All My Dreams
I wrote this and recorded this song for an album released in 2014 called What’s Here What’s Gone and I like it for is sense of ambivalence create through one of my saddest lyrics set to one of the happiest tunes I’ve come up with.
The song was inspired by an experience of being stuck on a train that had stopped after apparently hitting somebody who as it turned out had laid length ways within the track and was unhurt. After we continued our journey to stop almost immediately once more it became clear that the teenager in question had run up the line and attempted once more to end his life, unfortunately having succeeded this time.
It’s a difficult song to put across given the subject matter but I always try to sensitively included it in my live sets because I’m proud of the lyrics, the songs overall simplicity and because I like to believe that being so resigned to such an act even in these dark places is perhaps some solace to be had.
The guitar part is deceptively tricky and uses a cross picking technique that was common amongst mid 20th century American folk groups such as the Carter Family.
