Month: July 2017

UK Folk Music site resurgent

Alan Morley wrote to the Folk Clubs UK Facebook page as follows. I thought there might be readers of this blog who might find it of interest, especially if they run events or clubs.

Back in 2011, I started the UK Folk Music website [not connected to the Facebook page, by the way] which ran until the start of 2016 .

I have just launched a cut down version of the original website and will include a searchable index of UK Folk Clubs.

If there are any clubs in this excellent FB Group who would like to be included in the index either drop me a message on FB or email me info@uk-folk.co.uk

I have loads to add to the website but here’s a link to how it looks at the moment. We are already being picked up by search engines – the original site was top of Google..

http://uk-folk.co.uk

I don’t have any connection with the new web site or with the Facebook page (apart from reading them occasionally), so please contact them directly for further information.

David Harley

Long Cigarettes, Cheap Red Wine [demo]

Written in the 1970s when I was getting disenchanted with the idea of being a rock star. Not that there was ever the slightest chance of that happening. (There is a version around somewhere played on resonator guitar.) Actually, the new intro might be interesting played on bouzouki and/or banjo. I’ll have to think about that.

Backup:

 

Lyrics (slightly amended since the resonator version):

You sing your songs / the stage is bare
There isn’t / anyone out there
From time to time / it just seems that way
And I run out / of songs to play

Forget the musak / and the beer
The open mouths / the grudging cheers
There isn’t / any better way
To freeload / your life away

Back in / 1969
I lost someone / I thought  was mine
That’s the price / I had to pay
When I ran out / of songs to play

Goodbye old friend / I have to leave
Just to prove / that I’m still free
I’ll see you / in a year or so
And buy the round / you say I owe

The long cigarettes / the cheap red wine
The melodies / you say are mine
And if you find / somewhere to be
I hope / you’ll save a place for me

Words and music by David Harley: all rights reserved

Moonstruck [demo]

Moonstruck
David Harley, copyright 1987

Backup:

 

Mirror-eyed and misty
and veering into black
Tiptoe across the flagstones
falling through the cracks
I’ve lain too long in midnight
and I can’t find my way back

I was leaving close on midnight
but I couldn’t find the door
Creeping round the moonlight
littered on your bedroom floor
I’ve lain too long in midnight
and I can’t find my way home

I’m frozen to your mattress
and my mind is playing dead
I can’t reach across the moonbeams
to the wordgames in your head
I’ve lain too long in midnight
and I can’t recall a thing we said

Rainy Day Moments [demo]

Copyright David Harley 1972

Backup:

ordpress.com/2017/07/rainy-day-moments.mp3″][/audio]

 

This is a song for another stranger
A ship that moaned in the night
That I spent a lifetime with one long weekend
Then lost with no trace of a fight

What a party that was, what a bitter-sweet dream
What a raft in an ocean of blues
A theme for a song or a stag-party joke
A memory I never quite lose

What made her want me, that rainy day moment
Is something I can’t understand
I’m grateful she did and I really don’t know
Why I let it all slip through my hands

My ego was flattered, I liked her a lot
Yet deep down I couldn’t respond
I tried once to pick up the pieces by mail
But I knew that the chance was gone

As I bled later on from a deeper wound
I heard from a friend of a friend
That she’d just got married and anyway
I’d no reason to see her again

My life is a patchwork of rainy day moments
And she was just one of the bits
A tiny regret and a faint irritation
And wondering just where she fits

Whistle While You Walk [demo]

Backup copy:

Whistle While You Walk (Harley)
Copyright April 2017

Sometimes – you look into her eyes
And all you want to do is talk
Sometimes you have to see her
Other times you just have to walk

Just walk away
Walk away
And whistle as you walk away

Sometimes you’re the heartbreak
Sometimes you’re just broke
And all your songs are lost
In the space between the notes

Just walk away
Walk away
And whistle as you walk away

Sometimes you know you love her
Sometimes you feel so cold
Sometimes your heart is empty
And you turn back to the road

Just walk away
Walk away
And whistle as you walk away

Sometimes – you look into her eyes
And all you want to do is talk
Sometimes you have to see her
Other times you just have to walk

Just walk away
Walk away
And whistle as you walk away

 

Hannah version 4 (or thereabouts) [demo]

An arrangement that went in a slightly different direction to what I expected.

Not sure the final version will be like this, but it’s kind of interesting.

Later, cleaner version:

backup:

David Harley