Common Sense Dancing: Come On! (Put That Hoedown)

As with My Island and Antasia, Come On! (Put That Hoedown) was a product of a KvR monthly contest. The theme that month was 'Hurry Up!'

I chose a dance, a gardening pun - and a tune that just doesn't let up.. There might be the odd touch of Fairpoint Convention or Mike Oldfield in there somewhere.

The violin was jauntily (and nothing short of heroically) played by Clare Lindley (Stackridge, DLM), flute flauted by John Hackett, and lead guitar by the fabulous Nick Fletcher of the John Hackett Band.

Phew! See you tomorrow!

Common Sense Dancing: Ladybird

Ladybird Books are a feature of many a childhood for children in the UK, and indeed, around the world. While the Ladybird name was first used by Leicester based printers Wills And Hepworth shortly before the First World War, the books as we know them were devised by Douglas Keen and appeared in shops in 1948. This song gives a potted history of the books between 1948 and 1971 (when they ceased to be part of Wills And Hepworth, and became a company in their own right.

There were many folk involved in the making of the books over the years - artists, researchers, story tellers, academics, etc - and I felt I could only highlight certain key points and people. Even then, in trying to be brief and non-didactic, it still ended up with eight verses, three versions of the chorus, and the middle eight appearing twice..!

The piece is intended as a celebration of the books, some of the people behind them, the 2oz tome's place in the shared history of many lives, and the joy that they represent.

If any relatives of people who worked on the books hear the song and feel I ought to have included their mother/brother/auntie/uncle/etc, I'm so sorry.. Omission wasn't personal!

Backing vocals ably supplied again by Kim Eames and Jeremy Richardson

See you tomorrow!

Common Sense Dancing: Mellotron Suite: Main Theme

I had a bunch of short ideas that I never thought I would never make in to full guitar pieces, but when the notion of making Where Shall We Go appeared, I felt I could use those ideas as the basis for the music through the play. During the writing stage I new I was going to be arranging for flute and violin so set up those sounds on virtual Mellotrons (using GForce's excellent M-Tron Pro). And got rather used to the sounds!

Once the real instruments had been recorded I felt it would be a shame to have the Mellotron versions of the music lost, and that it would be nice to have some of the music separated off from the play to be pieces in their own right - thus the Mellotron Suite was born.

This piece, however, never appears in the play in this form. The chord structure appears at the start and end of the play, along with a couple of other arrangements popping up here and there, but without these flute/ violin parts. The melodies appear without the context of the guitar (I'll let you work out where, should you wish to know!), but here everything is presented together, united at last..

See you tomorrow :-)

Common Sense Dancing: Antasia

Like yesterday's My Island, Antasia also started life as a short piece for a KvR monthly competition.

I had had the opening guitar part knocking around as an idea since the mid 90s, I liked it as it was reminiscent of the work of Genesis co-founder, Anthony Phillips. The atmospheric opening section gives way to a more rock tinged second half, which again drew on my love for Ant's work; I had elements of arrangements from the Private Parts And Pieces Vols II and VIII albums in mind with this section. NB 'Antasia' is, of course, a fantasia for.. well, you can work it out ;-)

The violin is by Sarah Sharp, who often performs under the name 'Tsarzi,' and I was thrilled to have Mick Somerset play saxello.
I had hoped to get Ant himself to play harmonium, but sadly that wasn't to be, and is now played on a Mellotron.

See you tomorrow :-)