Come on you rolling minstrels

It's been a very long time since I've updated this blog. Quite a lot has happened, including the death of my long term relationship. One way or another, I've been desperately unproductive.

There's nothing quite as unfashionable as folk-rock. It's not even possible to be into it ironically. You've more chance of seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary in your local Woolworths than a woman of child-bearing age in a folk club. However, I've always made a point of listening to different musical styles, and found Fairport Convention's first album for a fiver at the local HMV.

Wow.

Strictly speaking, the first album isn't what English people would describe as folk. Actually, the story gets incredibly complicated, involving constant line-up changes, solo projects, a coach crash and various other details, but the point is, even when they were mostly doing Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan covers, Fairport Convention were a great band. Small Faces great.

I now own the first five albums. Each one challenges me to rethink what the band was, exactly. Well, by the fifth album, there's only two original members left, and neither of them are playing in anything like their original style. A number of them became great songwriters, which makes the band leader's decsion to go off and perform ultra-traditional music even weirder. Sure, there's something a bit weird about listening to old songs about girls who fall in love with fairies, but listen to the tune and tell me it isn't great.

Point is, Fairport Convention are like the Velvet Underground. You get listening to them, and sooner or later, you're going to have to pick up a guitar and actually write your own stuff. Frankly, it helps to have an acoustic, but once I started, I taught myself a couple of Fairport numbers, and then got down to business. One song took two weeks, another one.

Sadly, now I have to block the creative flow for a while and record the damn things. But, for now, Simon, Richard, Ashley, Judy, Ian, Sandy, Swarb and Dave, thank you so much.

New songs I've written:

• Ask Me Again
• Moving On
• Cruithne
• Counting The Sheep
  

Old songs I've remembered:

• Sleep Now
• Bitter Bloom