NEWS
It was good to be back at the John O' Gaunt in Lancaster after a break of a few years. There was a good turnout for early January and I'm looking forward to getting back there on February 9th.
John Harper at the John O' Gaunt 5th January 2012
I played at the Penny Farthing reunion gig on Saturday 19th November and had a great evening. Met up with John Finnan from the old Black Diamond Folk Group days. He was in fine voice as ever…so good to hear some of the old songs and a few new ones from him. Rose Price was there too (see Bio page) and I intend to get down to the Raven Folk Club on her recommendation early in the new year…thanks to Russell Dumbill for arranging the whole thing and allowing me to sing a few songs.
Listen to a recording of my set on the Music page.
(Thanks to John Finnan for sending me the recording.)
A recent gig at the Robert Gillow in Lancaster reminded me what a truly two way street performance should be and that if you are lucky enough to get a receptive audience, how easy the whole thing becomes. New songs were played, old friends of songs rediscovered and I hope the audience enjoyed them as much as I did. Thank you.
Having a lot of fun arranging new songs for my wife Rosi and me to sing. We'll probably take them to an audience sometime soon…and it looks like the Sailing Club and Mortal Man gigs will be first!
ROLLING BACK THE YEARS Part II
After some 39 years I recently heard from Ian Chesterman (see the Bio page) resulting in Ian and his wife Ann paying Rosi and me a visit. As well as catching up with decades of news, eating and drinking, we also found time to play some of the old songs. Remarkably, we remembered most of the chords and some of the words! It was good to see Ian and I hope to get to play Wrexham Folk Club at some stage where I should catch up with a few more old friends.
ARLO GUTHRIE
Someone posted a link to Arlo Guthrie's "Motorcycle Song" on Facebook recently - this prompted me to spend more time than is reasonable watching and listening to most of the songs by Arlo posted on You Tube. Anyway, I was reminded of a song from a long time ago called "Darkest Hour" which I've always loved but never got around to learning. Here it is...
DARKEST HOUR CHORDS
If you'd like the chords I'm using in this song just right click HERE and download a pdf with the chords and lyrics.
ROLLING BACK THE YEARS
I played a gig at the Strickland Arms Beer Festival in 2009 which coincided with a visit from an old friend - click on Rolling Back The Years to see some photographs of me playing with a very special guest...