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JOHN TAMS NEWSLETTER Autumn 2002
New album due for release in October
Thank you for your constancy. I'm sorry it's taken so long. I was there all the time hiding behind the page, or the screen or wherever you're reading this. I jumped up and down once or twice and waved - but you were probably out or looking the other way. Anyway here I am and my hope is that you are well and we might shoot the breeze for a moment or two?
The follow-up album to Unity is being pressed as we speak. HOME, is scheduled for release on October 7th. The title has multiple meanings but coincidentally Sal, Rosie and I sold our house in Matlock during the recording with a view to returning to Holbrook. Everything that could go wrong went wrong and what should have been six-weeks overnighting at my parents-in-laws has now turned into eight months. We lost the house we wanted even though a sale was agreed. Sal found an alternative - a farmhouse in the lea of a hill topped by a working stone-built windmill in a lovely little Derbyshire village. The house has everything we need including a small stable block that will make a splendid studio, something I've always wanted. We still haven't moved in but we do have a date and the dislocation that has made our lives so unstable will soon be at an end. We are seriously indebted to Joan and Alan, Sal's mum and dad for taking us in and putting their roof over our heads.
'Home'
Our problems, given the stresses and strains of the foregoing are insignificant to the dispossession and marginalising of those who may never experience the word - home. We're lucky - one day, maybe soon we'll have our own home - all four walls and a roof - not a charcoal shell - a piece of canvas - a bunch of cardboard in a shop doorway. Home is a four-letter word - its nebulous - a philosophical argument - it's a place to come from - a place to leave and a place to return to - it's an endgame and an opening move - it's walls and fabric and it's care and love - it's spirit - it's a table - a bed - a door - an address - it's where you live - it's where you come from.
I'll tell you about the album. It seems like it's taken a long time in the making but I've done a couple of shows at the National Theatre in the interim. We started recording a couple of years ago. I was finishing the Millennium Mysteries at the time. We put some tracks down live at the The Pavilion in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire and a few more at Kate Rusby's studio in Yorkshire, then I got caught up with The Good Hope, a project I'd nurtured for some years which with National commitments and touring took another eight months out of the diary.
The album has been recorded in almost as many locations as there are tracks. Home-made could have been another title since most of the venues were band homes - possible these days thanks to the advances in recording technology.
Individually and collectively the band have put themselves out to complete the album. On one occasion Barry Coope only had one day to complete his vocals. We had rented a small cottage in North Dalton, Yorkshire. Keith had set up the equipment wearing his engineer's hat and we were about to start recording when a knock came at the door and a man from the electricity board informed us he was turning all the power off for most of the day. There was nothing we could do but sit and wait, wasting valuable hours. But no! As Barry and I were picking ourselves off the floor, Keith sauntered past - "S'alright I've got a genny in the van". Minutes later Barry was working his magic in front of the mic whilst Keith smiling contentedly, worked his from behind the mixing screen. In the garden the generator purred purposefully on.
Graeme's was no less fraught as brickies, chippies and leckies swarmed over the house converting the loft into a purpose-built studio - but we prevailed thanks to the determination of the band and specially their families including my own. It's a tribute to them that they made this work and I owe them a deep debt of gratitude. The band are a terrific outfit, incredibly supportive, exemplary players and crucially, good friends. What more could I ask?
Incidentally I thought I'd better review what I've just been writing to you. My word processor is old and very grey but it still has some life in it - bit like me really. Anyway in order to read back my ramblings I have to press a key on which is inscribed a word ... HOME
I'm going to press PRINT in a moment - so I'll see you later.
Thine
Tam
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PS from Sally |
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(thanks to Kathleen from Calgary who took the picture of John and Sally at the Fishpond concert in November) |
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