Remembering Sandy Denny.

Britain's greatest folk-rock singer Sandy Denny died on this day April 21st in 1978 aged only 31. Her daughter Georgia Rose Lucas has just made this wonderful film of Sandy's haunting and ethereal  song about Mary Queen of Scots called  Fotheringay. It originally appeared on Fairport Convention's 1968 album What We Did On Our Holidays.

In The Garden, Part 3.

Potentilla

I have been busy in the garden every fine day since I wrote In The Garden Part 2. The major project undertaken in the last few days is that I demolished my little shed. It was beginning to fall apart anyway, and quite frankly I was ashamed of it. The floor had rotted away years ago and I didn’t really need it for the few tools I possess. It never was much of a shed, not much bigger than a sentry box.  I used to call it ‘The world’s smallest shed’. When I started taking it apart, I discovered it had become a home for all manner of small creatures especially spiders, snails, and daddy long legs. “Right lads”, I thought to myself, “It’s about time you found yourselves some new digs!”. To dispose of all the wood, I have been breaking it up into small pieces and taking it round to a nearby mate to burn in his wood burning stove. My little yard looks a bit bigger now. 

Geum

Once I have given the yard walls a fresh coat of masonry paint and stained the fence I’ll show you a photo. It looks a bit like a builder’s yard out there at the moment, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. I still need a couple of new fence panels, but I think I’ll save that project for another time. I’ll just give the old panels a coat of preservative to make them look a bit more presentable. On the growing front, the seeds I have been propagating on my windowsills are coming along nicely. The sunflowers are especially shooting skywards. Outside Lidl they were selling trays of verbena, petunia, and calibrachoa, so I bought some and made up four hanging baskets which I’ll add to when my own plants are bigger. It’s still a bit early for hanging baskets, but I’m impatient, so I hope we don’t get anymore frost. My yard is quite sheltered, so hopefully I’ll be ok. 

Ladybird.

Finally, me and a friend went for lunch at the café in the garden centre in Trowbridge on Tuesday and I bought myself a Potentilla which should grow into a nice three-foot-high shrub with red flowers. I must say I have enjoyed being outside, keeping busy, and getting some much-needed exercise. One last thought, I think this year we might see a lot of ladybirds. I don’t think I saw any last year but have already spotted quite a few recently. I’ll write another garden update before too long. Cheers.

Moya & Van.

Only four weeks after hearing the sad news of the passing of Dolores Keane I was very sorry yesterday to hear that another great Irish singer has gone. It is Moya Brennan who was the sister of Enya and a founder member, singer, and harpist with the great Irish folk rock group Clannad which she founded with other family members in 1970. Before Moya pursued a solo career Clannad had a huge international hit with the Theme From Harry's Game. The song I want to share with you today though is a Van Morrison song The Beauty Of The Days Gone By which Moya recorded to celebrate Van's 75th birthday. This is what Moya said about Van in Hot Press magazine at the time, 

'In 1967, tuning into an old transistor radio in Donegal to hear the latest pop/rock songs, I couldn’t believe my ears when the DJ introduced a new singer/songwriter from Belfast with an amazing song called ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. We were both from Ulster and I felt that connection, I was hooked. What was and is brilliant about Van is all the influences he used. It made a huge impact on me when he blended jazz and folk, Celtic rock and rhythm and blues and many more genres of music together. Van is special because of his poetry in music and his Celtic soul. Very few artists have recorded over 40 albums from 1967 to the present and still come out with gems of songs. He can still bring me on a spiritual journey. I’ve always felt a connection with Van – we’ve met lots of times and we’ve both wanted to do something together. I had the opportunity last August in The Met in Belfast, when poet Paul Muldoon was putting on one of his summer picnic shows. Van came along and sang two songs with myself, Cormac de Barra and Paul’s band. The two songs he chose were ‘Steal My Heart Away’ and ‘The Beauty Of The Days Gone By’ from Down The Road. Loved singing with him, loved the songs. So I thought it would be nice to do one of them on this special tribute'.

Brimful Of Asha.

I was listening to the Cerys Matthews show on BBC 6 Music yesterday and it was mentioned that Ashalata Bhosale had passed away at the age of 92. I was sorry to hear that news. I'm not Indian so I wasn’t at all familiar with her work, but I knew her name because she was the inspiration for one of my favourite pop songs of the 1990’s which was Brimful Of Asha by Cornershop. It became a huge international hit when remixed by Fatboy Slim. 

This is what I read about Asha on Wikipedia. Ashalata Ganpat Bhosale 8 September 1933 – 12 April 2026) was an Indian singer, actress, and television personality who predominantly worked in Indian cinema. Known for her versatility, she was described in the media as one of the greatest and most influential singers in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over eight decades, she recorded songs for films and albums in various Indian languages and won several accolades including two National Film Awards, four BFJA Awards, eighteen Maharashtra State Film Awards, nine Filmfare Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award and a record seven Filmfare Awards for Best Female Singer, in addition to two Grammy nominations. In 2000, she was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. In 2008, she was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian honour of the country. The Guinness Book of World Records acknowledged her in 2011 as the most recorded artist in music history. I have shared Brimful Of Asha below if you would like to hear it.

Rory wins the US Masters again!

 Van says, "Well done Rory, you did it again". 

In The Garden. (Part 2)

My New Fence.

I have been quite busy the last few days. On Saturday at mid-day B & Q delivered two more fence panels. If you have never heard of B & Q, they are Britain’s largest retailer of house and garden improvement supplies. The name comes from Block & Quayle who were the two partners who opened their first hardware store in Southampton in 1969. From those humble beginnings they now have stores all over Britain and even as far away as China. I have found their service excellent. Anyway, I set to work straight away. Sadly, I had to cut back the clematis right back to the base. It seemed a shame because it was still in flower, but it had to be done, and hopefully it will soon grow back again before too long. I fixed the panels to the posts with metal strips that had screw holes in them. 

I had bought a new power drill in Davies’s a couple of weeks ago, so the job went reasonably smoothly. I must admit I was exhausted by 5 o’clock, so retired to the pub for two pints of cider to revive myself. I think it looks a lot better now, but a bit bare until I get some more plants growing in front of it. I also have a mountain of debris from the old fence to depose of gradually in the wheelie bin. That is enough fence repairs for me for the time being. I am planning to get rid of my little shed at some point because it is becoming a bit of an eye-sore, but I might leave that until the autumn. Yesterday, I busied myself in potting out a few more seeds. I haven’t got a greenhouse, so my windowsills in the kitchen and bathroom now have pots and trays of sunflowers, black eyed Susie, Livingstone daisy, petunia, sweet peas, cosmos, ladybird poppies, and hollyhocks, so I’m looking forward to watching them bursting upwards over the next few weeks. 

I’ll buy a few more plants in the garden centre when I get the chance. It is a bit overcast and colder here today, but I might go out there and do a bit of tidying up. There is always something to do, even in a little garden, but it is very enjoyable just pottering around. Much better for your mental health than watching the news, that’s for sure. I’ll write another garden update before too long. Cheers. 

Now I wait.

Remembering Dolores Keane

Today I thought I’d say a few words as a little tribute to Dolores Keane who sadly passed away the day before St Patrick’s Day. Dolores was a wonderful person with a lovable personality, as well as being one of the greatest singers Ireland ever produced. Nanci Griffith described her as the ‘voice of Ireland’. I hadn’t thought about Dolores for a long while until I heard that she had passed away. That is often the case, we sometimes don’t miss people until they are gone. I first became aware of Dolores and her band from Galway De Dannan in 1981 when I heard them on a compilation album called All The Folk That Fits. That was also the record that introduced me to Christy Moore, Planxty, and The Bothy Band. Dolores was brought up by her aunts Rita & Sarah whose home was an open house to any musicians who arrived. Music sessions would often go on for days. This is how Dolores without even trying, soaked up the traditional music and songs of Ireland. I well remember the Mike Harding Show on Radio 2 dedicating a whole show to the Keane household, and as well as the great music, some of the stories they related were hilarious.  Dolores was well known for her sense of fun and good humour.

I regret that I never saw Dolores perform on stage. That is annoying because she played with De Dannan and Mary Black just down the road from here in 1985 at the Village Pump Folk Festival. (See photo below) Also, sadly I only have one album by her called Solid Ground from 1993. I hadn’t played it for years until I heard of her passing. Listening to it again the last few days reminded me of what a wonderful singer she was. There are also some excellent musicians accompanying Dolores including her good friend Emmylou Harris.  One of my favourite tracks is called Emigrant Eyes which is the story of one among millions of Irish people who were forced by hardship to emigrate to America, but they always thought of Ireland as home. Another favourite track is called Never Be The Sun which Dolores dedicated to her son Joseph who was born with a rare condition called Bardet–Biedl syndrome. 

Dolores had a lot of sadness in her life and suffered with depression, alcoholism, and overcame cancer. This shows what a courageous person she was. I recently watched an interview she gave to Tommy Tiernan on Irish TV where her good nature and humour shone through despite all that she had to overcome in life. Her funeral in Galway was attended by the Irish President Catherine Connolly, and the previous President Michael D Higgins which shows the esteem in which she was held by the Irish nation. Although she is now gone Dolores has left a great legacy of timeless music and she will never be forgotten, especially in Ireland.