PocketsOn Fire all songs by annA rydeR

 

1. Tried And Tested
When I wrote this, the chorus came first - I always imagined this one with a band and this was put down virtually live with Gerry adding his usual extra and clinching percussion, and me adding extra vocals.

2. Careless Talk
About friends who gossip.

3. Sliding Into A Dream
With Ric on wild violin and Gerry on various percussion, this song was one of my first for what I call my weird tuning. Track 1 uses it as well. This was one I did at Cropredy with Fairport last year.

4. Paper My Walls
A different thing - kind of jazzy funky type with an unusual mandolin and 2 trumpets combination with my keyboard.

5. Maybe Tomorrow
This was written following a memorable starry evening at a pub with friends playing music at a session. Kind of a feeling of being alone surrounded by friends.

6. Not Safe
Written partly by accident while playing for a dance class but turned out quite fun.

7. Heaps Of Metal
About my Ford Cortina saga. Has wonderful brass parts by Chris Knibbs and Chas McDevitt who worked them out in my empty flooded house with only a mouldy sofa. The brass sounds are way out. This is jazz.

8. Let Me Go
Lots of harmonies. Quite a folky-classical influenced song.

9. Who's The Fool
With Ric's violin arrangement played by him and Chris Leslie plus harmonies makes a lush sound.

10. Pockets On Fire
The title track and all about what people put in their pockets but obviously a bit more as well. Loads of Gerry-stuff and harmonies. I had loads of fun doing this one.

11. Freedom Hymn
Written relatively recently but always imagined for a huge sound. Loads of brass, harmonies and bits to listen out for. This was another track I did at Cropredy with Fairport. Based on New Orleans style funeral march type thing.

12. Late Nights
First to be recorded, this is a kind of poignant song about stuff that won't happen again like it did before.

It's been engineered and co-produced (with Dave Pegg and me) by Mark Tucker who is an absolutely fantastic sound-finder-maker-keeper whose ears work long after everyone else's have failed to notice the difference between a cement mixer and my French Horn playing! (yes, I know what you're thinking - perhaps that's not surprising! Ha! Ha!

If you were at Cropredy this year (1998), you'll've heard 2 of these songs (Sliding Into A Dream & Freedom Hymn) on the Saturday night with additional performers!! It was a highlight for me to perform the songs we'd been working on over the past few months with an excellent and huge sounding band at such a massive festival.

Play Cropredy

And thanks to those of you who managed to catch my 45 minutes which kicked off the whole thing on Friday lunchtime - I hope you enjoyed it - I certainly did.

Pockets On Fire was made at Woodworm Studios and it was a great excitement for me as not only was I able to record these songs which everybody kept asking could they get recordings of, but ALSO I was able to record them with a brilliant group of people who made them come alive but kept the original feel of the songs which have always been performed solo. And I had the time to take my time over it. Fairport are such good musicians and the secret of their success may be something to do with not being stuck in their ways and always being interested in the new and unusual.

This is the kind of album I've always wanted to make and my next aim is to take these songs out with a band .... And then record all the songs which didn't make it onto this CD.




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