20 Years A Songwriter!

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the first song I ever wrote!  In celebration of this milestone, I’ve a little special something for everyone – read on to find out what!

As a handsome young 18 year old, I penned my first effort, Lynette, a story of love at first sight at a wedding reception!  Based loosely on real events… I basically copped off at a wedding!!  The love bit was mere artistic licence!

This was not strictly the first music or lyrics I had written.  I had composed some simple instrumentals for my GCSE music about 3 years earlier – before I’d even begun to learn guitar.  One of those, which was nothing more than a line of melody, then titled The Words Of Love, became a fully fledged song some 19 years later when I arranged it for guitar and set lyrics to it, renaming it I Will Cherish You, as part of the Bewilderment project.

Some months before Lynette, I’d also written the riff to Pressure Drive and one verse of lyrics that I subsequently anonymised to become the first verse of a song called You’ll Always Be My Love, several months later.

But… Lynette was the first complete song that I had written, so that’s where I always feel that my journey as a singer-songwriter began.

So to celebrate my 20th anniversary as a songwriter, I’m giving a free download of Lynette to all of my subscribers!  And I’m also throwing in a free download of my most recent recording, my version of The Kinks’, Sweet Lady Genevieve.  This I think is apt, because Ray Davies has been my most important influence as a songwriter.

If you miss this as you’re not yet subscribed, just sign up via the form on the right hand side of this page, drop me an e-mail to say you’d like a copy of the 20th Anniversary downloads, and I’ll send you them through.

Whilst on the subject of The Kinks, there has been a mysterious silence from the organisers of the Kinks Covers Competition!  The result was due 2 weeks ago, but an entry was posted to say that The Kinks wanted more time to finalise their decisions.  There has been no update since then!  I tweeted The Kinks and the organisers, Talenthouse, but got no response!  So as soon as I do hear anything, I’ll let you know.  All very strange though!

Finally, if you’re in the right neck of the woods, I’m playing The Mexborough Arms, Thorner, tomorrow night (Sat 15th September).  I’m excited as it’s my first time playing there, and I’m doubly excited because I’ll be using my new sound system for the first time!  So come on down and check it out if you can make it.

Paul