Below are links to some of the better songs I have written.
All of these songs are copyright, but I am perfectly happy for them to be sung in amateur or semi-professional performances without further permission.
But please do let me know if you sing one via the email address at the top of this page
Anyone seeking to perform these songs in a professional capacity,
record, broadcast or reproduce them should ask permission from me first.
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The Liar's Bench - (November 2022) - A 'circle of life' song about telling tales!
.. joint second in the Watford folk club Songwriting competition, ' The Times of our Lives' November 2022
A Prayer For Leadership - (August 2021) - A forlorn hope that someone competent might take over?
.. and so deliver Albion!
Today's the Day - (January 2020) - Translation from the original Dutch version of of Nanne Kalma's song "Deze Dag"
This was a commission - seems to have come out OK! Now part of the English repertoire of Frisian performers, Nanne Kalma and Ankie Van Der Meer
One Penny A Tune - (August 2018) - Is this about being taken for granted, or greed?
Inspired by Nanne Kalma's story of a Frisian fiddler.
The Head Gardener - (March 2017) - I thought I was in charge of the garden!
Composed after observing the behaviour of the robins in our garden.
Five New Heads and Six New Handles - (December 2016) - A Music Hall style song about make do and mend!
Based on a much examined paradox - from Theseus's ship to Trigger's broom!
The Migrant - (September 2016) - 16 Year old Charlotte Kimpton was transported to Australia from Abbots Langley in 1845
developed from an article in an Abbots Langley Local History Society Journal
The Melancholy Shipwreck of the Gossamer - (October 2015) - The sad story, as described in a display in the shipwreck section of the Salcombe Maritime Museum.
Composed as my entry to the Watford Folk Club's 2015 songwriting competition 'Songs of Love and Loss'.
Down in the Dark - (March 2015) - The song of the badger
On 2nd March 2015 this song won the second prize in the Maidenhead Folk Club's Folk Song Writing Competition 'A song for tomorrow's tradition'.
Nothing that's left but the Squeal - (June 2013) - A song celebrating the role of the pig in UK culture
Composed as my entry to the Watford Folk Club's 2013 songwriting competition 'This Working Life'. It got into the finals!
Dark Ember - (1990) - A country-style song of regret
The outcome of an experiment with a particular rhyming scheme.
The Devil in York - (1982) - A traditional York folk tale turned into a ballad style song with a strong refrain.
As recorded by Johnny Collins
So Far From Home - (1977) - The marching song of the ghosts of the Ninth Legion
As recorded by Jim Mageaan and Johnny Collins - and now the accompaniment for a Border dance as well!