Night -Time Radio by Willow Springs.

So, I was wondering what to do with myself on this grey December day when a new CD popped through my letterbox. It is the new album by Willow Springs called Night-Time Radio. Willow Springs is the brainchild of Mark Crockard who is a singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland. I first heard of Mark when he played with an excellent Van Morrison tribute band called Celtic Soul who I saw at the party to celebrate Van’s 70^th birthday in 2015. This is Willow Springs second album and I have spent a very pleasant afternoon listening to it. As well as singing, Mark plays harmonica, acoustic & electric guitars, percussion, keyboards, banjo, and upright & electric bass. Also on the album are Lisa Brady on vocals, Rik Gay on drums & percussion, Keith Ward on piano & keyboards, Marcus McAuley on acoustic guitar & mandolin, Richard Nelson on pedal steel guitar, Vic Bronzini-Fulton on guitar, John McKinley on trumpet and Jim ‘The King’ Brown who sings on two songs.

I suppose you could describe the music as Americana. If you like country-rock I am sure you will love this album. Once I started listening, I forgot about genres and just enjoyed it as great music. The opening track is called Together, a duet between Mark and Lisa with tasteful piano and pedal steel guitar accompaniment. Same Old, Same Old Thing features Lisa again, in a jazzier bluesy mood with Richard’s pedal steel guitar to the fore. It Takes A Little Time is much rockier, driven along by electric guitar and great piano playing. Hello Friend has the great voice of Jim ‘The King’ Brown. You would swear it was Elvis singing. On Willow Springs Facebook page I saw that Jim has been suffering from Covid 19. I wish him a full recovery and hope it has not affected his great voice. Lisa sings again on I’ll Do Whatever It Takes. What a nice voice she has. This song also has a wonderful guitar solo by Vic Bronzini-Fulton. The eponymous title song Night-Time Radio is next and is possibly my favourite track after two listens. It reminded me slightly of Michael Nesmith’s early solo work or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It is a great song anyway. The heartfelt A Darker Shade Of Blue is accompanied by tasteful discreet harmonica and banjo. To Be With You is another Elvis style big ballad by Jim. I love it, especially the Duane Eddy twangy guitar sound. I wonder what Elvis would have thought of this song.

Boulder, Rock Or Stone is a much quieter affair. Why Did I Ever Fall In Love With You? Is a simple arrangement which again features effective acoustic guitar playing by Marcus McAuley. The laid-back mood continues with Thanks For Believing which is perfect music for a cold winters day. A Party On Saturday Night is much livelier. A Tex-Mex flavoured dance tune featuring frenetic trumpet playing by John McKinley. Marcus’s acoustic guitar is again featured on the final track I’ll See You Somewhere Down The Road which brings this most enjoyable album to a close. Congratulations to everyone who worked on this project, especially the multi-talented Mark Crockard.

Baby Driver.

It was a winters day in a deep and dark December. A young folk singer who was on a tour of one-night stands with his suitcase and guitar in hand entered the café on the platform of a railway station in a small northern town. A plump bespectacled middle-aged lady smiled at him from behind the counter.

“Hello chuck, what can I get you?”

“I’d like some hot food, if you have any”.

“Try one of my hot-pots, I’m famous for them”.

“Ok, I will, and a cup of tea please”

He sat down at a table in a corner of the sad deserted café, pulled out his notebook and pen and tried to finish a song to pass the time. Through the window he gazed at the rain-drenched streets and listened to the rain tapping on the roof and walls. He could not finish the song and wondered why he spent his time writing songs he could not believe in, with words that tear and strain to rhyme. He was awoken from this lonesome reverie by the lady bringing his food.

“There you go chuck, get that in you, I hope you enjoy it, we have to try and keep the customer satisfied" she said, glancing at his guitar case.

“You’re a singer I see, I’m a singer myself, and an actress, I’m ‘resting’ at the moment as they say, that’s why I’m working here. I’ve got an audition next week though for Coronation Street”.

“What is that? I’ve never heard of it”, he replied, couched in indifference to the dangling conversation.

“You won’t know it, being an American. It’s like your Peyton Place, only set in a mucky street round here, I’ll be playing a barmaid, if I get the part”.

“Well, good luck with that. Don’t you like working here?”

“No, my boss doesn’t want me to go, he says I am a rock, but I hate it, It's too quiet, I can't bear the sounds of silence, and I’ve had a bad day, one of my neighbours gassed himself. Mrs Riordan told me. She lives upstairs from him. It’s a shame, but he was a most peculiar man"

“I’m sorry about that, I hope your day gets better”

“Thanks chuck, I’ll be homeward bound in an hour, thank god”.

She returned to her duties behind the counter and he began scribbling furiously in his notebook with renewed enthusiasm. Ten minutes later the song was finished. Then he realised that his train was due, and he hurried to the door, stopping to say goodbye to the nice lady.

“It’s been nice to meet you, what’s your name?”

“Nice to meet you as well chuck, you can call me Betty…Betty Driver”

By the time he reached London he had written four new songs. Not a bad day really, for a poet and a one-man band.

PS, Don't take this story too seriously!

Patrick & Hilda.

Patrick Kavanagh died on this day November 30^th in 1967. He was one of the finest Irish poets and a novelist. Arguably second only to W.B. Yeats as the greatest Irish poet of all time. He also was a huge influence on Seamus Heaney. Patrick met and fell in love with a young medical student called Hilda Moriarty and in 1946 wrote a poem inspired by her called ‘Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away’. It became one of Ireland’s best loved songs when in the 1960s he met Luke Kelly in the Bailey pub in Dublin and Luke sang the definitive version known as ‘On Raglan Road’. Van Morrison, Sinead O’connor, Mark Knopfler, Dick Gaughan, Billy Bragg and many others have recorded this song.

On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew

That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;

I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,

And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge

Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,

The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay –

O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.

His love for Hilda was unrequited, mainly because of the age gap. She was only 22 when they met, and he was 40. Dr Hilda Moriaty later married Donogh O'Malley who became Ireland’s education minister. His reforms made him one of the most popular members of the government; he was affectionately known as 'the School Man' for his work in education. His sudden death in Limerick on 10 March 1968 before his vision for the education system was completed came as a shock to the public. He was buried with a full Irish state funeral. They had two children, the actor Daragh O'Malley, and Suzanne, a fashion designer.

Also, I found out just last night that  that the famous singer Dido wrote a song called Grafton Street in memory of her father, who was a nephew of Hilda Moriarty. The Irish Times said that as a young girl Dido was obsessed with great-aunt Hilda, the tales of her beauty, and her role in Raglan Road, and that she sang Raglan Road to her father as he was dying. So, I am incredibly pleased that Patrick met Hilda and it just shows that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.