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Don't Hurry Slow Down

(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down

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‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ started it’s life instrumentally in 1986. I had in mind a two-part guitar piece and it progressed out of jam sessions with a friend I’d met whilst working at Huddersfield’s Electronic Arts Workshop, Colin Ramsden, who I was trying to start a band with at the time. I came up with the claw-and-slap guitar riff, and at one point he jammed along with a little repeating section using some picked harmonics, which appealed to me.

I can’t remember now what Colin’s version was like, we made no recordings of those little jam sessions, and so when I did get chance to do my own recording of the track some time later at Rick Cocker’s home-studio, I had worked out my own version of the picked harmonic, but for me, it was a finger-picked pattern.

John Helliwell

Having recorded the backing tracks, and adding a synth bass-line and drum machine, I had little idea where to take this. I had a melody, and a hook for the chorus: ‘Don’t hurry, slow down, slow down,’ but little else for the rest of the song. I played a few of my demo tracks to my old college friend and writer, John Helliwell, including ‘Slow Down’, and he was keen to have a go at helping me finish it. Within a week or two he had something, and the verses were formed. I used my hook and added a pre-chorus, and we had the song. 

Over the years, I’ve had two or three versions of ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ in demo form, either on cassette, as it was originally, and then later on CD and digitally, but nothing made it beyond this point.

Fast forward 37 years or so…

I knew I wanted to do something with the song, but it was my daughter Amy who sparked it all off again. She came across to us in December 2023 for Christmas, and I did a little set for friends at a gathering at home. Amy said she’d been working on a harmony for ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’, and could we have a go at singing it. We played and sang it for our small audience unrehearsed, and it went down a storm. It was then I realised it was ready to do another, more polished version.

I had already part-recorded a slimmed-down version of the song, with two acoustic guitars, and added a bass-line and percussion in Spring 2024. Amy agreed then to come across for an early Summer break in late June/early July and did her vocal for me during that week.  

What astounded me was that Amy took to recording very easily. She hadn’t used a studio mic before, or recorded using DAW software either, but adapted very quickly, wasn’t phased by any of the repetitiveness of the comping process, and could stay on pitch like a pro. It made the whole session very enjoyable.

If anything, other issues got in the way of my finishing the song. I released ‘Wry Smile’ back in October ’24, and then we had family health issues to deal with. Claire lost her Dad in December, a long journey with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and then her Mum was seriously ill too. We went back to the UK for Christmas and to support the family through crisis, and so my planned releases went on hold for a while. 

On the 29th December Amy and I did get chance to shoot video scenes in Ealand for ‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’. I had this idea to try and portray the ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ themes of the song using slow-and-fast frame videoing. It was difficult but fun filming all my scenes singing at double-speed, and Amy’s at half-speed. The result you’ll see for yourself on the video.

Our test-shots originally were made indoors with a plain-background, which just didn’t work. It was only when we shot outdoors, with the Ealand sea of wind-turbines behind us, did it help and I think aided the fast and slow element of it.

The sad conclusion to this story though is that we learned in early January that our good friend and collaborator on this song, John Helliwell, died on December 31st, after a short battle with cancer. Our song therefore has become a tribute to him and his generous and creative spirit.

We miss you, John.

There are a few more songs that John and I collaborated on, which I intend to release sometime in the near future. More news about this soon.

‘(Don’t Hurry) Slow Down’ is out NOW.

Wry Smile

What’s behind the… WRY SMILE?

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I wrote Wry Smile in 2017, after I’d seen enough of the antics of a certain Donald Trump who was in the White House at the time.

To be honest, I was more than a little concerned as to why he’d been elected in the first place. Then, I saw such a parallel with our own situation in the UK at that time: incompetent right-wing leaders, too guided by lining their own pockets and those of their friends, than that of the welfare of the average person.

That certainly showed itself in the few years that followed. Especially when covid-19 hit the UK shores. Especially when Britain decided to leave the European Union, fueled by propaganda that preyed on racist fears and not looking at the reasons why the EU was set up in the first place: to bring about Peace in Europe.

As Trump began putting the walls up, so Britain retreated from the strength of a united Europe, and used it’s island seaboard as it’s wall. And so both America and Britain became weaker as a result.

I didn’t use names in this song, but it was directed at ALL politicians, that misuse the powers of the positions they’re elected to, and use their office to further their own selfish interests and not those of the people.

And Donald Trump, Wry Smile speaks directly to YOU.

I sincerely hope that the US electorate votes for the Voice of Reason, and not for the self-serving billionaire, you know what I mean?

Good luck, America. The World is watching.

Wry Smile is out NOW. Have a listen, or watch it here

ADDENDUM:

It’s Nov. 26th. Trump has been re-elected. It beggars belief as to why the voting public in America would support such a man, but he’s there, and I’m sure soon enough we’re going to see – again – what kind of a President he is.

For the song Wry Smile, I guess it has another four years of validity. I should be grateful, but I was rather hoping Kamala Harris would be the first Female U.S. President. America clearly isn’t ready to advance that much – yet. 

Yes, Donald Trump can soon enough sit smug and smiling as he wreaks his own brand of havoc from behind the desk in Washington’s Oval Office.

And what’s behind the Wry Smile?

With-the-Sky

With the Sky

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With the Sky was written in 2011, just after I checked out as a pilot. It’s had various tweaks and changes to the lyrics since then, but essentially the tune has remained the same.

I wrote it as a nod to the ballooning community, especially for those people who gave up their time for free and helped me to train to be a pilot. the majority of these belong to the British Balloon and Airship Club (BBAC), and for people in the UK, if you want to get involved with ballooning, then that’s a good place to start in terms of finding people near to you who will help you take part. 

Burner-shot

It’s very much a “pay-it-forward” community, in that it’s best to find a balloon team, help out with being part of the chase-crew, whilst you decide whether ballooning as a sport is really for you. Claire and I got involved in ballooning in 2001, and we were crew members for a number of teams until late 2007, when Claire ‘checked out’ as a pilot, and then we bought our first balloon, enabling me to train afterwards.

Essentially then, it took me nearly 4 years to train as a pilot. Partly due to the fact that I was sharing balloon time with Claire, who was still a novice pilot herself.

What I hoped to convey in the song, was life as a balloonist (or is it a “loonist?”). The fact we’re always watching the sky, looking at weather forecasts, checking out the wind speed, looking toward the tops of the trees even, in the sheer hope that the winds will be calm enough for us to fly. A lot of the time, especially when we lived in the UK (and we were up North as well….), those hopes were often dashed by turbulence, fog, and, more often, rain.

Balloon-stack-2011

I don’t think that there’s been another song written about ballooning as such since Fifth Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away” in the 1960s. So, it’s really a modern slant on ballooning, from a pilot’s perspective. There’s no doubt in my mind, and I’ve seen significant changes in the weather since 2001, that the weather patterns are worsening. There are far less calm flyable winds since we began ballooning in the. early noughties. Some of our ballooning colleagues who’ve been flying since the 60s, 70s and 80s have said that those weather changes are even more significant since they began flying even. 

So the “Give me another window in the weather” line in the song is a plea for just the chance to fly, which is becoming more and more the balloonist’s anthem, I think.

With the Sky was released on March 8th.

It’s on Spotify:

You can find the video here:

Good Ones Go First

Released…!

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So… finally, they’re out there!

At least three songs released so far:

Only-the-Good-Ones-Go-First

Only the Good Ones Go First, made sense to me to release it first, despite my initial reservations. Although the root of the song is about loss, it’s bouncy and it’s positive, and it sends a message that – more than anything – the people close to you are the most important. Click the image to view.

Watching the Rain, is a moodier song. It’s about many things: about living in your head; about the struggle to communicate outside of that; about losing someone because of the breakdown of communication and being able to explain your actions. Select the image if you haven’t seen it yet.

Watching-the-Rain
On-the-Rise

On the Rise, is getting more positive. It’s typical me I suppose, always there’s an aside questioning the good stuff, always; but it’s also projecting the positive above the negative. On the Rise is literally about manifesting a good future in your mind, and if there only was a bit more ‘light’ in everybody, then things would be better…. wouldn’t they? Click the image to see and hear it.

It’s been a lot of work: the videos, the graphics, the ads, contacting playlist curators, radio, media… some bits worked, some didn’t… I had the intention of getting one song released per month. This was too much. I still have a day job as such, so I’ve settled at aiming for one song every two months. If I can get the marketing periphery more streamlined, then I’ll get them out quicker.

I’m surprised as to the response – all of it is positive – and in the most unusual places. Brazil likes it a lot (way to go, Brazil!); then the UK, then France, U.S. and then… Israel, are the top 5 countries. Quite an unusual spread. The numbers are growing track by track – that’s positive I think – and I assume this trend is continuing upward as people get to know who I am, and my music. Huge gratitude to each and every one of you who have played my songs and especially those who have liked them, shared them, and saved them to your playlists.

There’s more to come.

Craig x