 

 Under the Lockdowns, our worlds shrunk to where we could walk and each expedition became an adventure of discovery – that snail shell by the rhyne suddenly seems to glow with a sensory intensity to eyes that had been limited each day to an 11-inch computer screen. 

 As I started to write, strange new songs tumbled out, gradually replacing the few songs that had piled up since ‘Little Boy Blues’. I enjoyed playing music with my daughter, a very competent violinist and the rest of my family (my wife plays cello & Flute and my son, keys) and explored the tonalities of bowed double bass, acoustic piano and the many other acoustic instruments in my studio, including recorders (my wife is a great flautist and says my playing sounds like a key stage one player!) 

 The songs represent 12 months of trying to teach music to FE students, either through a mask or on a computer screen during the lock-downs. My infrequent walks became desperate adventures to allow my mind to escape into the history and stories of the place where we live. After all, this year will finally be represented in a single ring in a cut tree. 

 Here is some of what I remember being played: 

Daniel Shaw – acoustic, electric, Semi-acoustic, & 12 string guitars. Mandolin. Harmonica. Lever Harp. Bowed and plucked Double bass. Bass guitar. Soprano, Treble and Tenor recorders. Percussion, Bodhran and some drums. Vocals and backing vocals. Acoustic piano, keys and a little programming. Engineering, mixing. 

Fiona Shaw – Cello on Timber ships 

Abi Shaw – Violin on Timber ships, Leatherman & Glastonbury Canal 

Alfie Galpin – vocal loop on Dark room? 

Max Gittens – mono Ribbon looped drums on There’s no choice now. 

Reese Crossley– awesome drums on perhaps one track? 

Harry Carpenter – perhaps some awesome drums on a couple of tracks? The couple of tracks that made it through from before lockdown (Silver children and I will bring you home) are a bit of a blur.