Of course, in true rock and roll style we had a fall out in 1998 and whilst the band continued I plodded on struggling to find a musical direction. I did, with Ani, record a CD Audiographs in 2000 but was still feeling a little bit ‘lost. Perhaps a little bit over dramatic I didn’t touch a guitar from June 2002 until mid 2004 when I began writing a few songs. In the autumn of that year I’d started going to an open mic at the Junction in Otley run by my friend Jude. After maybe a couple of visits Jude suggested I should go to Otley Folk Club which was held at Korks Wine Bar. I told I didn’t know the first thing about folk music which wasn’t strictly true as I’d played bass for O’Donnell and Bird, a much respected folk duo on the scene in the late 1990s.
I resisted until, in the very merry month of May 2005, I wandered into Otley Folk Club and paid my 50p. I was given a two song slot and I was petrified. Without the paraphernalia of rock and roll (mics, amps, monitors, lights etc) I felt naked. My two songs were very well received and I was encouraged to come along next time which I did, and have been ever since!
Steve Fairholme, who runs both the club and the festival, has been a massive supporter of me and my music. He gave me my
first festival opportunity and I owe him a lot of credit. My regular appearances at the folk club sort of coincided with me discovering the music of a young singer from Barnsley called Kate Rusby. As many others have said, Kate’s voice has some magical quality about it and I instantly became a fan. What Kate’s music also did however was introduce me to a lot of songs that I had never heard and I started getting into traditional English music at this point. Through Kate I found Nic Jones and many of the other well known folkies that I hadn’t really heard off. Ani and I had felt a bit left out at singers’ nights when everyone else was singing along!
My musical life has always been made up of defining moments (first time I saw the Beatles on the telly, finding the guitar, wandering in to the folk club etc etc) and another one of those monments occurred on the 20th of September 2006. A week or so before that I’d had a myspace message from a young violinist called Katriona Gilmore. She’d wanted to come to the folk club and I said I’d put her name down as she was travelling on the bus from Leeds with her musical partner Jamie Roberts and I didn’t want them having a wasted journey if it was going to be a busy singers night,
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