New Single 'Frenchman's Creek' launched today!

I am hugely excited to share the latest single and video from my forthcoming album ‘Two Halves’.

Two Halves was first imagined for vinyl. It presents one side of songs and music inspired by stories from Cornwall’s wonderfully evocative river estuaries. The second half is more akin to my debut album ‘Dig Where You Stand’ and tells stories associated with Cornwall’s industrial heritage. I am joined by a wonderful selection of guests, representing some of the inspiring musicians and friends I have been working with since my first album came out in 2012.

Earlier in the year I released ‘Queen of the Cornish Rhine’, the nearly true story of Queen Victoria’s trip down the river Fal (see below for much more info!). This then is the second estuary inspired song from the album.

I was so inspired by Daphne Du Maurier’s 1941 novel that once I finished it, I decided to walk the coastal footpaths around Menabilly, where Du Maurier lived in the house and landscape which of course partly inspired ‘Manderley’ in Rebecca. As I was walking, the entire tune and arrangement for this song arrived in my head and I had to record it as soon as I got home.

I reunited with film makers Grace Fox and Rob Moth who edited the video for my song ‘Hope in a Jam Jar’ (also see below!) and who filmed, directed and edited ‘Queen of the Cornish Rhine’ as we headed towards the Helford river to film ‘Frenchman’s Creek’.

I am joined onscreen and on the track by Sam and Baz from ‘Aggie Boys Choir’ as well as by my good friend Nicola Edwards who not only sound fantastic but look the part as some of the pirates gathered on a beach near the helford river. Jamie Sterritt, Tom Philp, Rob Moth and my dog Clemo complete the raggle taggle crew!

The idea behind the music was that the track builds up (anchored by Freya Jonas’ piano), layering interweaving fiddle parts inspired by the storyline of the novel, introducing different characters and story lines. In the novel, the pirates are hidden away in Frenchman’s Creek whilst their notoriety spreads around Cornwall, but no one really knows where they hide out. We reach the middle of the track and this is the moment that we ‘find’ the pirates in song form. From this point on a batterie of military snares get ever closer as the fiddle parts fall away again, replicating the military closing in on the pirates until a dramatic ending!