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I have decided to keep you informed as to my progress or lack of it as we move into record mode. I will try to explain how decisions are made and how I arrive at the treatment a song gets.

• 1 May 2010
Another week has vanished along with the whole of April. Work continues at the studio and I have been reviewing and re recording songs. I now have another version of Around the Wild Cape Horn. and Walk Into The Morning I recorded the foot taps along with these tracks and I am more pleased with these performances. Of course this means that I no longer have Chris Parkinson on the Cape Horn track or the fiddle from Anna. The trouble is that although on hearing the song people say that it would sound good with seafaring sounds on it, there is so little room.

The song's narrative is made largely from Irving Johnson's commentary which was non stop during the film. I have adapted this in rhyming form but the lyric gives little room for additional sounds without them intruding. I did think of adding old fashioned harmonica played from my neck harness and do it live but there is enough to concentrate on the guitar picking remembering the words and tapping the feet in time so it is at present just a live track. We may be able to send it via the ether to Chris for him to add his squeeze box later. I used the same method to record Rev Thunder again. This was after I added harmonies myself. Now I think I will keep it as a solo track. There are several live recordings of this song and I am in no doubt that one of these will also find its way on to a CD some time.

Steve Turner came in on Tuesday evening to finish his part on Somewhere Down the Road He got a beautiful sound from his old Telecaster and I think it compliments the twelve string perfectly.

The best bit of my recording week came when the Kernow String Quartet arrived for the song The Girl on the Jersey Ferry. A big thank you to Karen Cross violin Chris Prindl viola and Barbara Degener Cello. Initially there were a few monitoring problems as string players find it hard to work with headphones and listen to their instruments at the same time. The violins and viola is of course very near the ear anyway. Finally they asked me to conduct them and although rather self concious I managed quite well. I am very pleased with the result and Gareth Churcher has done a beautiful fin de siecle string arrangement to the song which I think compliments it perfectly.

The cellist, Barbara is German and plays with several other ensembles in the west country.She is interested in perhaps playing on one or two other tracks so we will see what next week brings.

I also managed to get a new version of The break Of The Union down which was duly sent over the ether to Maart in N.Wales. Unfortunately his orchestra 's arrival has been delayed by the volcanic eruption so this may be the last song to be mixed down for the album.

It would appear that John (my engineer) has videoed me at the microphone on some attempts on songs, so if possible we may be able to put some snippets up on the site later.

It is now certain that there will be between 12 and 14 titles on this CD. Some of the songs are quite lengthy but there is quite a variety of genres and several pf the more narrative songs are longish. (6-7 mins)

Today Willy Wilson left a pair of Bongo drums for me to use on Cannabis Creek and I am promised a triangle for the song Cajun June and a Moon in Tune.

Last night I brought home some rough mixes of three songs and played them on our small system. I had some foretaste of the uncertainties that come as once all the work is over and we examine the end result all the old doubts come to haunt me again. It is easy to forget that music as a format is basically “heard” the first time and seldom does the lyric get absorbed unless the song is a commercial for itself with the one line title repeated over and over so that at the end of the tune you at least can hazard a guess as to what it's called. These songs will take a little longer to be listened to because the first thing anyone hears is the total sound. I know from experience that just the sound of one instrument can make up someone's mind e.g. on hearing a fiddle
“I don't like folk music” On hearing a pedal steel guitar “I don't like country music” etc.

It is neither fair or useful to ask someone what they think of a new recording. They only have to show me the wrong signal and I am cast into a well of despond that lasts for a day or so.

I will try this time not to have the songs around the house once we have finished so that they will be a bit fresh when they are actually on disc and I have the whole package back from the factory.

I have been talking to my Artist/designer Peter Thaine in Canada and his early work is looking good. We will probably go for the same design for the poster and handbill so you will get an idea of the CD before it actually comes out.

I expect to come to certain conclusions next week as to the final instrumental work on this recording. To be honest it has not been a radical departure from my original intention but on hearing all these songs for the first time since their writing I am confident that there is enough variety of genre and musical contribution from the fine musicians I have used to make the CD I intended. If anything I have used less backing than originally planned and the long months of refining the song lyrics seem to have worked. I love the composing more than the recording but I have enjoyed working with John Cornfield who is immensely skilled and I expect to finish laying down the music with his help by the end of this week and then the mixing begins.
Hope you all had a Happy Mayday!

18 May 2010
Not much recording this week past because of studio commitments for John and a meeting in London with regard to Leola business. Most importantly a trip abroad.

As Fulham F.C. Progressed through the stages of the Europa Cup, I jokingly said to my son and dedicated Fulham supporter that if they made it to the final, I would treat him and grandson Louis to the trip.
Well Fulham made it to the final and my youngest son Billy has bought a standby ticket from South africa to be there so we are off to the match against Atletico Madrid in Hamburg.
Tom's partner Anna and her dad have decided to come too and so that means little Isabelle will be with us as well.

Out of the blue I get a call from friends in Austria who want to be there too. When my youngest sons were at Nursery school they became friendly with two little Austrian boys. We met their parents and on Saturdays went together to support Fulham in their darkest days. It must have been a good thing to do because even after being away from England for at least twenty years they are still fans and for their dad Rhienfried's 65th birthday the two boys are treating him to a trip to Hamburg. Unfortunately only Georg will be with his dad as Martin is now a surgeon and cannot get away.

All seats are booked and all planes are full so we must travel to Hamburg via Zurich, a mere trifle.

Billy arrives in London and it is wonderful to see him again. We all head off to the local for a welcome home drink and already the journey is getting shorter.

I will not go into the travel bore mode. We all know how horrendous it is so believe me when I just award points from 1 to 20 to describe our outward journey as a 5. We are well tired by the time we get to the hotel and jollities begin as we meet our Austrian friends at the massive stadium. Beer and sausages later we take up our seats which we never use for the whole game is spent on our feet.

What a valiant effort we made. 63 games this season with a small squad but a proper team. Poor Bobby Zamora's injury meant he was substituted and we feared the worst but we evened up the score by half time through Sean Davies. The Fulham fans were magnificent keeping up their songs and chants to the very end.
When Forlan scored in the dying minutes of extra time I experienced the numbness of disbelief that seeps into your very bones. Fulham FC supporters are not used to these occasions still less the scale of these disappointments. At the presentation of the cup to Madrid many had left in a state of shock and I watched the celebrations at the other end in a sort of daze.

The whole experience was amazing. The manager,Roy Hodgson (we found out recently that Roy was at the same school as me although three years younger and of course we did not meet there) has lead his team to this final. We have experienced joy and exhilaration that the club has not felt since our cup final run of more than thirty years ago. We have beaten the top clubs of Europe and made it to the final where we lost by one goal. Not bad eh?

We console each other with manly hugs and talk of the irony of our great young Norwegian defender Hangeland's almost own goal credited to Forlan. Anna is crying. Little Louis takes it in his stride, my Tom and Billy are in shock. We are all gutted.

I cannot help wondering if the Fulham faithful contributed by their constant singing of FULHAM! FULHAM! to the tune of Amazing grace. Perhaps Forlan thought they were singing HIS name FORLAN! FORLAN!.

I am so tired I just want a few beers and bed but our dear Austrian friends will have none of it and insist we go to the Reeperbahn for beers and they proceed very undiplomatically to dissect the game to tell us where we went wrong. However the buckets of beer soon warm up the conversation until Billy actually falls asleep whist we are talking. It is 4.30 am when we get back to the hotel and we have to be out of the Hotel tomorrow.
We are awakened at 9 and pack and leave like dishevelled refugees dragging our bags through Hamburg looking for food for the kids. It is Ascension day and everything is closed except the sausage stands. So we eat sausage and chips and take coffee and cake. Today deserves a 3 out of 10 and we arrive in Zurich at 10.30. There were knots of sad and hung over FFC supporters everywhere and there are even some here too.
Our flight tomorrow means we have to be up at 4am.

These last hours merit 2 out of 10.

Back in England the families disperse to their separate destinations. For the first time in a long time my three sons are all in the same place. We all go off to watch Louis in his weekly five a side match and after just a couple of hours sleep Louis scores 3 goals to lift us all out of our despond. Foot ball. It's a funny old game.
On my return to Cornwall John has done some mixes for me so the week was far from lost. I think in the main they will stand as finals although one or two will have some tweaking. There will now be a short intermission between my notes as John is working on other material at a different studio. I am in touch with Maart Allcock who is now working on the orchestral arrangement for The Break Of the Union.

I forgot to tell you that the triangle duly arrived from Steve. I forgot to unpack it from my bag and it nearly travelled to Germany with us.

We tried various steel implements including the aluminium governor wheel from an old washing machine before getting the right sound from our borrowed triangle. There is even a technique for getting the right sound from one of these things,

I think we managed O.K and it is now nicely bedded into the song Cajun June and a Moon in Tune.

More later. Come on Fulham!

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