'Straightforward Love Song' was recorded in 2011 with Ed Deegan at Gizzard studios in East London. The song has become an essential part of my solo show set list over the past few years with it's throbbing guitar, revelation style words and unusual chorus (different words each time!). I had been asked to write a song for a wedding by a close friend of mine, but you know how it goes.... nothing  for ages and then a gestalt  of a song in five minutes!  Despite many other song options, there really was no better track to introduce myself and my solo show to people. The hard thing was to be able to capture that in the studio. There's a punkish quality inherent in the track and the acoustic guitar is not used as a strict 'folk' instrument by me, as a rule. We tried to electrify it using an amp but that sent us down a wrong path - close but not close enough! We had tried different studios in pre-production in London and elsewhere, but the results never matched what we got with the analogue sound of Gizzard and Ed's hard room. Of course there's always more needed again, and I was blessed with the gifted Barbara Bartz on violin adding her warm and somewhat poignant counterpoint to the flow of the piece. Ed's use of the mandola and my collection of choral singers - Barbara, Ed and Jonny Lee (an excellent accordionist I met on the underground in London) and myself got us over the finish line. Job done and I'm delighted to be able to share it with you all at last! 
One last point: we remixed it with different vocal reverbs and the driest one won - I think it might give a more intimate connection.
Special thanks to Phil Strongman for his feedback regarding the song as it developed.

Gizzard Studio 2011

There were no lengths that Ed would not go to to get the perfect take....