Twilight is the product of the last 3 or 4 years of song-writing and performing culminating in this, my first solo album. It's available to stream via all the major platforms and also as a CD - if you're interested get in touch via the contact page and we'll sort something out.
All songs written, performed, recorded and produced by Andy Lavery.
Many thanks to Erica Scott for the flute part in Dance The Titanic.
Thanks to Paul Mortimer for sharing his advice based on many years of recording the great and good (and for the loan of an excellent microphone - the Vanguard V44S!).
(c) Andy Lavery 2023
Recorded and produced at Holly Cottage Studios
Track List
The Man In The Moon
Every aspiring songwriter should have a Moon song. This is mine - a simple song of lost love.
Tripping On Air
Was very honoured to be asked to play at the Boar's Bridge Festival which raises money for the local Multiple Sclerosis centre in Reading. One of the consistent messages on the UK MS website was about the need to raise awareness about this often unseen condition so I wrote this, drawing on the comments of people about their experience of living with it. The last verse refers to 'spoons'. That's a metaphor sometimes used by people with MS and similar conditions to define how much energy they have on a particular day.
Down By The River
This must be a folk song because people die in it. A song about dealing with loss.
Borrowin' Trouble
Are you a glass half empty sort of person? A cautionary tale for people who only see the cloud and not the silver lining!
I'm Coming Home
As a Scot living in the south of England I am all too familiar with early starts and long drives and the joy of turning into your road at the end.
The House In the Pass
As a kid we spent many holidays in the idyllic Argyll village of Tayvallich. In the original gaelic the name means 'house of the pass' so I hope I'll be forgiven for a minor tweak in the title. A song a song about memory and continuity.
Not Lonely Tonight
One of my favourite singer-songwriters is Tim Minchin. We went to see him in concert in Liverpool a few years ago and noticed that he had someone down at the front of the stage signing for an area of the audience where there were people with hearing difficulties. Most of his songs are fast, intense and frequently profane so she was earning her money, but at one point he sang the slow, thoughtful I'll Take Lonely Tonight and the combination of the song and her movements was beautiful.
Home Counties Country Boy
There's always been a big audience in the UK for country music - here are my thoughts on the resonance between the two cultures.
Blame The Victim
At the above-mentioned concert Tim Minchin introduced one of his songs as being about cognitive dissonance (the state of having inconsistent thoughts and behaviour) which I though was pretty cool. And then registered that I'd written one too! This is about one of the common strategies of dealing with the gulf between belief that you are a good person and the way you behave.
Dance The Titanic
Our kids went to the local Junior school where they would always have a leavers' disco. The last track of the night back then was the only slow dance of the evening to My Heart Will Go On, the theme from the film Titanic so for weeks before, there was feverish speculation about who you were going to 'dance the Titanic' with.
Take My Hand
No explanation needed - a simple love song.
Twilight
For fans of the TV series of Outlander, this was my unsuccessful attempt to pitch for inclusion in the final series (but feel free to marvel at how I have condensed some 60 hours of TV into a 6 verse song!). For people who have no idea what Outlander is, this is just about an old guy looking back over an eventful life
All songs written, performed, recorded and produced by Andy Lavery.
Many thanks to Erica Scott for the flute part in Dance The Titanic.
Thanks to Paul Mortimer for sharing his advice based on many years of recording the great and good (and for the loan of an excellent microphone - the Vanguard V44S!).
(c) Andy Lavery 2023
Recorded and produced at Holly Cottage Studios
Track List
The Man In The Moon
Every aspiring songwriter should have a Moon song. This is mine - a simple song of lost love.
Tripping On Air
Was very honoured to be asked to play at the Boar's Bridge Festival which raises money for the local Multiple Sclerosis centre in Reading. One of the consistent messages on the UK MS website was about the need to raise awareness about this often unseen condition so I wrote this, drawing on the comments of people about their experience of living with it. The last verse refers to 'spoons'. That's a metaphor sometimes used by people with MS and similar conditions to define how much energy they have on a particular day.
Down By The River
This must be a folk song because people die in it. A song about dealing with loss.
Borrowin' Trouble
Are you a glass half empty sort of person? A cautionary tale for people who only see the cloud and not the silver lining!
I'm Coming Home
As a Scot living in the south of England I am all too familiar with early starts and long drives and the joy of turning into your road at the end.
The House In the Pass
As a kid we spent many holidays in the idyllic Argyll village of Tayvallich. In the original gaelic the name means 'house of the pass' so I hope I'll be forgiven for a minor tweak in the title. A song a song about memory and continuity.
Not Lonely Tonight
One of my favourite singer-songwriters is Tim Minchin. We went to see him in concert in Liverpool a few years ago and noticed that he had someone down at the front of the stage signing for an area of the audience where there were people with hearing difficulties. Most of his songs are fast, intense and frequently profane so she was earning her money, but at one point he sang the slow, thoughtful I'll Take Lonely Tonight and the combination of the song and her movements was beautiful.
Home Counties Country Boy
There's always been a big audience in the UK for country music - here are my thoughts on the resonance between the two cultures.
Blame The Victim
At the above-mentioned concert Tim Minchin introduced one of his songs as being about cognitive dissonance (the state of having inconsistent thoughts and behaviour) which I though was pretty cool. And then registered that I'd written one too! This is about one of the common strategies of dealing with the gulf between belief that you are a good person and the way you behave.
Dance The Titanic
Our kids went to the local Junior school where they would always have a leavers' disco. The last track of the night back then was the only slow dance of the evening to My Heart Will Go On, the theme from the film Titanic so for weeks before, there was feverish speculation about who you were going to 'dance the Titanic' with.
Take My Hand
No explanation needed - a simple love song.
Twilight
For fans of the TV series of Outlander, this was my unsuccessful attempt to pitch for inclusion in the final series (but feel free to marvel at how I have condensed some 60 hours of TV into a 6 verse song!). For people who have no idea what Outlander is, this is just about an old guy looking back over an eventful life