I had your FAWM playlist going and sort of forgot I was supposed to be active listening, but this one pulled me right back into it... then I saw your liner notes. I know the feeling of not being happy with something but needing to get it out, but this is great. I'm curious to see what you do with it, because I think it works far better than you it seems. You better close the stadium with this one, because all those lighters and voices in unison are going to violate some sort of by-law.

I'm a little perplexed at the narrative, but oh what a great narrative it is. That second verse paints a pretty vivid picture, although I'm a little unsure that being denied pastries is an apt consequence, but then Ive never had a Chelsea Bun.

Congratulations on the FAWM "win", especially with only 23 days to do it. A great start as well. I share the sentiment on production. Part of me wants to do RPM next year because I wonder if I had too, could I move fast on production? It sounds a lot more exhausting than FAWM, that's for sure.

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 ......

Yep, still more of a Geir than a Hen (I can hear reverb on it for a start!) lol. VERY cool, sir

Crazy! :-)

I haven't been listening to your stuff enough recently - kinda catching up here. This is fab. Luckily I'm too old and creaky to attempt to dance to it, thanks for the warning anyway lol

Fantastic, gorgeous, yum... Bethan, so far, this is my ABSOLUTE favourite vocal of yours (not heard them all yet, though! lol). And I reckon Tess must have the same muse bothering her as the one that watches over and hassles me: I was getting ready to type... "and that line 'My love sits in the front row' is just fabulous" ... when I read the previous comments! Superb job everyone. Now, does it actually work as lullaby on the chap in question? :-)

Wooo... Not heard this one before - I assume it was the same punkfest I know about and, as I didn't pay too much attention to the stuff getting posted, I must have missed this. Love it. What it most reminds me of is Motorhead's first album (and, actually, the originally unreleased first album, On Parole), before they "became" Motorhead. So they were still a mixture of Hawkwind, The Pink Fairies, and goodness knows what else that went into it (speed and vodka lol). My old live sound engineer from the 80s would have LOVED this, he always trying to get me more into stuff like this. Looks like some of it stuck, I love it too.

Ah - you've uploaded this one as well, nice one :-) But I still don't quite understand how you manage to channel stuff so apparently effortlessly, and invariably produce a song worth listening to at the same time. (And do it so often) Mebbe I'll just press record one day and see what happens! (And then spend 3 hours/weeks/months twiddling with the EQ afterwards lol)

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