Who am I? Jaysus! I wonder that many’s a Monday morning!

I’m a pretty typical sort, kids, dogs, mad family and friends. A demonised single parent, a writer, a publicist, a creator of colours in my own job.

But I learnt to play music a wee while ago, and where I had been the lead singer of a band, a million years ago( okay, 1986), all of a sudden I found I could put down bits of me on a guitar. And now, am learning to do that on a banjo too. That’s a form of creating colours as well - but it’s the colours of the heart and soul

I’ve been blessed with two wonderful , talented and patient guitar teachers - without either of them , none of these songs would ever exist.So, if you like my wee songs, remember I am only a pale reflection of those who passed this ability on to me.

I reckon that music is where truth is told. We live in a world of constant lies and half truths and crap in general.Music is the last place we ca say what ‘heart heard of, ghost guessed’ as Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote. Yeah, I’m a poetry addict, a music addict - I get pretty high on words and music, really!

My songs are universal - they’re about real things, real people - everything in them happened, or is happening to me. And probably a million other people worldwide. Because this is where we all share the same things - love, hate, loneliness, passion, hope, homesickness, friendship. All these are common to all of us at some stage.

 For me, a life lived without passion is no life at all. If you have to take anything away from this page and the music and lyrics, let it be what the Italians in Siena call ‘Gaudenzia’… the passion of living. On my grandmother’s side, there’s a pretty heavy dose of European Jews. The Jewish equivalent of ‘ slainte’ is ‘L’Chaim - to Life. That’s all I want my songs, and my writing to say.