I’ve been releasing a song every month for half a year soon, and the reason is quite simply that I have a huge backlog of material that I don’t know what to do with…albums are expensive to produce and there is not a huge market in them. So rather than allow these songs (there’s hundreds of them) to gather dust, I thought some of you might like to hear them.
This year I will also try and give you the background to them…starting with January’s single…the nearly 7 minute long The Frozen Lake
About 8 years ago I did a weekend of gigs in Denmark with my old pal Ed Conway. Those who don’t know him can see what he does here. Ed and I used to play together in a band called Rumpus…we were fairly popular in the late 90’s and made a living out of a comedy/chaos/folk/rock/riot act involving stuffed toys, cucumbers, numerous hats and “death defying feats”. It was probably the most fun time of my life. On the way back to the airport that weekend we stopped for lunch by a frozen lake (it was winter). This became the inspiration for a story that Ed wrote down in a little notebook. A classic British folk song sort of tale with a Romeo and Juliet twist.
A while later Ed showed me the notebook which had a bunch of other ideas for songs (though none quite as detailed as The Frozen Lake) and said I should take the ideas and write the songs for a folk album called “The Anonymous Folkie”…So I started with the Frozen Lake. One of the other songs listed was last month’s single “Beasts of Burden”…so I’ve so far managed 2!
Originally I thought it should be very British Folk style in a Fairport sort of arrangement, but the more I played with it the more I felt it lending itself to a Peter Gabriel era Genesis interpretation. So I picked up my 12-string and there was no going back. One day I may well do a more traditionally folk version (same with Beasts of Burden) as I still think The Anonymous Folkie would be a fun project. But for now it’s turned into a Prog Rock sort of thing, and I quite like it like that.
As with all the singles released so far I play all the instruments, sing, produced and engineered the whole thing. This one has a lot more instrumentation than the previous offerings…so here’s a quick run down of what was used:
Vocals (recorded with U87 microphone going through Focusrite Liquid Channel emulating a classic Neve desk)
Martin HD 28V acoustic guitar
Guild GAD 12 string guitar
Musicman Stingray bass guitar
Fender Stratocaster going through Vox AC30
Roland RD300 stage piano (for midi keys)
Djembe
Drum Samples
Trombone
The lyrics are:
On a cold clear winter’s night stars reflect in the lake
Tears for her sweetheart filled her eyes
Till they could no longer hold the salt water drops
That drip ripples on the watery skies
It was tomorrow she was to wed but no bride will she be
The press gang took her fiancee away
To fight for king and country on some far off shore
With but a promise to return again one day
Each day she sits on the shore of the lake
Where as a child she had played
Staring at the other side where her true love had lived
And she longs to return to those days
Through the winter she could cross the frozen lake
To her love who lived on the other side
When the birds return and the ice begins to break
in the spring he shall make her his bride
She senses the bad news before it is spoke
In battle he drew his last breath
His body could not found but they all saw him go down
Sounds the news of his untimely death
Quite beside herself she walked into the lake
Walked on til the current pulled her down
And the icy cold water swallowed her pain
And in the dark depths she was drowned
A layer of ice formed on the waters that night
The coldest night we ever saw
And for a whole year winter cast a shroud across the land
12 months and the lake didn’t thaw
Through the winter she would cross the frozen lake
to her love who lived on the other side
When the birds return and the ice begins to break
in the spring he shall make her his bride
12 months of winter and a soldier appears
Enquiring where his betrothed might be
He is told of her death in the waters so cold
And in tears he is led off to see
He sat on the ice his heart heavy with grief
Salty tears melting the ice
Til underneath he can see the face of his love
And he thinks he hears her desperate cries
He broke through the ice to dive down to his love
Convinced that new life he could bring
And in her arms he drowned and the lake began to thaw
On that very first morning of spring
In the winter she would cross the frozen lake
To her love who lived on the other side
Now the birds return and the ice begins to break
For it is the spring and he shall make her his bride