Swooping Molly

Martin Simpson is, for me and many, a guitarist and composer of such unique quality, skill and sensitivity to theme and interpretation he is unsurpassed. I've listened to many guitarists over the years - played with a few - but Martin's ability to arrange and develop both accompaniments and compositions is second to none. He can take a song and give it a totally different colouring with use of tunings and deft left hand and use his great singing voice to give sincerity I just keep returning to. I've been trying to play like Martin for a while - using his techniques and phrasings. Sometimes successful to an extent but never anywher near his skill use of tone and attack. If you haven't heard this man then get some of him soon.

Swooping Molly is one of Martin's recent compositions - you can discover the meaning of the title when you get the CD. Its played in CGCGCD - a tuning he uses a lot and which I really enjoy playing in. You can get Martin's Tab for this on his site from Brass Tacks http://www.martinsimpson.com/
Its a tricky piece mainly because you have to be nimble to keep up with it and it leaves my fingers puffing for breath! Its basically two sections with repeats and some variation. The Tab is Ok but basic - better for that you'll find - so you need to listen carefully and work out the left hand on some parts carefully.
Wonderful stuff though.

As if we need this to tell us its a wee bit cold. You can see our snowman (personage)- its 397th left from a very cold bit in the Highlands! Its been hard on small birds though and I've broken the ice in the water and left loads of fatnutsseeds stuff out for them. We have a tame pigeon who calls around now and then and jumps on a hand that contains visible peanuts.
Huge icicles this year too. Our heating broke down and we lived very cold for four days - a few heaters and lots of candles and hw bottles. You survive.It doesn't take much to bring things to a halt though really in this country. I can't see us surviving the next ice age like our ancestors did. At least there'll be no Big Blubber to want us to not want to!
Hope you all get on ok.

This is a strange affair

This is a strange affair.
One of many many fine songs by this man and some I have played for a long time. You can look him up for yourself, not look back and gain much. His song 'This is a strange affair' is, for me, one of the most moving of all songs. You can see Linda his wife singing it on the Tube but when I heard June Tabor singing it with Martin's (Simpson) guitar (the best of the best of all musicians for me) it was one of those times you have to try it. I can play the guitar part just well enough to get by but my wife can sing it with lovely feeling and we are moved. Martin accompanies with such skill so hear June and Martin here - if you or someone have time past and passing in your life you will hear the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFpMLE6WIo&feature=related

Blackberry time

We managed to catch the last of these up along the loch - scratches and yelps later and we had a bucketful apart from the ones that were eaten along the way. Blackberries are really good food and full of antioxidants and omega 3 - whatever they are. Personally I think they triumph in Blackberry & Apple pie but here is our recipe for Blackberry wine - chateau longwayhome.


4lb Blackberries
3lb Sugar
1 Gallon water
Yeast
Pectic Enzyme

1. Wash berries well - small maggots hide in 'em.
2. Put fruit in a basin and crush well with a wood spoon.
3. Pour over the gallon of boiling water.
4. Leave until lukewarm - add the pectic enzyme according to instructions.
5. next day add the yeast.
6. Cover and leave for 4/5 days - stir every day.
7. Strain through net or muslim onto the 3lb of sugar. Stir well.
8. Pour into a dark fermenting jar - just to the shoulder of the jar. Fit an air lock.
9. Keep the spare stuff in a bottle plugged with c.wool. Keep an eye on for a week to see if it is going to erupt through the airlock - if all ok add the leftover stuff.
10. Keep in a dark warmich place.
11. Wait until it clears and rack off into bottles. Keep for a year - (if you can) but taste occasionally to check it is ok.

John Martin

Ever heard of him? Many other people I ask haven't either. Maybe where you are that that is reasonable but up here in Scotland it is just a sadness. if you haven't go to this place on You Tube and listen to him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLNnzrlim-4&feature=PlayList&p=5DDD1F72895684EB&index=0&playnext=1
John died just before Christmas last year and gave his last performance in Glasgow -home town - just a couple of months before.
You can see this on the Tube too if you look.
I've been listening to John since the 70's and playing some of his songs. I think he is the finest songwriter ever to come out of Glasgow and think he should have a statue in George Square.
His music explored all avenues - his songs recorded by so many - his asscoiations and contributions read like a musical Who's Who
Quote - Folk? Blues? Jazz? Rock? Reggae? Trip Hop? Funk? John refuses to conform to any particular music genre whilst simultaneously embracing them all. Without fail he always takes the less travelled road in search of new experiences and inspirations. The diversity and quality of John's music is undeniably stunning. A virtuoso musician with a voice to melt the coldest of hearts.
He never made the mainstream or the big lights but year after year produced music of such intense emotion and diversity.
Here is his site - www.johnmartyn.com - treat yourself. Listen to him singing Hurt in Your Heart and not be moved.

George Butterworth

It has been since 2007 since I did this place. If you start something keep going. Unless its falling off a high building or watching Big Brother in which case revise rules fast.
Ask people who George Butterworth was and you too often get a shrug. This is a dire sorrow becaue if you are English (or would like to be (form an orderkly queue of 6 here)) you should at least onece listen to his music. Along Ralph Vaughan Williams and Elgar who is quintessentially romantic, bucolic english. He was born 1885 and between 1911 and 1912, he composed two of the most enduring cycles of British song: Bredon Hill and Other Songs and Six Songs from “A Shropshire Lad”, both settings of Housman poems. His career was brutally cut short, however; after enlisting with the British Army in World War I, he eventually became a company commander with the Durham Light Infantry. On 5th August 1916, while leading a raid at the Somme, he was killed by a sniper; he received a Military Cross during that battle, and was posthumously honoured at the Thiepval Memoria. For me his The Banks of Green Willow is a defining picture of english countryside. Everytime I travel through Somerset I play it as I pass Brent Knoll and anytime else.
If you haven't - go make a cuppa- find a quiet spot in the garden with a player and do yourself a favour. Or go here to Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Q9dz1kse8&feature=PlayList&p=479539E66953DA65&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=34

Cornish Pasty

I have been asked by some to throw in a recipe for a real Cornish pasty. Now this is a dangerous venture because A) I'm not Cornish and B) everyone in Cornwall thinks they have the best recipe. Mine is simple and I believe it should be because it was a workmans meal and not 'posh nosh' rubbish - it was meant to feed a working man.

It was probably the first complete take-away meal originally designed for the Cornish miner and farmer who was away working all day and needed a meal but had no facilities to prepare one. The reason the filling was contained in a pastry case with a thick crust along one side was to hold on to, especially as their hands were dirty or tainted with tin, copper or iron. Often in previous times this was discarded or fed to "The Cornish Knockers" (ghosts of dead colleagues said to haunt the mines). The traditional filling was meat or fish, potato, onion, turnip and a little butter or cream.The housewife prepared these daily for the man of the house and for the children who took them to work or school. It was the staple diet of the Cornish for many years. As the mines in Cornwall declined and "Cousin Jack" travelled extensively to find work this recipe went with him and still today one can still find small outcrops of societies all over the world producing the Cornish pasty, especially in Australia, South Africa, Canada and America.

Here is the recipe I have used and it works.

Pastry

You need:

500 gms strong bread flour
120 gms white shortening
25 gms cake margarine
5 gms salt
175 gms cold water

Mix fat lightly into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.Add water and beat in a food mixer until pastry clears and becomes elastic. This will take longer than normal pastry but it gives the pastry the strength that is needed to hold the filling and retain a good shape.Leave to rest for 3 hours in a refrigerator, this is a very important stage as it is almost impossible to roll and shape the pastry when fresh

FILLING

You need:
450 gms good quality beef skirt
450 gms potato
250 gms Swede
200 gms onion
Salt & pepper to taste( 2/1 ratio)
Clotted cream or butter

Chop the above finely then add to the rolled out circles of pastry raw. Layer the vegetables and meat adding plenty o f seasoning. Put the dollop of cream or a knob of butter on top. Then bring the pastry around and crimp together. The crimping bit takes practice.

Fan assisted 165 approx 40 min (bit hotter and longer in an ordinary oven I guess)

Swede or Turnip?

People get these either way around - here in Scotland they call them the other way they do in Devon. In Cornwall I believe the round yellow one is the Turnip.

Do not use carrots - ever - it is never never used in a true pasty.