His Sighs & Silhouette / Not A Tee Pee

MUD 01 the first collaborative compilation from Not A Tee Pee can be downloaded for free here.

My contribution is a Murder Ballad in the vein of Nick Cave. Drums and electric guitar were recorded live in the Katerwaul HQ before over dubbing vocals, violin and acoustic guitar at home. This was my debut on violin. In fact it was the first time I'd even picked one up. It was Rae's Grandad's and it was lying about the flat. I tuned the bottom string to the root note of the song and placed masking tape markers (Shhhh don't tell Rae) to all the notes I'd worked out fit the song. I hope I've not upset any classical music Elders.

Drums and Percussion - Nick Morrice

Vocals, Guitars and (horrible) Violin - Tim Courtney

His Sighs & Silhouette

The stars are hiding behind the clouds
And the rain beats down onto the mounds
Of earth piled by her beautiful body
My god how she loved her Woody
Clementine lies amongst the grieving timber
That same forest where he placed that ring upon her finger
Woody labours his trowel through the slimy bog
His sighs and silhouette lost amongst the fog

Oh Woody, your jumper soaked in blood
Oh Woody, your knees submerged in mud
Oh Woody, how can it have come this?
Your lips still taste of her last kiss.

She somehow reminds him of their first child
Asleep lying perfect and motionless, her skin so mild
The raindrops that glisten and trickle down her neck run clear
Her throat cut from ear to beautiful ear
Woody wipes the rain from his former wife’s face
He lowers her into the soup her hair floats to the surface
“Goodbye my Clementine I will always love you”
And then she was gone without a word spoken more true

Oh Woody, your jumper soaked in blood
Oh Woody, your knees submerged in mud
Oh Woody, how can it have come this?
Your lips still taste of her last kiss.

As Woody turns to the car parked on the hard shoulder
He slips in the sludge as his head collides with a boulder
His body slides through the streaming mire
To be drowned with his wife as the water grows higher

Oh Woody, as you sink in the grime
Oh Woody, you and your love entwined
Oh Woody, what have you gone and done
The dirt and the worms will inherit your lungs

Mark McCabe's "When I Grow Up" EP

Recently Mark McCabe has been working on the follow up to his Debut Album "Is That How You Really Feel". Instead of rushing things and throwing everything he's written since into another Album; he's taken all his best material (including a sublime cover of The X-erts "Just Go Home") and whittled it down to his strongest 5 recordings. It would be tempting to tell you its not as good as the Album (that I recorded and produced) but I would be lying through my chompers. Instead what Mark has done has probably produced a mini master piece.

Mark's lyrics have always been the biggest draw for me but he's reinforced them with a maturity vacant from his previous material. The instrumentation is more stripped down and bare than the full on Folk-Punk he was trying to create. Instead his life experience of moving to Paris and the bare resources afforded to him have carved a troubadour out of him. The EPs two last tracks, tear jerker "Salt & Pepper" and the nostalgic bird song of "Trains", are ones that stick with me after listening and have me humming down the street.

On a rare visit to his native Scotland Mark asked me to quickly draft up some artwork for the EP. I was more than happy to. With the title of the EP and its nostalgic undertones, it seemed to be tailor made for my current work of Nostalgia and harks to childhood. So I asked Mark to bring me one photo of him as a child that would everything up. What it would say about him and his record and maybe even his childhood. He came back to me with him dressed in a crudely improvised BATMAN costume. The theme of playing dress up and pretending to be some one you don't want to be/pretending to be something you're not fascinated me. The trees and the rain for me symbolise every tree you've climbed as a child, but the rain also portrays every task or trouble you've had to face, maybe ones that would often have you looking back to those simpler times when you'd actually live for everyday, just to get out and climb those trees for fun and not for wealth or status.

Mark's EP has no set release date but look out for it in the future.