Over the last year I’ve been bringing together my next record. Life continues this journey with the great gifts of friends to travel with and visits to them in their homes and them to mine to record. Four songs from the album make up this ep release.

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Oh Friends written about experiences of the anti fracking movement in North Yorkshire, a beautiful and desperate standing of friends to keep Ineos away from their village. They succeeded and activists around the world breathed deeply at their resolve, I was honoured indeed to have been there to sing and offer some meditation workshops. Oh friends is inspired by their gathering to sing in front of the gates to the site each week, one of many actions they took.

Listen To Women Since recording these songs the news has brought us the tragedies of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. Prior to this, this song came inspired by the inspirational women I listened to at that time – always my mother, Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Ocasia Cortez and the rest of the squad, bell hooks…the list goes on but under the shadow of patriarchy – I felt to put some of that feeling into words

This Skin From conversations I have had and am having about white skin with my dear friend Joseph Mpanga. It started as I undertook the ‘Being White’ course with the Quakers and read Layla F Saad’s book ‘Me & White Supremacy’. Joseph, from Uganda, having been through the nightmare (my words) of the UK asylum system, is well aware of the affects on people of colour of the ignorance of whiteness. This Skin draws lines from the past; referencing slavery and colonialism, that, as both the course and book showed me, remain present today.

Young Colours is a song for rainbows. Gender expression I believe is better and better, the wider it gets. I’d say I’m cis-gendered for the most part but feel my eyes filled with tears for the violence and exclusion of those siblings expressing themselves differently to heteronormative ideas. I raise my flag for embracing gender and sexual diversity as the norm.

As with ‘More The Love That’s Given’ my first release, my wish is that the songs open conversation. I’ll create sharing pages on the songs’ content and welcome contributions please 🙂

Part of album 2 which is in process.

The ep features a family of wonderful friends (and family -my mum and step dad feature, melodian and violins) along with the wonderful late and ever present Naomi Haigh on cello, Monica Max West on piano, Martha Wright on clarinet, Will Saunders and Seth Roberts on electric guitars and Tim Monkey on drums. Also involved were the voices of a choir of friends on Listen To Women – to be named including Manu Farenzena who was on my last record and my friend the Jazz singer Melissa James.

Formats
All my releases are available as follows-

As Download: with artwork/lyrics/album notes 

Physical: cd-less artwork album box and lyrics 
CDs – I make these to order if people need them  
Can mail any where in the world – for yourself or gift for a friend

Stream: stream the songs on their own album pages includes all digital artwork/lyrics/album notes

For how I use the donations please see my Donate tab

Love

Joe

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