Having moved to France and settled into to a very new lifestyle, Tony found that the song writing habit had returned and songs were coming thick and fast. This time however he found that inspiration could be drawn from a slightly different perspective having arrived at somewhat more senior years!! 

This was quite liberating and interesting lyrically so with constant encouragement and enthusiasm from Sev, the concept of actually recording an album of mainly new songs slowly became a reality.

Sev’s  experience over the last decade as a studio owner, engineering and producing numerous acts, and working with music business legends such as the late Tony Clarke (Moody Blues, Clannad, etc) and Dennis Locorriere (Dr Hook) made it possible for him to introduce Tony to all the recent innovations in digital recording techniques.

Coinciding with this, Tony and Lesley moved house to the wonderful Le Manoir de Rastignac, a beautiful French manor house, and it seemed the scene was set and the time was right to commence with this project.

So in late January 2010, Sev packed his studio and musical instruments into the back of his car, and drove the 400 miles down to the Dordogne.

Unfortunately the two weeks spent recording, also coincided with one of the coldest winters of recent times in the Dordogne, so a lot of the recording time was spent huddled around radiators trying to warm hands up for the next take! The acoustic piano was in the living room, unfortunately also the coldest room in the house. So playing the piano became known as ‘popping out to the fridge to lay down some piano’.

They were ably assisted by Ashley and Deborah Dow of Rag Mama Rag, who came by for a day in a blizzard, on their way back from a gig in Brittany. Ashley played an assortment of acoustic guitars and stringed instruments, and Debbie played harmonica and spoons. Their contribution was invaluable.

After two weeks, the recording was finished, and rough mixes completed. Sev then returned to the UK, and spent a further fortnight mixing the album, and recording some additional electric guitar overdubs with old friend Dick Middleton.

Tony says:
“As I have said in the sleeve notes of the album,  if you had asked me a couple of years ago,  I would never have expected to be doing this either now, or maybe at any time, but I have, so I hope you will enjoy it.
I guess you never know what’s round the corner in life, so I’m still writing songs and who knows maybe a follow up could be in the pipe line…..”

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