David Harley Words & Music

Swan Songs

Album cover

1. Ten Percent Blues 03:42
2. The Road 03:34
3. Marking Time 01:38
4. This Guitar Just Plays The Blues 02:49
5. The Last Musketeer 02:31
6. Orpheus with his Loot 02:27
7. What Do I Do (About You) 02:05
8. Rain 03:43
9. Paper City 05:46
10. Snowbird 04:44
11. Swift Variations 02:11
12. The Wild Swans at Coole 06:17
13. Cornish Ghosts 03:49
14. Hilltop Snapshots 03:38
15. The Road to Frenchman’s Creek 02:52
16. Song of Chivalry 03:58

In early 2023 an awkward medical condition brought it home to me that perhaps it was time to draw a line under any pretensions I have to live performance, so my appearance at the Lafrowda festival in St. Just on the 15th July marked a semi-official farewell to the live stage, not that I’ve played publicly much in recent years anyway. This album is drawn from the set list for that appearance, so it takes the form (mostly) of reinterpretations of familiar (to me, anyway) material rather than new songs.

I can’t promise that I’ll never be inflicted upon a live audience again (sorry!), and I’m certainly not promising that I’ll never record or write anything else, but this is, I suppose, an end to any thoughts I had of resuming my career as a professional musician when I retired from the IT industry in 2019.

Lyrics to ‘Marking Time’ by Fiona Freeman. Lyric to ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’ by W.B. Yeats. Other lyrics and all melodies by David Harley, as are all vocals and instruments.