Biography

I have had a love for songs since I can remember and started to write my own at about age 30. Before that I had been playing fiddle and singing in sessions and in a folk band. The songs that inspired me were those that told the stories of ordinary people in ordinary situations that captured everyday experience. The sort of stories that are familiar and all around us, lovingly crafted into a poem or song in simple language with unflinching honesty. Songs that remind us that our stories are anything but mundane or unimportant – they are expressions of our times and our realities, our struggles and our joys. I use simple chord structures, instrumental parts and tunes because that’s what I can play! An honest, raw singing voice is what I think makes a song moving and authentic, sung in one’s own accent!

In recent years I have written so many lyrics that may or may not end up as songs that I decided to keep the drafts as ‘poems.’ I now find that writing a ‘poem’ is also a satisfying endeavour in itself, and here I am presenting a collection of poetry as well as songs. I have no formal training in writing creatively, and very little in playing instruments. These activities are simply what I have always done – sometimes as a way to survive mental turmoil, sometimes to fill time, sometimes to expend manic energy and sometimes just to show off. I hope that others might get something enjoyable or useful from reading these poems and listening to these songs – I have enjoyed writing them immensely.