Songs, Demos, and Unfinished business!
I have debated with myself whether or not I should put this section in here. These are all songs that either haven’t made it to a finished version for one reason or another, or they are rehearsal tapes where a mic was just plonked on the middle of the room so myself and whomever I was working with at the time could use to practise with.
Some of these tracks are early versions of finished songs listed in other places on this site.
I have so many songs that have not even made it to the recorded versions so I thought if I opened up a page like this it may encourage me to at least produce them .
I found these old tracks fell into groups depending on how they were being made so I have categorised them that way. It also means once you get used to jangly guitar strings and over blown cello you can ‘tune in’ to the song.
Rehearsing with Natalie
Dangerous Practice
Breathing on Borrowed Time
She’s no Good at love
In the Hall
So there’s me and Natalie Lenin up there onstage at the Lismore Folk Festival. These tracks are all I have of the year we spent together, and they are totally rehearsal tapes. Still ‘Dangerous Practice’ is one of my favourite songs, and this is the SECOND version of ‘Breathing’.( The first was with Marika below). Also below are tracks I made with a wonderful SCU vocal student called Rebecca Voudon. They are only demos but unfortunately never got further developed.
Rebecca Voudon
Silk and Steel
Love and Loathing
Beautiful Tonight
Other Producers
‘Your Eyes‘ and ‘Cover Me‘ were very hard to put up here because they represent how thing can really get screwed up with another producer. They were made over a few nights with me playing all the tracks. When I heard the mix I was horrified and demanded they be redone but the producer had taped over the original separate tracks. One day I might get around to completely redoing them. If you can tune your ears past the hashy wall of sound you can hear the songs. ‘Dreamerchant’ was done in Big Toe studios with Danny Brauchli on guitar and bass. Danny made me that lovely guitar you see me holding in the pic at the top of the page.
Your Eyes
Dream Merchant
Cover Me
And another version of ‘Breathing on Borrowed Time‘ by a singer known as ‘Marika’. This was the second version. Down below is a video of another version produced by Colleen de Winton on her album called ‘Ionnah’ – ‘Dirty Old River’ was inspired by the Wilson River in Lismore. ‘Jamais Jamais‘ has piano accordion snatches by Ken Naughton. Ken’s accordion needed repairs and we never got around to doing a final version. ‘Jamais’ means ‘never’ in french and I threw in some other terrible french bits for fun in the lyrics. This song was the start of working with Ken and led to the next section – co.polymer.
‘Breathing’ version by Marika
Dirty Old River
Jamais Jamais
I will add to this page as more lost compositions are unearthed or even new ones created so keep checking.
She Moved Through the Fair
This is a beautiful traditional tune that I knocked up an arrangement for to accompany the singing of Mairi Manley.
She has a lovely irish voice but is used to singing unaccompanied, so I retro fitted the production around her accapella version.