“Dad, play that song you made when you were younger”

Oof, thanks kid.

My daughter got into my songs this summer. Finally it’s my sacred duty to cough over the sweary bit in Many Fish To Fry and badly explain what Allegorical means, as at least a few others have done before me.

Her main interest in the Feet Don’t Fail Me Now music video was not the music, or the video, it was that I seemed to walk across a road without consideration for oncoming cars. I was glad to see her recognise the importance of road safety - Jade and I emphasise it often - but surely a quick “Wow Dad, this is art of the highest order. You truly are a visionary, a genius, the voice of a generation” isn’t so much to ask of a 3 year old? We danced around the room to it all the same and I felt a strange kind of reconnection.

The free-and-easy 25-year-old me who wrote that song knew sod all about crying babies and precious little about holding down a wage, let alone borrowing 10 times one. Don’t get me started on ‘there’s never time for me’. Lol, sure.

But it’s been so on point for my life the last few years it feels eerie, like a prophecy. He wrote it for me all along. “See? This was all part of the plan.” Or maybe my life is such a cliché now that any young chump could describe it. Or maybe any minute now I’ll be sent back in time from the future to hand the lyrics to my younger self like a low-tier indie Biff’s Almanac.

“What do these words mean?”
”It doesn’t matter kid, just shut up and sing ‘em”

This summer I have lain in a hammock, pretended I might buy massive sunglasses and sat by a tree. All pics taken by my kid.

Scotland Shows

Statistically, only a small proportion of you live in Scotland, or may have reason to be in Scotland this month. It would only be right and proper to dedicate an equal proportion of space to matters pertaining to Scotland, to ensure the kind of balance you’ve come to know and trust here, which would mean stopping this sentence about 17 words ago.

And yet, here we are folks. Let’s shine a light on some upcoming Scottish gigs.

Some of these are almost full, others could do with a few sales. Either way, if you happen to have a click spare, use it here and do come join us.

Thursday 21st September - Coatbridge, Scotland. Tickets here.
Friday 22nd September - Lodge at Lochside Wee Bear Cafe. Tickets here.
Saturday 23rd September - Masonic Hall, Broughty Ferry. Tickets here.

Canada Shows

A similarly modest proportion of you live in Western Canada. There’s nothing specific I can announce yet except to say there’s an exciting chance I’ll be back for more shows in 2024. More soon.

Songs where the title lyric shows up surprisingly late in the game

I was enjoying this little gem the other day:

The title lands at the end of the song and I’m absolutely here for that. It makes such a change from it being hammered down my throat within 3 seconds. Does anyone else have any more of those? It could make for a good playlist.

It’s good to be back here. Looking forward to sharing more music soon.

Love
Jake