It’s been ages since I wrote anything for this page. Not that my life has been uninteresting. Anything but. A three month stay in Ireland in 2023 which was so good that as soon as myself and herself got back to Victoria, we were already planning a return trip the summer of 2024. We even had our accommodation booked! However, cooler heads eventually prevailed. Instead we drove from Ladysmith, BC to St. John’s, Newfoundland in a tiny camperized 2004 Toyota Sienna, with no AC, about 20 000km with all the comings and goings. Memorable indeed.

About a year ago I sent a demo of seventeen songs to a few friends and family and asked them to choose their favourite eight or ten songs. Amazingly most of their choices coincided with most of my own and the final eight were chosen but I didn’t tell anyone which songs would eventually be on the EP.

So here I am, April 7, 2025 with everything done and dusted and just awaiting delivery of both hard copies and digital downloads, while I am using Symphonic as my distributor to all the major streaming platforms. That choice took me ages to make as each distributor has pros and cons and the permutations are mind-boggling.

Eventually I went with my producer’s advice. So here are the final eight songs and a wee blurb for each. More to follow on the making of the recording.

 

The Music Hall

Working in Temple Bar, Dublin, as a teenager, the capacity for pints of some punters never ceased to amaze me. One regular would come in, place his belly against the counter and say, “Fill ‘er up!” The Music Hall was a short-lived but very cool eating-place and music venue in Ladysmith, BC. –  a local setting for the song.

 

Hey Kid

Sometimes we are too quick to offer advice, when only a sympathetic ear is needed.

For Rudi

 

Too Soon

A song with obvious Celtic sensibilities. No matter what the head says, the heart makes its own choices.

 

Don’t Let That Old Man In.

Inspired by Clint Eastwood and dedicated to everyone who refuses to let age define them.

 

The River

We shared a desk in school. He would get off the bus a few stops after me. One day he didn’t come to school. By the time he returned a few weeks later we had learned what happened to his family. He was never the same. Not long after, he left our school for good. We were nine years old.

 

Too Many People

The world would be a calmer, less stressful place if people were allowed to go about their lives without the antennae of outrage sifting for negativity. For Ciaran.

 

The Way That It Goes

I had a collection of random verses, which hadn’t yet been thrashed out and expanded into full songs. I cobbled some together and every couple of verses has a real or imagined connection with each other.

 

Old Friends

One I’ve known since I was four, the other since I was seven. We still communicate at least once a year. I always try to visit whenever I’m back in Ireland.