1 Given Time (6.01) - "Full-on Fingerstyle"
2 More or Less (2.55) - "Mental Mayhem"
3 Three of A Perfect Pair (3.42) - "Acoustic Prog"
4 Should I Stay or Should I Go (1.54) - "12-string Clash"
5 I Never Meant To Self-Destruct (4.30) - "Millennium Man"
6 Vigil (4.56) - "Healing’s Mutual"
7 This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us (2.39) - "6-string Sparks"
8 I Said What I Said (3.19) - "Parting Shots"
9 Feet Hit The Ground (2.52) - "Gig Fever"
10 I Heard It Through The Grapevine (3.29) - "Classical Classic"
11 Exuberessence (5.01) - "Flat-pick Fervour"
12 Move On (3.33) - "Churchillian Spirit"

...which, considering that I Said What I Said alone has no less than 373 words, seemed a bit cryptic and unforthcoming of him. When we finally tracked him down through the wilds of Dorset to The Hide (his recording studio), he told us more. A lot more. Some of it we deemed only to be of interest to those afflicted by an obsession with anorak-spotting, musicology or life-avoidance. Those bits were confined to the Musicians Only page, so you've been warned. Here are some of his less obscure ramblings...

More or Less
This used to have a completely different and particularly rubbish lyric called I Swallowed A Dictionary. I forgot about it for a few months, but really liked the directness and simplicity of the melody line and chords, so after a few more days of verbal wrestling it became a song about someone trying to simplify their lifestyle but ending up just as confused as they were when life was complex. We know we should be happy with less, but we can’t help wanting more. A bit of a rant on the futility of existence, but also appropriate to the theme of the album, or at least to the nature of the album, with the 'less is more' concept by which I convinced myself that a solo acoustic album would speak louder than all the drum samples and overdrive pedals in my studio.

Three of A Perfect Pair
This King Crimson song from the early 80s had always stuck in my mind for its combination of melody and seamlessly fluent writing in 7/8 time. Not an obvious one (as usual) to do solo on 12-string, and it took me many weeks of struggle to perfect an arrangement, but I think I got most of the elements of the original into it somewhere (if not all at the same time). Hopefully I've also created something sufficiently different from the original to be worthy of inclusion. Having said that, my muso friends keep telling me that Adrian Belew of King Crimson does an acoustic version himself! In some ways I think it's better if I never hear his version. All I can say is it seemed like an original idea at the time, and it's another one I hugely enjoy playing live.

Should I Stay or Should I Go
This and 3PP seem to have become wedded to each other in the live set, mainly by the dubious justification that they both have the capo on the same fret. This easily passes the test of being very different from the original, although that doesn't make it everyone's cup of tea. I think the proper version has three chords, but I ended up using all but about three chords from my book of Jazz Passing Chords and their Role in the Success of Punk and New Wave. This one's great fun to play live, though, again, and it's under 2 minutes.

I Never Meant To Self-Destruct
I'm told that this song is about what it's like to be male in the 21st century. It's always a pleasure when someone takes the trouble to interpret your lyrics, so thanks, Christina, that must indeed be what it's about. I was wondering. I know I say this about a number of songs, but this song can be an incredibly intense experience when played live. I think I pour all my frustrations and ambitions into my music and lyrics, so there's a lot of feeling waiting to come out of this song every time I get to play it. I've come to the conclusion that songs should be about a feeling first, and it's OK for the literal meaning to be secondary and open to debate.

Vigil
I wrote this when I thought for about a week I was going to be forming a band, with me on electric guitar. It seemed to transfer well enough to the Lowden (acoustic) when I realised it was just me against the world again after all. I think this might be one of my best lyrics. It all started when I was toying with the phrase "I'll be yours if you'll be mine", with the "yours" and "mine" referring to a particular role (therapist, magician etc) rather than the more usual meaning of belonging to each other. Since everyone probably has a touch of madness, it's better to be your partner’s therapist than their antagonist (even though the latter is much easier!).

This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us
I always remember this quirky Sparks song as being the first one that I heard on the radio that stood out from the rest, made me realise that pop music didn't have to follow any particular formula, that it's best when it surprises you. On the one hand it was classical, because of the piano motif and the operatic singing, but it was rock because of the heavy guitar, bass and drums. As for any lyrical analysis, I haven't got beyond noticing that the first half of each verse is a mundane situation and the second half is always an extreme version of the same situation. I don't know why that works, but everything about that song appeals to me. Great song, but I had my doubts the first time I played it in a pub in North Dorset, only to be rewarded with complete silence. Very embarrassing after that big finish. I must work out a small, subtle withdrawn sort of finish just in case I ever play in Blandford Forum again.

I Said What I Said
I don't know where this came from. It doesn't sound much like anything else I've done. I'd been helping out a local folk band for a few months, so that may have inspired this, my first attempt at some kind of story/novelty/tongue-in-cheek song. More quickfire lyrics, which I often seem to do. I'm strangely proud of getting in a not entirely gratuitous reference to the football team from Aldershot, Hampshire that I've supported, sometimes with insane devotion, for the last 30 years or so. It's about what would happen if you said all the things you'd normally edit out of your conversation. I think it's always best to come right out with things. Say it as you see it, it's for their own good. But I don't.

Feet Hit The Ground
I recorded a few acoustic versions of songs that had already been on my previous albums, so I thought people who had only heard the albums might like to hear how I do one of them live. This is on the Taylor 12-string, which I always play fingerstyle. It's about anticipating the moment of truth, something we all have to do eventually.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine
I know this might seem an odd cover to include on the same album as a King Crimson prog rock song, but trust me. Where this song fits into my life is that I heard a solo instrumental performance of it at a concert by the amazing acoustic guitarist Antonio Forcione. Before I could help myself, I was noodling around on my classical, inspired by his jazz/blues-tinged treatment of the great song. Then I started singing it and my brother complemented me on my singing for the first time ever! Then came the idea of adding a solo in a different key before the last verse, and before long I was performing it at the Pilgrim in Liverpool. After that rare outing for my Takamine electro-classical, the acoustic album was the ideal place to record the song on my beloved Antonio Picado classical. It turns out to be the only track on the album with a classical, another good reason to include it. So, thanks to both Antonios!

Exuberessence
At last, an instrumental, my first ever using a pick. I've written loads of classical guitar instrumentals recently, but this was on the Lowden acoustic. I think it owes its existence to the fact that, whenever I tried to play Gordon Giltrap's brilliant guitar instrumental Heartsong, I had problems with the tuning I was using. So I abandoned it, but having an instrumental in the set was such a good idea that I found this one cropping up to distract me when I was supposed to be practising the rest of my set. I couldn't ignore it. I also couldn't play it for several months, as it's harder to play than a lot of Heartsong! It's all about exuberance and the essence of music. Actually, I've never understood how an instrumental can be about something, but it does make me feel exuberant when I can actually play the thing properly.

Move On
I also performed this one for the first time when I was up near Liverpool in September '05. It's another 12-string fingerstyle one. I scrapped the vocal and re-recorded it only a couple of weeks before the album was mastered, and I think it's come out stronger this time. It's one of those songs I like because the lyric (to me) doesn't sound as if I wrote it. It's in more straightforward language than I normal hide things in! I don't normally write songs of hope for other people - many of my songs are more self-obsessed than this, although I hope they still express universal feelings. This was inspired by an obscure Winston Churchill quote along the lines of "If you're going through hell - keep going."