Palermo Snow is the most recent collection to be issued although, as is not unusual, the pieces are of varying vintage. Having long wanted to slip away from the guitarist image and start recording other things of mine – solo instruments, mixed ensembles, unaccompanied voices – just when I was set to make a run for it I was slowed right down by a feeling of remorse over abandoning all the nice old guitar tunes still lying in the back of the cupboard.
A tentative clear-out began in which one nice old guitar tune led to another – and then another. Even so the pile doesn’t appear to have gone down much, probably because they didn’t all fit together too well and others needed to be brought in. The emerging mood turned out to be more romantic than celtic – harmony rather than drones – something I felt the seemingly disparate pieces had in common. And what might appear a loose collection hopefully held together in the end.
Dick Lee who played the clarinet parts so sweetly had contributed to the previous studio album Travellers’ Payer and for the cover I was fortunate enough to be able to use the Winter Landscape by Belgian artist Valerius de Saedeleer.
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Dery Miss Grsk Bella Terra Cirque d’Hiver Ugly James Sarabande Cello Prelude in G Weebles Wobble (but they won’t fall down ) Little Niles Blueberry Hill |