I'm  getting ready to fly to europe for WOMAD and the other gigs you can find elsewhere on this page, plus the summer school which was amazing last year ... I've nearly got the new album ready. it's called 'songwriter' and will be released in september in europe, I'll write about it, put up some songs, and let you know how to order it in early august.

in the meantime, I thought I'd put up 'gordon brown' from the 'troubadour' mini album (you can guess why), and a song I wrote when a friend (stu spence who took the 'boy 40' and 'a million miles' CD photos) asked me for a song for his current art exhibition here in melbourne (at the mars gallery). the song is long, but this is in fact a faded version since the full one won't fit on this site. stu asked me to look at the works and react with a song - I'd already seen the show in sydney. here's how it came together:

"When I looked through the photos it felt like I'd missed the train — I'd been to the Sydney exhibition and had other interpretations in my head, so I didn't know how to choose one. Then I put up the page with all the photographs, and stared into the middle distance for a while. Some time later, I started playing, and a rather amazing song/soundscape emerged. It tries to express what I took to be the mood of the collection, incorporating the exhibition title, a line from a Bob Dylan song, and six of the photos in particular — but only briefly, and only maybe only in my head. All of this mixed in with something personal I've been thinking about lately. I mixed the song and sent it off to Stu, feeling a strange mix of anxious and relieved. The song is long but worth it, I hope. I'd imagine maybe taking a wander round the gallery listening to it."

have fun and a great summer - or a beautiful warm winter. quite a few friends of mine are no longer with us. news is not always good. it makes me think that we have to treasure every moment.

andy x