Just back from Dublin where I spent some time with Shane MacGowan recording for my forthcoming Speech Project album! Shane was in great form ...we had a great time .... lovely guy!  The track featuring Shane is already underway and I'm very excited with how it is all sounding….. watch this space.

Hi All

as promised here is the review of Naomi Bedford's new album in this month's Mojo mag. well done Naomi and everybody involved! I was honoured to be asked to producer the record and here is one of the tracks from the album; Naomi's duet with Paul Heaton. The video on the previous post shows how the song started out.....  The string section involved me multi-tracking 16 fiddles. Immense fun! you can buy the album from Naomi's website.

Speech Project will premiere at the fantastic Capstone Theatre as part of The Liverpool Irish Festival in October. I'm delighted to be perform Speech Project at the festival and am busy rehearsing with a fine bunch of musicians who will join me.  The accompanying videos are in production by some very talented bods and I will have a dedicated speech project website launched very soon!

Here is an excerpt from The 'What's On' guide from the The Capstone Theatre website which you can visit here and buy tickets for. Should be a great evening:)

This month's Froots mag is out and myself and Lisa (Knapp) have a track on the cover mount CD  The track is part of the Folk against fascism album which won't be commercially  available until spring 2011. It features artists such Alasdair Roberts, Chumbawamba, Martin Simpson and various others! We recorded the track exclusively for the album and had great fun at the studio messing around re miking old tape recorders in our efforts to degrade the 'ceili band' section at the end.  Enjoy. 

Been doing some inspiring rehearsing for a gig with LIsa Knapp at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Saturday Evening (tomorrow night...24th Sept).....

 We're supporting the brilliant Kathryn Williams and will be doing a new set of new songs and perhaps a tune on the fiddle as well.  Our set will see us melding folky/acoustic instrumenst with mac laptops (there is nothing more natural and God given in this world than electricity!) ....wind up music boxes ....Lisa's stunning vocals and I'll be banging, plucking and scraping.

Just been rehearsing today with musical collaborator (oh and partner) Lisa Knapp whom I shall be appearing with this Saturday at the Moseley Folk Festival.  Since Lisa released 'Wild & Undaunted', her debut album which I also produced, I have played as a duo and also as part of her band, however, she has been hammering away in her tool shed over the last few years and has come up with a whole heap of new songs, both traditional and self penned and hence we now have an entirely new set!!  Well, maybe one or two oldies... so, it's been a very enjoyable week of rehearsing and after her new release next year we'll get to play them all  lot's more.... Lisa is as we speak working on her website and hopes to get some special performances on there soon, so no worries if you can't make it to Moseley.....just watch this space.

I started producing some new albums and have been wrapping up some others.  Just started working with English Folk singer Sam Lee on his new album.  A musical manifesto is emerging; folk without guitars (refreshing and reminds me of a similiar approach I took with Lisa Knapp's Wild & Undaunted).  Instead we're using Shruti and Jew's Harp and other assorted sundries.  I'm enjoying providing string textures and the odd backwards plucked fiddle. Sam recently won a BBC folk award for his club The Magpies Nest and this outing sees Sam move from promoter to centre stage.

Been finishing final touches and tweaks to J Eoin's new album.  Myself and J have had many a creative day and after a hiatus (due to throat problems - not good for a singer but now thankfully resolved) all vocals have been recorded. I've enjoyed producing J's music and having known J as long as I have it was only natural that the musical sparks would fly as well as they have. 

Recently spent a day on a track with Lisa Knapp for the forthcoming Folk Against Facism album. Lisa recorded a version of The Banks of the Bann produced by myself ....very creative day and as always the musical energy flows with Lisa in the studio...look forward to hearing the album:)

Other various musical outings have kept me busy: just started producing an album for a twenty piece choir, finished mixing Tony Maude's new album, just received a nice nod of approval from Eric Bogle for a new production of one of his tracks, been producing/preparing tunes for a forthcoming Will Oldham collaboration, Burning Wheel's album and various other sessions.

At the moment I'm having a siesta in Prague! I find the vibe of this city is getting my own creative juices flowing no end!  Myself and Lisa have spent the last week wandering the streets of the beautiful Old Town enjoying the Easter Market festival. Spent some time  looking for bargain violins, continued scoring out my speech project for rehearsals next week, tried to get into locked churches to see severed arms from days long gone and helped Bonnie choose a marionette.

Delighted to see that The Popes have been picking up rave reviews for their latest release, 'Outlaw Heaven.' The album was written by frontman Paul (Maddog) McGuinness whilst he was a guest of Her Majesties Pleasure in pentonville. I think the writing reflects a certain sense of introspection and unleashed creative energy/rage one doesn't usually encounter in today's overly saturated market of ........low barrier to entry/ record in a box/computer makes the decisions really/limitless amount of tracks/decisions.....do we have to make decisions (ouch) in recording/producing/writing....... albums. Outlaw Heaven is an album of real songs with real lyrics......I love it.

I played fiddle and did string arrangements on the album. Well done lads.

"They are best known as Shane MacGowan's other band (now fronted by the equally gravel-voiced Paul "Mad Dog" McGuinness), and this strings-led cut from The Popes' excellent Outlaw Heaven album is what The Waterboys would have sounded like had Mike Scott sipped from the streams of whiskey. A true rough diamond."  Dave Simpson - The Guardian

"You’d imagine that surely Shane MacGowan’s brains have melted by now - but no! Stick the mad bastard in The Popes and watch the fireworks start flying again. McGowan is ready to meet his maker on ‘Outlaw Heaven’, a lusty barnstormer that toasts the great dead rebel-poets. Elsewhere, he lustily advises us “Don’t let the bastards grind you down!” on ‘Bastards’. When Shane’s not about, the LP is guided by the cozy and wise burr of Paul McGuinness. This isn’t just an Irish party album with fire in its belly, it’s also the most warm, celebratory and downright mortal LP you’re likely to hear in 2009. 8/10".... Rick Rawlins - Clash Magazine.

I'm producing their next single. Yesterday's session was on a track called "Nottamun Town."  A dark, dark song which saw us bowing cymbals, abusing hammered dulcimers, beheading bass drums and throttling a harmonium.

'The Straw Bear Band' have a magpie nature.

Lyrically mixing folklore, myth, history and fiction.

Musically they're just as eclectic. Ranging from

delicate acoustic song to scratchy electronica,

ending up like a Joe Meek production of Tim Buckley.

Recently their sound has taken another turn,

and live they create a kind of 'medieval Krautrock'

or 'garage-folk'

Truer words were never spoken.

Harmonium take below. 

Played some live music and some tracks from my forthcoming 'Speech Project' album.  Many thanks to Carole and the helpful staff at Resonance:)

Here's the audio of the interview.

at the resonance studio

If you haven't yet heard resonance FM then I strongly urge you to check them out.  They are like no other and their eclectic, sponsorship free programming is very, very fresh and ...vital! One of my favorite stations in the universe!!!

The station broadcasts on air in London only but can be heard globally on the web.

Kev Boyle ****

Palestine Grove 
BLUE SKY MUSIC BSMCD 002

His gruff voice can make Tom Waits sound like a choirboy and his maverick songs dart erratically between the anger of the title track, moving narratives, charged anthems, adapted traditional tunes and a knockabout return to one of his best-loved songs Bon Cabbage, but this London Irish stalwart could be the British Isles' answer to Tom Russell. Outstanding multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver helps smooth the edges on an album brimming with character. Colin Irwin

The concert was held in Shoreditch Town Hall to an invite only TV audience and dress code was strictly Dickensian.  I found out about the dress code 10 minutes prior to going on stage when someone asked me where was my costume. With some well aimed creativity (and a rummage through an unattended costume bag) and help from LIsa, the transformation was complete and I became .......(drum roll) ...a little bit more Dickensian:).  So complete was the makeover that someone asked me at the aftershow party if I was The Artful Dodger.  At this point...the angels all sang in chorus and I felt like I had succeeded.  Mission completed I headed off into the cobbled London streets to find a safe carriage home.

The show will be aired on BBC 4, 17th December @ 9.00pm

Justin in one of the nicest individuals I've worked with in a long time...totally without ego and very much filled with creative energy.  He has the ability to make the microphones sound (even) more expensive than they already are....!

On Sunday myself and Naomi were joined by Bobby Valentino.  Bobby is a rare individual in that he's probably played one of the most famous fiddle riffs in recorded music being a member of The Bluebells  and playing on the original recording of "Young at Heart." He's a fine musician who has played with many a great artist ( Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bob Geldof, Alabama 3, Shania Twain)
He played some blindingly good music...more on that in a later post.

Justin and Gerry

photo by Paul Jackson

Naomi as always delivered a fine vocal performance and brought some lovely food :-)

We started the days recording the night before, with a jam.... joined by the ever so talented Lisa Knapp... which saw us trading songs, tunes and red wine into the wee small hours. Will keep you posted on the fruits of the days work.

Gerry & Alasdair (The Tunehouse Studio, London)