A Life in Music Renny Jackson: from Birmingham to Sevilla

Spanish-British fusion: a long distance conversation

I assembled and edited most of the Lives in Music podcast episode that accompanies this post on the fifth anniversary of the death of a mutual friend, the great Paul Murphy, who both introduced me to Renny Jackson, and encouraged us both, as he did with everybody he worked with, in our different projects. 

One of the things Paul had me do on his Thursday Song Writers Café nights was to interview each artist about their own creative process.

How do songs arrive?

I asked that question of maybe a hundred or more of Paul's guests. I got a different answer each time. Everyone, it turned out, had a different approach. Renny was thoughtful, open and honest.

So it was that I talked at length with Renny, who originally came from Birmingham, before he delivered a charming and articulate set on his brief return to the city. 

To listen to the Lives in Music podcast episode, go here, or simply scroll down to the bottom of this post. 

Lockdown

There's a twist to this series of Lives in Music podcasts. We're all stuck in lockdown, and so I am asking each guest about how it affects them. Now, as you'll hear, Renny is now based in Sevilla in Spain, where the oranges come from. And they have hassles too, just like us. In fact, not quite as bad as us, but enough to put a stick in the wheel of new live projects. The two influences come together in Renny's music.

A 1500 mile conversation

Obviously, we recorded our conversation remotely. This is a step on from Zoom - radio-oriented  software, for a start - but it felt absolutely right chatting, in a very personal way, with someone who now lives fifteen hundred miles away. Tech may have messed us all up in its different ways, but little things like software that lets you straddle boundaries certainly help.

Renny's take on the lockdown in Spain is an interesting variation on what problems face musicians in the UK. We'll also hear the impact Spain has had on this Brit.

Links

Renny's facebook page
The River Roots single on YouTube
Renny Jackson on Spotify

Renny's Lives in Music episode  

The Lives in Music Podcast series   

I've been doing this for about two years now. These are interviews with local 
musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3 
also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories. 

To see who's in the list of artists, here's a link to see every episode.

One further footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music come from Vo Fletcher, who is also featured in this series, along with Loz Lozwold. I asked Vo for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.

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Thank you, Paul Murphy

We've lost one of the greats. We've lost a friend.

Photo Richard Shakespeare     

Paul Murphy passed away last week. His family announced his passing on Friday. It was a difficult day. The news was met with an explosion, a passionate outpouring of grief which rippled out across the world. Rightly.  

Paul was a wonderful, open, extravagantly talented man with a razor-sharp mind,   boundless optimism, and lively curiosity about anything and everything. There didn't seem to be anything he could not do.

And he told stories. Oh, how he told his stories...

Kim Lowings: the tricky path twixt traditional and brand new

Traditional music and powerhouse songwriting. Delivered digitally, of course. 

Photo: Laura Whittington

It turned out to be a busy day. I needed a rare vinyl 7" for a show I'm producing. There's only a few hundred copies. But, lo! a dusty copy is unearthed from a King's Heath attic.

Just as well I was in the neighborhood. Long before questions of exotic vinyl, I'd set up a chat not remotely to do with vinyl nostalgia.This was to be all about right now, with a storming folk talent: Kim Lowings.

Kim Lowings heads up Kim Lowing and the Greenwood: a powerful, articulate, highly intelligent folk-oriented local outfit. The new album swings between Kim's own songs, which are resolutely modern, and traditional material. And Kim just happens to have a fantastic voice. Comfortably settled in over coffee, it looks like things are starting to kick off for her and the band. But we did, actually, touch on vinyl. In the end.. 

Dan Whitehouse and Chris Tye: they've got shows for you. And a Christmas song. No, really.

Dan Whitehouse and Chris Tye talk of cabbages and kings, new albums, big shows, collaboration, creativity and Christmas songs.

Dan Whitehouse and Chris Tye are comfortably ensconced upstairs at the Wellington in Birmingham City Centre. Two extraordinary singer-songwriters, each with a new album, each with full band showcase gigs in the next few weeks at the same venue – the Glee Club; both albums share some personnel : Michael Clarke has several cowriting credits with both Dan and Chris; Simon Smith crops up on bass on both albums. In some quarters, that might lead to flouncing, flared nostrils and rivalry. Not with these boys. Why, they've even written a Christmas song together. Read on for an exclusive listen.

Dan's new album, his third long player, 'Raw State' is largely a revisiting of some of his long-standing songs, sometimes after years of live performances; the core of the material was recorded live with a full band at Reservoir Studios in North London production chores were handled by Danny George Wilson and Chris Clarke from 'Danny and The Champions Of The World'. Chris' album 'Paper Grenade' was recorded this year, and produced by Michael Clarke in Kings Heath in Birmingham.

With the launch of albums and headline tours, talk turns to progression and development. 

Dan: Artistically, it's happening. 

Chris: Yeah, but it can be difficult to fish out the gigs where it doesn't cost you money. Saying that, to fund 'Paper Grenade', I did a Pledge campaign; which I was really sceptical about doing. It worked really well, and in the end it gave me the opportunity to work with Michael (Clarke), and to get it mastered properly..

So what that really means is a vote of confidence, surely – you've got enough people to put the money up for you to deliver a work the way you wanted to? 

Chris: Definitely a confidence boost.

I wonder whether Pledge and all the others have still got the same impact. There's been a lot of appeals, not all of them successful.

Chris: Seems like an honest way of doing it. 

Full bands? That's another big commitment

Dan: It's a big band. I've got BJ Cole on Pedal Steel, Paul (?) on lead guitar; the drummer from Danny and the Champions of the world.... I've thrown everything I have at it. Rehearsing tomorrow.

Chris: So are we. Same bass player, Simon Smith.

Dan: Simon is the glue that holds everything together.

So – shared bass player, shared producer. Tell me about your shared song?

Dan: Ah! A Christmas song, called....'This Christmas'. We wrote it in April.

Chris: We nearly did it a couple of years ago. A little trust exercise. One mix session away from finishing it - there's another mix session next Sunday. We sent each other four really primitive ideas. I didn't really know Dan at the time. He didn't send me any abuse.

Will you wind up on each other's stages, performing the song? 

Chris: Is the 23rd of November too early? 

No... by the time of your shows, you'll be wall to wall with Christmas. 

Dan: I'll play it in my show on the 7th. 

Well, how about collaboration and ideas? You exchanged...

Dan: … bits of songs. Sketchy ideas. You know what it's like, trying to get together. We've made it work with this song. And one other one that's quite close. 

Chris: I enjoy co-writing with the right people. It either works or it doesn't. You know within twenty minutes. 

When ideas come up – Dan, you run Songwriters Circles, so you get ideas coming at you all the time – how do you step away from that and move into a collaborative framework? Can you move from teacher and enabler to collaborator? 

Dan: I don't see myself as teacher in that environment, I've co-written a number of songs with members of the circle. I do my best... to apply the oil to the creative wheel, keep things spinning around all the time. 

OK – here's a question for you both. Which was the most difficult song to do?

Dan: 'Somebody Loves You' is a big song in my set. And it's a song that I've struggled to get a recording that I'm happy with. Because it's so much about the performance, rather than the components of it. You couldn't do Somebody Loves You to a click track.

Your first recording of that song placed your voice in the world, with the noise of the world all around you. And you slowly trace how the song's character recovers from a point of complete desolation. I loved that – you in a soundscape, climbing up and out.. 

Dan: We recorded that in a school playground. And when I did that recording, Robin, it was before I had four years of playing that song live, every night, in a number of different environments. I had some really emotional experiences playing this song. But I struggled for ages to be able to get into to the right environment to make a good studio recording of it. That was my mission – to get a complete recording of that song – that was partly the reason to make this record. It reflects my knowledge of the song. I learned about the song through playing it. It's a two-way song – I'm not sure the song works on record. It's a conversation.

And Chris – what's your hardest song?

Chris: I suppose 'Vicious Words'. I played it live for about a year. It became one of those songs – unexpectedly. It's a song about divorce, a little bit downbeat. Bit I can really get into it live. I feel like it connects. It's a good song, I'm able to communicate it to people. 

I played it to Ben Niblett, a producer who worked on about three songs on this album. He set up a mic – 'Gotta get a recording of this' – about three feet away. No spot mic on my voice and the guitar. I played it and we got it, one take. I know everybody says 'One Take', and it's usually comp'd. 

Note: For a definition of comping, see here. In effect, it's anything but one take.

Chris: I loved this take. The first reverb we put on sounded ace. Do we change anything? We then did about six versions to try to recreate the magic. It didn't work, it almost never does when you do that. But I just thought the song could take a different treatment – electric guitar, double bass - so that's why there are the two versions.

Vicious Words: acoustic version

Vicious Words: full version

I think the acoustic cut hits harder. It's a tough listen.

Chris: A lot of people said that! 

Note: Chris and Dan are very interested in hearing from video producers with a view to getting something up for a December release - please get in touch with Dan at dan@dan-whitehouse.com. All proceeds go to charity, here.

Links 
Chris Tye
Dan Whitehouse

Albums
Buy Dan's album here; buy Chris' album here.

See more posts on music and musicians on Radio To Go _________________________________________________________________________________ Sign up to the mailing list for weekly updates

Now, the GOOD news. After the storms, Songwriters Café is back!

A Birmingham institution returns. I'm really looking forward to this. 

Songwriters Café, led by Paul Murphy and Valeria Rispo, is back for a short season starting on Thursday September 4th, and running for nine weeks in all. Opening night is already full.

It's a magical affair. Paul and Valeria have crafted a wonderful, intimate performance space, fashioned below the treehouse Paul built years ago, and now lovingly refurbished. Paul is Master of Ceremonies; he'll do a song or two, and then four acts will each play short sets of around 20 minutes to the invited live audience and a (much larger) worldwide online audience, with an interval halfway though. 

The craft of songwriting

The emphasis is on song writing. Paul programmes a very wide range of talent, from new and edgy to consummate veterans. The trick? You won't know who's on until you get there or you tune in to the stream. But the concerts are always interesting and sometimes unbelievably fabulous. 

Donations to fund events are key. This season you can donate in advance; you then become a member to guarantee a place at each of the house gigs. That's a good thing: it helps to pay for the massive overhaul that the performance space needed. The 2012 season was a soggy affair: it rained on 12 out of the 13 weeks. Then the following winter did so much damage to the old structure, that a costly rebuild was necessary. So remember that when the hat comes round. 

The result is a watertight, slightly larger space, with a few little extra wrinkles added for those who are there on the night, and for the online audience too: this season, the live stream will go out in stereo for the first time.

A second emphasis is on the audience. Songwriters Café audiences listen; they give the performers space and respect. To me, that is so, so welcome. I've lost count of the number of times noisy idiots have disprespected someone up on stage who is giving of themselves. And it's getting worse, not better. Live music from committed talent, young or old, is one of those gifts that you can't put a price on. Songwriters Café supports that, brilliantly.

Laptop-lit: Rispo on chatbox, Valk on Virtual DJ. By Richard Shakespeare    

Online streams

Access is limited: these are private house gigs for invited audiences. But you can join in online, and you'll be very welcome: online audience response is key and very much appreciated. You'll normally find me doing online continuity from 8.30 pm UK time, warming up to the night's events with choice cuts from previous seasons. When we're live, the chatbox is hosted by Valeria. Songwriters Café is also very happy to hear from radio stations near and far who might like to relay the stream, live or deferred. Give me a shout in the first instance.

Tasters from previous years

I'm putting together a taster series of short programmes to celebrate the restart; you can also link to them from the Songwriter's Café website. Here's the first.

And here's the second.

There will be more available as specials, on the Songwriters Café pages. 

To find out more, follow this link. Access is by invitation only; Songwriters Café is a house gig.

See more venues posts on Radio To Go _________________________________________________________________________________ Sign up to the mailing list for weekly updates

Dan Whitehouse: old craft, new songs, growing audiences.

How a song develops, from raw demo to the finished article: hear both in this post. 

I first heard Dan Whitehouse when scheduling Rhubarb Radio’s output in 2011, in the dying days of its second incarnation. I used just local material, mixing the best of West Midlands music makers into one audio stream. 

It was great. I got to listen to lots of music in different combinations, which is always interesting. And I saw how unusual and new songs bedded in on air with consistent and repeated play, the way they are delivered on mainstream radio..

Dan’s songs worked brilliantly. The more they came round, the better they sounded. That may well be because of how he crafts his songs. They wear well; they stick in the memory. 

It seems to be working for him. On Sunday 29th September, Dan put together a particularly lavish hometown launch gig for his second album, Reaching For A State Of Mind. Unsurprisingly, the gig sold out.  

Songwriters Cafe 2012 season: feeding the five hundred.

Behind the scenes at Songwriters's Cafe as it readies for the final live stream of the season. The penultimate aubergines have, indeed, been deep-fried.

Thursday 26th July saw the last in the 2012 summer season of live streamed performances at Songwriters Café. This is their third season, and it's been great. You owe it to yourself to catch the last stream this Thursday - see the notes at the bottom of the post for more - if you haven't listened yet. I’ve been working there on a documentary project, and doing continuity on the online stream, playing some of the fantastic performances from previous weeks; it’s been a blast. 

We’ve heard some fabulous music, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But it’s also a lot of work, especially for hosts and organisers Paul Murphy and Valeria Rispo. And over the course of the season, Paul, especially, develops an unusual intimacy with, er, aubergines.

It starts on the day before the event, when Paul and Valeria work out some numbers. How many musicians? Are they bringing friends, family or partners? How many helpers are coming on the night? What sort of margin for error?  How’s the salad patch looking? OK for beer, wine, juice, tea and coffee? Is anyone lactose or gluten-intolerant? Then it’s off for aubergines and other supplies for Thursday night’s communal meal.

Paul on a roll

On Thursday, work starts early. Bread dough is mixed, kneaded and left to prove. It’s a 50/50 mix of wholemeal and strong white flour, and that’s Paul’s responsibility. So is the main course, Paul’s Aubergine Parmesan. Aubergines (or eggplants, or melanzana), are breaded, egged, and deep-fried – note that some purists insist on shallow-frying, but phooey to that - and layered with Valeria’s genuine home made Napoletana tomato sauce, and parmesan, ready for the oven. 

By six o’clock, Paul has knocked the dough back for the last time, and formed it into rolls, also ready to share space in the oven.

It’s always the same meal. Paul cooks, Valeria fixes the salads. It’s a key part of the evening; the bonding event around which the night pivots. It is hugely appreciated, and is becoming famous in its own right. A three month season of live shows means 13 weeks of aubergine parmigiana, salad and bread rolls. And as the season progresses, Paul’s dish just gets… better and better.

CDs and Teas

The meal is central to Songwriter’s Café evenings. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, your typical gig. When the artists arrive, they are greeted, made welcome, and in good time before the live show, fed a very decent meal. 

It’s late afternoon now. The night’s helpers start to arrive, to man the door, make tea and coffee, dispense drinks, sell artists’ merchandise, light the fires, sweep out and tidy up the performance area, fix any last minute snags in the building, and help with the artists.

From half past six, artists and friends drift in. It’s time for greetings, hugs, catch-ups and gossip, time to settle people down in the green room area, to show them around the performance space, to let them get a feel for the acoustics, to make (more) cups of tea for everyone. Paul and Valeria are working flat out. 

I’m privileged to be among the helpers. This is the point where I record interviews with the artists about their ways to write songs. We do that early, to get that part of the night’s work wrapped up before suppertime.

Now it’s 7.30. Food and drink flows out of the kitchen, ferried up to the decking area outside the Cafe. Everybody settles down around two huge tables for a communal meal. Musicians and helpers, who might never otherwise meet, talk, exchange ideas, and break bread together before the night’s concert. 

The fires are burning brightly now, and the evening gently shifts into its relaxed and magical performance mode. Around the table, ideas and thoughts flow back and forth. Paul is from Belfast, and Valeria from Naples, and neither of them has lost their accent – but that’s just the start. The whole night is a melting-pot of accents and cultures, with stories and ideas from different places and lives, to share and inspire.



Supper over, there’s one last burst of activity, clearing the tables after supper, back down to the kitchen where helpers wash up. Outside, we’re setting up the bar and lighting tealights. The Songwriters Café is ready to open its doors to its invited audience. 

Streaming and chatting online 

At 8.30, Paul is meeting and greeting, Valeria is rigging up the mixing desk, and putting the stream up. I’m hooking my kit up the mixer, ready for web continuity duties as we warm up to go live. 

It’s 8.45. The show starts at 9. We’re going online…

This is a slightly modified version of a guest post I wrote for Chris Bouton’s brilliant and witty A Dash Of Culture blog, which looks at the role of food and its place in our culture. It’s a great blog, and I heartily recommend it.





Links:
The Songwriter's Cafe 
Paul Murphy's solo work can be found here
See also Paul's work with the inimitable Destroyers
Read Chris Bouton's A Dash Of Culture blog
Other live music events which provide supportive platforms for new musicians include
   The Free Love Club,
   Muzikstan at the Old Print Works,
   and Muso Monday at the Station, King's Heath, Birmingham

Micky Greaney and Dan Whitehouse: hearts and souls on the line

Two great talents. Two different creative approaches. Two tracks exclusive to this post.

Richard Shakespeare at Shakeypix

I might horrify a few people here, but I hold that Adele - six Grammy awards this weekend - has a lot in common with Micky Greaney and Dan Whitehouse. Of course, Adele is now rich as Croesus; Dan and Micky certainly aren't. But like Dan and Micky, she rips out great chunks of her heart and soul and presents them in song to the listener, directly, honestly and free of artifice. She, too, is a singer-songwriter. So she still has a tough time of it.  

More than other performers, singer-songwriters need your close attention, because they have something they want to say. It can be deeply personal, intense and passionate; it can be simply the sharing of a whimsical thought. If the audience is open and accepting, a bond forms between performer and listener, and all the pieces fit. 

 When it works it’s a wonderful thing. When it doesn’t work, say in a pub where punters just don't care about what you're doing, it’s painful. A gig last month comes to mind. 

Both Micky and Dan have albums in the works. Both have let me have an exclusive track for the blog. Interviews, links and tracks all follow...

Micky Greaney

Photo by Paul Ward

Back in the day, Micky Greaney, fronting a twelve-piece band, was regularly touted as the next big thing. That sort of thing can become a burden: as many will agree, there’s little, if any, correlation between great talent and potential, and ultimate success. 

Micky cut a wonderful 1994 album, ‘Little Symphonies For The Kids’ with Bob Lamb, at his studio in Kings Heath, Birmingham (now Highbury Studio).A link to some of the songs from that album is at the bottom of the post.

But now there's two more albums in the pipeline: a further album from sessions at Abbey road with John Leckie, only now seeing the light of day, and an album that will emerge from intensive sessions going on right now with Greaney's new band. This track is a preview track from Mickey's forthcoming long-lost second album.

Now, two decades later, he’s in full flow again, working on what will only be his third album.

Are the old songs are out of date? How do you feel about them now?

There’s nothing that’s going to date the songs... All the instruments we used,  could be fifteen years in the future, or it could be now, or fifteen years ago. Anything I put on is an organic instrument. But there’s little flavours in my song-writing that are of that era, which I probably didn’t notice when I was writing. 

Your older songs stand up well. Simple arrangements with mainly acoustic instrumentation. They're remembered with a lot of affection

People want the older material, because they know it. They can be quite precious about what I do! It’s hard sometimes to simply get up with an acoustic guitar and just present new material.

But how does it feel to know that people think they’ve got a piece of you?

I feel really flattered! If they care that much, it’s a sign I must be doing something right, as a writer. And I think the new group of songs I’m working on now are really beautiful.

So as of now, there’s a gig towards the end of the month, and another one in April. It’s not exactly start-again time, but there have been hiccups along the way… 

Yes, there have been. But I would rather focus on the amazing band I'm putting together and some positive directions. In some ways, it is a new beginning - positive and beautiful like the people I'm working with. The rehearsals are very special, it's our debut gig, and that really is the most important thing to me.

Who’s in the line-up?

Me, Jason Ensa on bass (RV: hooray!), Suzie Purkis and Hannah Malloy on vocals, Chris Shobrook on piano and keyboards and Matt Rheeston on drums

And what are we going to hear on the 23rd at Symphony Hall?

You’re going to hear a solo set from me, in the first half. The second half lets me debut the band. As for the songs - people who know me will know some of them. But we’ll play some new songs.

The Symphony Hall was a remarkable success, with BIG numbers, friends, family and fans. Micky reeled off some classics and some adventurous new material. 

You’ve been working at this for some time. What about the creative process in all of that?

The process to me is like… falling in love. I’ve got really good friends, who’ve invited me to their workshops. They meet up once a week, they write a song and they record it. That’s like asking me to fall in love, at the same place and the same time, once a week. When it works, the songs just fall out. Or I can wake up, having dreamed a song.

When you put your songs out there, highly passionate, personal, intense songs, you’re laying your heart out on a table in front of people.

If you deliver, an audience is a really appreciative lover. If you don’t you get the opposite reaction. It’s like any relationship. You can get complacent.

 Dan Whitehouse

Back in the 1998 days of Micky Greaney’s twelve piece band, Naomi Phoenix opened for him at the Irish Centre in Digbeth. Accompanying Phoenix on guitar was a young Dan Whitehouse.

Like Micky, Dan writes elegant songs that open up to you. But unlike Micky, Dan takes several different approaches to crafting his material.

I’m not interested in pure confession just for confession’s sake. It has to be filtered through skill and craft so it can be digested easily. 

How do the songs arrive? Micky says they just fall out when the time’s right… or he wakes up when he’s dreamed a song… a very pure and instinctual process… what about you?

Sometimes that’s happened. I’d echo that. I also very much feel that you have to get the guitar and the pen and the book out, that you have to get a lot of raw material out, in order to get to the little crystals, the little nuggets of gold that are in there. If you can’t write anything good, you have to write something mediocre. And then, later on you’ll write something good. It’s important to get stuff out. Little snippets and nuggets… almost every day. In the moment of creation, you might think something’s rubbish. Two weeks later, you might see it in an entirely different light.

Dan works and worries at his songs – he speaks fondly of a Songwriter’s workshop with Tom Robinson, and in turn he now conducts workshops in Birmingham; details of which are at the bottom of the post.

Tom Robinson introduced me to the Immersion Method. It’s wonderful. It’s an American idea, and it’s centred around a 20 song ‘game’. You set aside a 12 hour period. You then push yourself to compose twenty songs in one day, in complete isolation. It’s about going under, getting locked in, connecting with a sense of creativity where you are literally messing around – so that the ideas flow. It’s very difficult to find the time and space to do it, because there are so many distractions and responsibilities in our lives.

And that worked for you?

Certainly did. In that day I got to about 17 songs, and several of them are worthy of recording and release, including this song, "Come Back".
 

I asked this question of Micky too: what about presenting your very personal songs live for the very first time? 

Two things: One, other people have done it for me. I’ve been blessed to see great singer-songwriters revealing themselves. I’ve enjoyed that process of listening and watching so much. I want to return that. I love this art form. And also – I’ve always done this. My motivation for learning the guitar, since the age of 12, has been to express myself. In that sense, I’m comfortable with the process. If I’m playing a song for the first time, I’m nervous, because I know I’ll beat myself up if I don’t get it right. But I’m not nervous about revealing myself.

The next few gigs will see Dan showcase his current album – Dan Whitehouse – and some material from the next album. And as many others have done, including The Destroyers, as detailed in this blog, Dan is setting up a pledge campaign to fund his next album, with the working title of 'Landscape'. As for his collaborators, Dan is as thrilled as Micky…. 

There's a collective of Midlands musicians that work live and in the studio with me - John Large on Drums, Steve Clarke Bass, June Mori Piano, Tom Bounford Violin, Simon Smith on upright bass, and  Michael Clarke who produced his debut LP on Banjo/Synth/Guitar/Harmony vocals. Oh, and Joelle Barker on percussion and Chris Brown on Pedal Steel

You can stream the current Dan Whitehouse album for free from iTunes – but obviously he’d like you to buy it. And if you like what you hear and you write yourself, Dan also does Songwriting workshops himself, at Mac Birmingham (details below).

Dan Whitehouse website
You can stream or buy Dan's current debut solo album at iTunes, or buy it from his site. 
Songwriting workshops at Mac

In the Treehouse with Paul Murphy and friends

A documentary  about the Songwriter's Cafe, a Birmingham institution

Songwriters Cafe 1 hr version part 1 by Radio To Go

Two files: a two-part documentary. This one's on Soundcloud, the other, after the jump, is on MixCloud (I'm running short of space). I try to tell the story of a 2011 summer evening at Paul Murphy's Songwriter's Cafe. Paul organises this lovely event most weeks during the summer months, in his treehouse venue in South Birmingham. It is a platform for the oft-neglected art of the singer-songwriter. Performers are allowed to flourish and develop in front of a warm and receptive audience. I always feel wholly privileged to be at one of these events. And since Paul, pictured above (thank you, Richard Shakespeare), asked me to get involved, adding short interviews to his web feed - the event is streamed live at www.rhubarbradio.com and www.paulmurphytv.com - I thought I should try to tell a slightly more detailed story.