Well sir, you smashed this challenge - and ended up with a stunning unplugged album. It's made me want to hear some of your established tracks with similar stripped-down arrangements, leading the listener to concentrate on the sheer artistry of your words and astonishingly soulful vocal. Next challenge for you is the 24 hours album. 24 minutes of original music in 24 hours. I believe it originated on alonetone. Off you go.

Glad you didn't bin it! Liking the driving feel - immediately hooky also.

A sweet almost-lullaby - glad this one found a home in your February. So very pretty.

Really love this melody and the breezy feel. Some gorgeous little acoustic guitar runs in there too.

Great song writing - loving the sentiment and your tender vox here. I love it when the FAWM and RPM parameters draw out his kind of track, any more of an arrangement would detract from the message - IMHO.

Woohoo! Logged in and back from Brighton. <3 Can now fave this utter classic.

Hauntingly sad and beautiful

Great tune Andrew. we held back on a few old ideas too. i'm glad you put it out there

Hehehe... there's LOTS of youthful angst is these Songs from the Shoebox... possibly an embarrassing amount... You wait... let's see if I'm brave enough to record the ones from 1978/9!!!

That's rather wonderful ...... a bit of youthful angst ??

You've been a writer / poet for so many years!!! How delightful to put these songs out. I'm glad you found the shoe box.

Another beautiful piece of storytelling through haunting voice and gentle music

You sing these words perfectly … I am just in awe of your story telling

So lyrical

Intrigued … who is this written for? Whoever it is is a lucky person … love this

I saw your comments on my site. Thanks. It sounds like you’ve got this recording process figured out. I’m still learning as I go. Thank God for YouTube. 😎

Another little gem ......

This is kick-ass! You have a great voice and I love your guitar playing. When you have great ingredients like that, you don’t need much more than good material, of which there is plenty here! I am very inspired listening to this. I appreciate you sharing it and I look forward to delving deeper -bjk

Good stuff. I'm always amazed at how versatile you are.

That's a good song. I like the "acoustic demo," but do you also envision this as a rocker (2 guitars, bass, and drums)? I think it'd kill.

No problem :-) I hope a lot of people hear it. For me, it's one of those songs/performances that gives the listener a lot of reward for just listening. My missus thinks so too (and she's the one who ALL of my stuff goes through before it gets out - I don't post anything without her reassurance first!). Not all songs do this. And the writer never really knows that they've done it, or whether they're imposing on people with it if they have... The minute I heard it I knew this was one (might not be for everyone, I guess, but it is for me and Mrs R), and I suspected you might need to know it was cool and needs to be "out there"...

T So glad you put this one up on here. Tis still as beautiful as when I first heard it this morning. The song itself, simple and from the heart. And the performance matches it. Wonderful creation.

Wow, I'd forgotten all about this one. She's upstairs having a lie-in. Gonna make her a coffee in a minute... Thanks guys :-)

Oh this is brilliant. BRILLIANT.

Oh yes, I do like this. Love the kind of 60s vibe to it. I'm going to have to listen to more of your stuff.

"I like that notion of optimism right around the corner . . . but not quite here yet." Yep, I like that as well now, VERY much... but I didn't really believe it when I wrote it! lol - it was more of a yearning for it to be true.

Oh yeah, faved immediately. I bought some blues harmonicas once - this'll be easy I thought... NOPE! lol (I ended up giving them to a harp player I knew) I might try again one day, and it's performances like this that make me want to do it. Fine song, fine everything :-)

Oh yeah. I wasn't too sure as it started... but by the end I had a big smile on my face. Gorgeous sound and groove.

Nice... I love the way the vocals work in headphones. And some juicy Ronson-esque guitaring.

I love this still.

I thought I'd pressed send on this one!! It was along the lines of "yes, like this version, nice job" :-)

And of course this version :-) I don't think I've listened to this one this close before - or mebbe I've better headphones on, I dunno - it's fab, worth two faves.

WOW!! This must've been for the Beatlesfest over at Songcrafters? How did I miss it???! I nearly skipped this one in a mood of "oh this old chestnut..." (I do love the original, but you kind of dread a cover of it). But I reasoned, "you never know with orh..." So I thought I'd listen to the first "I read the news today" and then decide... FLIP!! lol

Ah... I have heard this elsewhere... it doesn't get any worse, though - it fact it gets better - superb job chaps

Woo... it looks like I've missed loads of classics of yours Jim... It also looks like I need a "Aww F*** it... just Fave em all" button, you're wearing me out having to keep moving me mouse around lol

Wonderful stuff. The voice and guitars sound like they came into the world together - excellent collaboration

Missed this one. Tis mighty fine, mighty fine. Paints big pictures. My only complaint is that it went away too abruptly for my liking - that 4 minutes went by very quickly

Glad I found the legendary uke tracks :-) Listening to them all now, this one is my favourite so far.

Nice one :) You've got a cool "70s" rock/pop combo going there.

I see what you mean about the motivating lyrics and how it ended up. But it really works like this. And like others have said, the harmony vocals are fabulous.