Music - Westsongs

Anonymous City

Write a CommentMarch 18, 2025March 22, 2025

I wrote this in 1980, partly autobiographical, partly not – it’s the story of a young gay man finding his feet in London, which is true of me at that time, although I’d actually already been around the block a bit by then, having left the family home some years earlier. It does cover the same sort of ground as ‘Smalltown Boy’, but I’m pleased to say that it predates Bronski Beat by a couple of years! There have been a few versions of it over the years, but I wanted to ‘finish’ it as it does capture something of that time. This was a few years before everything changed with the arrival of AIDS of course. But that’s another story. Special thanks to Phil Stanton for the saxophone parts and help with the production.

It’s Just The Rain

Write a CommentFebruary 19, 2025February 19, 2025

This song is dedicated to Rachel Stevens, my wonderful friend who died at the end of 2023. The song isn’t just about her, although I did have her in mind for much of it. It’s really about love, and the gifts we give each other as we weave in and out of each others lives.
Some of the faces, names, places, memories, have long since left this world. Some are still here. But all bound to me in the ways they have shaped, guided and inspired.

For creating the song itself, I’m very grateful to Phil Stanton, who helped me with the mixing and gave me the confidence to actually finish it. x

Rachel and her sisters, by the way, created an amazing website chronicling her family’s history through WWII – very interesting and well worth a read: Schrotter / Stevens Family Story

Its Just The Rain - Lyrics

The first time I saw your face, I knew that you’d stay in my life
Though I could never hold you, the reverse would not be true
I felt your feathered touch surround me as you whispered my name
A blocky angel, heaven-bound, when will I see you again?

In the dark of the night, I listen to the wind blow
The rain upon my window
Sometimes I think of you and wonder where you are
Summer bursts into the night, your laughter and your smile
Alive again inside my heart, I’ll hold you for a while

Then I know you must go, back into the shadows
I listen to the wind blow
In a breath I’m alone, I wonder how you’ll be
Time for us has been and gone, but there’s no cause for tears
It’s not so complicated my old friend
I’ve loved you through the years

Summer comes again my friend, like the darkness we’ll be gone
A speck of dust upon the wind, an echo of a song
Spinning, turning, in the light, a breath within a cloud
Falling back to the Earth, a whisper in a sound

So you see I could be the rain upon your window
As you listen to the wind blow
It’s just the rain
It’s just the rain
It’s just the rain

Morning Walk

Write a CommentAugust 15, 2022March 22, 2025

This might be the equivalent of me getting the baby photos out, but you can never have too much Gwen and Emrys in my opinion.

Actually, I’m wanting to catch these moments with Gwen. As you can see from the video she doesn’t walk that easily, and it may be that she won’t want to do this walk for too much longer. Time is precious. As are memories.

Cherry Blossom

Write a CommentMay 14, 2020February 19, 2025

So I felt I needed to capture the moment. It was the end of March 2020, and the country had just gone into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic …

The tune is one I have used before (well why not?), but the lyrics are pretty much spur of the moment – the stuff that was going through my head at that time. Lockdown here has not been hard – we have a field and a bit of woodland to walk in. I’ve never taken them for granted, but right now they seem like sheer magic.

I had thought my singing(?) days were over – it’s just so hard trying to mix music when you’re half deaf, and vocal tracks really stretch me at the best of times, but hey ho, this song needed it, so I bite the bullet …

Cherry Blossom - Lyrics

It’s hard to say the things I want to say, so I don’t say much at all
They say that silence is consent but I think it’s more than that
Time is running out before I stumble and I fall

Up in the field – Hey Blanco! I hope you’re on the mend
Talog is sleeping I look across the rooftops of my friends
And Helen – she takes photographs down by the sea, she’s good at capturing the light
And there’s cherry blossom in the wood and the sky is filled with stars at night

The wood is all done now – the sun and the wind will wear it well
And over the valley the boys are bottling up the gin and the hand gel
Simon – well he’ll be doing something, it would be good to hear his voice for a little while
And Gwen – she’ll bark at Mark the postman
And the cherry blossom in the wood – it makes me smile

The day is too quiet, the crows are circling in the sky
Caerthan is mixing colour and making scents to keep us all alive

And three sisters – they paint their world in pictures, the wisdom of the family
And standing in the wind, Mike and Suzy watch the tide, breathing in the sea
And far far away, Kate and Nell are playing safely with their mum and dad
And life goes on all around me, the bigger picture says it’s not so bad
And Rachel – she knows she has to lie low, I know she’ll stay okay
And the wind in the wood is picking up, lifts the cherry blossom off the tree
Up and away

Hedgerow in Wales

Write a CommentMay 14, 2021August 16, 2022

There’s a stretch of road between Talog and Meidrim where the verge and hedgerow is quite overwhelming in its richness and beauty. I don’t go that way too often but over the years this song – about Spring in Wales – has gradually emerged.

Special thanks to David Thomas for help with the welsh bit which was both daunting and exciting to do, and also to Caerthan for helping with the mix, which my deaf ears can’t quite manage on their own.

Hedgerow in Wales - Lyrics

Slow down, I slow down, see the cow parsley blowing in the breeze
Little white flowers, snowy umbrellas, branching out like tiny trees

I slow down, I see the bluebells, It’s my last chance for another year
They’ll be gone soon, making way for June
But I can always hear the colour blue ringing in my ears

It’s a hedgerow in May, in Wales, in May

And the meadowsweet’s coming soon!
And the meadowsweet’s coming soon!
And the meadowsweet’s coming soon!
And the meadowsweet’s coming for the end of June!

I turn my face to the wind, I take in the scent of everything growing
Light reflects in the dew on a spiders web in the grass
Now is the vetch, now is the stitchwort
And I’m counting petals by the side of the road
There’s nothing as sublime as spring in Wales

And the pink red campion is ready to dance with the buzz of the bee
As the fresh-faced King of May is ready to dance with me
If I can slow it down and breathe the magic of the month of May
The air is clear on the road to Meidrim on a sunny sweet spring day

It’s a hedgerow in May, in Wales, in May

Yn ystod y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Blodau tlws a clawdd, yn mis Mai, yng Nghymru
Diwrnod mis Mai melys, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Blodau yn y lôn, yn mis Mai, yng Nghymru
Blodau yn y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Yn ystod y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Blodau yn y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru

Mae’r erwain yn dod yn fuan
Mae Mehefin yn dod yn fuan
Mae’r haf yn dod yn fuan
Yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Arafwch!