For more than 30 years I've used songwriting to process events in my own life, and to try and make sense of the world around me. So my songwriting has mirrored my life in the fading years of the 20th century and into the adventure of the new millennium.
Through young adulthood angst, love lost and found, to the awakening of political and environmental awareness. On to tentative, and then more certain, explorations into spiritual awareness, and (hopefully) a deeper understanding of what it means to really try and love.
Along the way I have managed to laugh at myself and our crazy world now and then, open the door a little on issues like abortion, menopause and mental illness, and share little slices of life with those who care to listen.
As my seventh decade fast approaches, I wonder what I still want to write about. It's not that there is a shortage of subjects - quite the opposite in fact. Sometimes, I just feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the world's pressing issues, and I'm not as sure as I used to be that a song can make that much difference.
Still, just when I think I might put all my creative energy into my painting instead, somebody tells me how much one of my songs means to them, and just when I think I don't have any more words or melodies, I will pick up my guitar one day, and a song will come to me out of the ether.
Music may not be the all-consuming passion that it used to be, but things change, and I don't want to be afraid of the unknown and untried. Painting has been a good teacher on that subject.
I've decided to relax and see what happens! As John Lennon once said, "Letting it go is what the whole game is. You put your finger on it, it slips away, right?"
I have a feeling that words and music haven't finished with me yet.
Photo: Paul Restall
Photo: Nigel Atkins
