Amid all the discussions about who should tax what - this ones gone strangely quiet. So many organisations that could well afford it are tax exempt in the UK because they are a  charity. Taxing the poorest just doesn't make sense - but you won't hear the leaders talking about this. This song is based on experience of working for a charity - almost more business like than your normal business. Recorded in 2015 mixed and finished 2020. This is the songs first public airing.

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Two saxophones, strings, bass  and a guitar - the midi guitar. A laid back tune - for what looks like a very hot day. From the CD Phases - about 2002

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From the sublime to ... Take it Easy . Title taken from the old Eagles song - sentiment from the contented Ralph McTell album Easy . Light hearted - don't let the world get you down - song from the CD Can't Stop in 2008/09. Recorded in 2013 with Rob on Cajon . The weekend's here ! 

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28th July 1750 - J.S Bach died. A date he shares with Antonio Vivaldi who departed 9 years earlier in 1741. A multi tracked arrangement I did in late 2015 for guitar and double bass.

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Taken from a suite of 4 pieces for 2 guitars this is an early experiment with multi tracking. Recorded in two sessions at the Abbey Robe Studios in Shaftesbury with Jon on the desk, me and a metronome. The recording dates from 1997 but the idea from 1986 when I bought an old second hand Revox A77 reel to reel tape recorder, took a week off my rather unpleasant office job and tried to compose some tunes. 

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From the world of the Tango - Buenos Aires, Argentina and Astor Piazzolla. I had the chance to play Histoire du Tango by Piazzola with two wonderful flautists- but never recorded it unfortunately. This  tune is based around two Milongas- one by Jorge Cardoso, which was very popular in the late 1990's, and a second by Abel Fleury. I'll put both of those tunes up at some point. Clive Batkin put a lovely improvised top line over the chord sequence in 2016.  Heres the YouTube link  https://youtu.be/aiPQxNlBm5I

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The Bert Jansch album A Rare Conundrum is the musical starting point for St Aidans Song. In particular the song Daybreak and its lovely gentle introduction - bass harmonics combining with guitar. Its a return to the 2013 recordings with Rob on Cajon and the song is about enjoying the simple things - to dance , to sing, to love and to care . The song developed from the guitar piece St Aidans Dance - I put that up on May29th. 

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I composed most of the 5 Preludes in the 1980's and early 1990's but I didn't really made half decent recordings of them all until about 2013.
Prelude No.1 - in A . To J.S.Bach - and in particular  influenced by his Prelude from the solo cello suite No1,
Prelude No.2 - in Dminor. To Fernando Sor - the idea from his study No.13 from the Segovia selection of 20 Sor studies. Subtitled Con Calma.
Prelude No.3  - in Eminor . To Miguel Llobet.- He created beautiful arrangements of Catalan Folk Songs. This piece has the subtitle Oracion.
Prelude No.4 - In E . To Heitor Villa Lobos. The 5 preludes are a tribute to Villa Lobos. They are probably the most influential pieces on my playing and writing. This piece takes the structure of his Prelude No. 2.
Prelude No.5 - in D . To Agustin Barrios Mangore. The piece which influenced this composition is Danza Guarani . My tune has the subtitle Fiesta. 

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From a collection of songs recorded in 2014, Let your spirit shine through is an unusually positive song ( or meant to be ) for the 20 somethings - "what happens now". Confronted by the need to earn a living the world can appear a very disappointing place. The album was called Lights in the Mist.
As we go through this week I'll mention each day how you can buy tracks, even albums. 
A track is £2.00 ( It comes as an mp3 - as you can already download the tracks for free it comes with 2 bonus tracks from the same album ) A whole album costs  £10.00. You just email me saying which track /album you want , I send you details of how you pay , you send me the money and I send you the music. Have a good weekend ! My email.    [email protected]

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The Paraguayan guitarist Agustin Barrios Mangore's La Catedral was composed in 3 movements and is a beautiful piece to play. The first movement is the Prelude Saudade and was recorded on Robert's Hybrid guitar in 2013. 
This is the last of the second cycle of podcasts I'm allowed free. In the next cycle I'm going to try seeing if anyone out there wants to buy some of the music - either individual tracks or old fashioned CD's. It will allow me to keep the podcast going beyond the end of August. Details to follow. Happy Friday. 

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