New directions in writing; through the hall of mirrors that is the alphabet,
and up and down the helter skelter that is show business.

The recent times since the release of Green Voodoo have seen me working in new areas and going off on a lot of different tangents as a songwriter ... kind of like a human pinball machine.
So - I'm putting this page up to explain and explore some of it all, more for the benefit of my live audiences really as most of the work isn't available yet in recorded form.

One of these things was writing songs for Michael Messer's recently released Lucky Charms on Cooking Vinyl records. However, that is covered extensively elsewhere on this site so I won't expand on it here.

My next album release will be Night Ride to Birmingham with my friend Wes McGhee.
It's a collection of what I call 'character studies' ... tributes and homages to personalities/performers who've influenced me. This too is covered elsewhere on this site ... but I will come back to the character study phrase in a while.

As I said ... human pinball ... songs and ideas often ricochet all over the place but I can usually catch them and hold them. If I don't and I can't they probably weren't worth the effort anyway.

New Songs & New Directions
Landscape & Location

People who've been with me on this song journey so far will know that I've always drawn upon; landscapes, a sense of place, the stories of individuals, lovers, working people and family members.

While living in Reading, Berkshire ( where I grew up ) I wrote a lot of songs drawing on the locality. 'Hometown' on The Shelly River grew out of nights playing with my friends in Arda Berkshire ( Irish trad/ceili band ). 'Walk With Me' which was on Mother Indigo and The Heart Sings was set on one of my favourite stretches of the River Thames.
Blue Eyed Plaice & Shiny Windows focuses entirely upon Reading.
Many of the songs on The Shelly River were coloured/informed with descriptions and images of Ireland, much of which came from the stories I heard as a child from my Sligo born father: Joseph Clarke 1915-2004.
Mother Indigo was mainly comprised of material written while travelling around Ireland promoting The Shelly River.
In 2002 I moved from Berkshire to the west coast of Scotland where I lived until the spring of 2005 before moving again to Wales ... west of Swansea, along near the Gower coast.

Scotland had a massive impact upon my writing; exploring; regions; history; landscapes and the work of Robert Burns.
Many of these songs combine character studies alongside landscape colours.
West Highland Blues - The Argyll Days has my re-workings of the traditional songs 'Stagger Lee' and 'Delia's Gone' alongside my settings of two Robert Burns pieces; 'Highland Mary' and 'The Slave's Lament'.

In May I travelled back to Scotland, to Dunnet Head, Caithness; the most northerly point of mainland Great Britain. The former lighthouse keeper's cottages now contain a performance space and a state of the art digital recording studio. It's run by two great musicians; John and Isaac Sutherland.
I met them when I performed there as part of the Unholy Trinity with Ronny Elliott and Wes McGhee in August 2005. Recent concerts there have featured; Nick Harper, Steve Young, Davey Graham. Among those scheduled for the coming months include Katy Moffat and Duck Baker.
The Sutherland's invited me back to perform a concert and to record an album. The working title is Big Road - the Caithness Sessions.

While living on the west coast in Argyll I wrote several story/character study songs based on the stories I collected relating to the times the American Polaris submarine base was on Holy Loch. Some of those songs are on the already aforementioned West Highland Blues - The Argyll Days.
My personal favourite though is probably a new one called 'Glasgow Girl' which we cut in Caithness ...

'Glasgow Girl'
She was a Glasgow girl with an Irish heart
she loved Elvis especially the King Creole part
when he sang 'Crawfish' and stretched out the craw ...
she went looking for his shadow down along the Broomielaw.

She took up with a sailor based out on Holy Loch
he said he came from Memphis and her heart did unlock
he said he liked Elvis but he preferred Charlie Rich
but it was close enough for her to scratch that Southern itch

Glasgow girl and a Memphis boy
said he had a sister up in Illinois
the sister had a lock of Elvis' hair
from the set of It Happened at the World's Fair

Continued ...
Terry Clarke © Bucks Music

'Sam Martinez in Scotland' is based upon a wonderful story I read in The Herald.
Published in Glasgow, The Herald is my favourite newspaper in Great Britain www.theherald.co.uk & www.sundayherald.com
Sam Martinez was one of a party of loggers who came from British Honduras to help the 'Mother Country' in the years of WW2.

I also cut some songs that I wrote while living in Argyll; 'Clementines', 'Goin' Down To Campbeltown', and 'Go 'long Lonnie' which is a tribute to my early hero Lonnie Donegan.
For more specific information on these songs please see Big Road - the Caithness Sessions.

Robert Burns, Dylan Thomas and Paul Robeson

The Dalriada Fencibles is a theatre group that I worked with in Argyll and in fact continue to do so from Wales. We just performed 'The Ashes of Despair' as part of the Burns an' a' that festival in Alloway, Ayrshire in the Alloway Public Hall which is immediately opposite the cottage where Burns was born.

The Dalriada Fencibles were formed by Govan, Glasgow born poet/writer Janette Valentine.
Janette worked with John McGrath's famous 7:84 Theatre Company for many years.
Since 2003 we have staged four different productions. 'Highland Mary' and 'The Slaves Lament' are two of Robert Burns poems I have written and arranged music for, while 'Robert Campbell's Lament For Jeannie Burns', 'Claret & Black Silk', 'Jean Armour's Blues' and 'The Nine of Diamonds' are original compositions. Go to www.myspace.com/terryclarke to listen to 'Robert Campbell's Lament For Jeannie Burns'.

South to Wales ...
'Paul Robeson in the Rhondda' is a song that I co-wrote with Kathryn Lay. In fact the song was her idea initially, she began the lyric which we completed together and I wrote the music.
A while ago the song came to the attention of The Croeso Project and they recently paid for recording time at Tinderbox Studios in Llandaff, Cardiff for me. I cut it with Vic Doyle on electric bass and Hywel Livingstone on drums. It will shortly be available to listen to on the Croeso website www.croesoproject.org and hopefully I'll be able to include it on a future album.
As a child growing up in Reading in the 1950's I loved Paul Robeson's voice and the songs he sang. The past twenty years have seen me spend a lot of time in and around Austin, Texas. I've met and become friends with people who have worked with and for Al Gore, Robert Kennedy.
People who were involved in the crucible of Austin politics through the years of the Vietnam conflict. Paul Robeson is a figure of huge importance to them and it's been intriguing and galvanizing to come to Wales and find a deep seam of love and affection for him here.
Before Jesse Jackson, Harry Belafonte and Martin Luther King there was Paul Robeson and he was an inspiration to all of them.
Incidentally, folk/blues songster Eric Bibb and his father Leon Bibb have just released a tribute album to Paul Robeson; 'Praising Peace - A tribute to Paul Robeson' by Leon Bibb and Eric Bibb www.stonyplainrecords.com and www.ericbibb.com
Leon Bibb was a contemporary and close friend of Robeson's and Robeson was Eric Bibb's godfather and has been a big influence on his life and music. The album is a very beautiful and moving work.

The following is a quote from the Croeso website ...

The Croeso Project celebrates the diverse peoples and culture of Wales, working to promote understanding of language, faith and community. Croeso is also the Welsh word for Welcome.

Many years ago in the sleevenotes for the original release of The Shelly River I acknowledged Dylan Thomas as an influence and inspiration. An Evening With Dylan Thomas and Friends is
a collaboration between myself and Swansea based actor/poet Peter Read. It was commissioned by the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, something I'm humbled by and very proud of.
There are nine new songs by myself, one of which; 'Miss Winters and Miss Monroe' is a Kathryn Lay lyric.
My songs and Peter's poems/prose illustrate and hopefully illuminate aspects of Dylan's life which have been overlooked ... after arriving in America he became an avid player of pinball machines, he loved Almond Joys chocolate bars, he loved Mickey Spillane pulp fiction crime novels.
He adored Charlie Chaplin, jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker read and loved his poetry, he spent time in California with Christopher Isherwood, went to dinner with Shelley Winters.
At the time of his death he was due to write the libretto for a Stravinsky opera ...

'The Blue Doors'

1
Behind the blue doors
hangs a jacket
through the window
lays the green sea
like a bolt of silk
in a draper's window
and the old men
smell of peppermint and nicotine

2
Behind the blue doors
undo the necktie
play with a pen
while a blackbird sings
to the cockle sea
with jellyfish colours
of the violet dress
of a Soho drag queen


Chorus
Behind the blue doors
night came falling
with a Swansea rhythm
and a ticket to New York
New York
if walls could talk I would listen
I would eavesdrop
behind the blue doors

Continued ...
Terry Clarke © Bucks Music


'Miss Winters and Miss Monroe'

1
The older one is artfully iced, lace edged, sugar dredged.
pulled in here, pushed out there.
lips veneered, like a shiny new car.
lashes heavy as roofs in winter, boughs in summer, bodies in water.

2
The older one is artfully iced, lace edged, sugar dredged.
The other is lightly dusted,
starlet waisted, moonlight frosted
powder puff voices in a shared fur coat, they swap for dates and photoshoots.

Snow White and Aphrodite, pink as pigs in sundown sunlight.

3
The older one is artfully iced, lace edged, sugar dredged.
I wish I'd seen their night's preparation
queen bee fussing, singeing and curling,
stretching and rolling, cigarette idling in a steam dripping mirror.

4
The older one is artfully iced, lace edged, sugar dredged.
hole in her stocking, tucked behind her knee.
smooth and silk but a little threadbare
I know they match me for unread letters from debtors and mothers, agents, lovers

Snow White and Aphrodite, pink as pigs in sundown sunlight.

Lyrics by Kathryn Lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music


Character Study, Storytelling Songs, Songs of Work and Wales

Songs in these areas cross tracks with each other a lot, however ... I'll try to keep the express trains on one track and the slow moving freights on another.

'Pontypridd' is a personal favourite of my recent songs ... at one time the town was reputed to have the longest platform of any railway station in the world, in order to accommodate the volume of coal trains that it handled. I always loved songs such as 'Big Bad John' by Jimmy Dean and the great songs of Merle Travis; '16 Tons', 'Nine Pound Hammer'.
Bruce Springsteen has recently revisited that song tradition for 'The Seeger Sessions'.

Pontypridd

1
The longest train I ever saw
came into Pontypridd
it carried coal from Maerdy
there were shadows underneath
The longest train I ever saw
came in at half past nine
at half past ten the last truck
was still leaving the mine

2
The longest train I ever saw
came into Pontypridd
Tom Jones was in a club downtown
a Little Richard song between his teeth
The longest train I ever saw
had no diamonds but carried sweat
The longest train I ever saw
is not over yet

3
The longest train I ever saw
came into Pontypridd
I was standing on the corner
of the street down underneath
was a fireman on the footplate
and I lit a cigarette
I just finished the packet
I've not seen the guards' van yet

4
The longest train I ever saw
came into Pontypridd
longer than the road that stretches
up through the Vale of Neath
someone's singing '16 Tons'
someone singing 'Bad Bad John'
The longest train I ever saw
I never saw it gone

Terry Clarke © Bucks Music

I have also collaborated on several songs with Kathryn Lay, something I'd never really done before. The title track of my album 'Night Ride to Birmingham' is her lyric. As well as the two mentioned above; the Paul Robeson song and one of the Dylan Thomas project items, many of the others we've done together are an integral part of my live performances now.

'Mario Ferlito' tells the tale of a Catholic church created in a nissen hut during WW2 by Italian prisoners of war in Wales at Henlann Bridge. Please see this link for more info.

Update (Sept 2006)... just recently, Swansea writer Annette Pugh; who is currently writing a book about Italian people and their culture in south Wales, organised a private viewing of the chapel. A wild, windy Saturday morning saw a dozen of us making our way through driving rain into Cardiganshire for our first ever glimpse of this wonderful, private, spiritual refuge that was created out of love during the dark years of the Second World War.
I was invited to bring my guitar and sing 'Mario Ferlito'; I did, in front of the altar, with the rain beating on the roof outside.
It was an honour and a totally overwhelming experience to sing our song for Mario in the space that he helped create over sixty years before, surrounded by his paintings and the candlesticks fashioned from cocoa and corned beef tins
The space in which he and his fellow prisoners of war had knelt to pray ... probably for their loved ones and an end to the awful conflict.

Derek Gabriel captured the moment perfectly with his photograph.

© Derek Gabriel 2006

Mario Ferlito

1
These fields are green like olive oil
dripping from the presses
women walk to chapel
in gloves and cotton dresses
and there's music in these mountains
and a softness to the rain
but their church stands like a widow
cold and grey and plain

2
They don't have stories in the windows
throwing rainbows on the floor
I long to see a fresco
and hear a southern choir
and I would sit for hours
to hear the heavy robes
brushing on the flagstones
in those palaces of Rome

3
So I'll build a holy place
a new Jerusalem
in this rotten bunkhouse
of corrugated iron
I have no Italian silver
like the bangle on your wrist
but salvaged cocoa tins
will make our candlesticks

Continued ...

Lyrics by Kathryn lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music


The world of boxing - especially the heavyweight division - has long fascinated songwriters.
Many come to mind immediately; Bob Dylan's 'Hurricane' for Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, Paul Simon's 'The Boxer', Tom Russell's 'The Eyes of Roberto Duran', the late Warren Zevon's 'Boom Boom Mancini', Mark Knopfler's 'Song For Sonny Liston'.

'Jack Doyle' 1913 - 1978 is the tale of the Irish born heavyweight boxer singer and Hollywood actor. A truly fascinating and flamboyant man; in 1933 at the height of his fame he was reported as having earned a quarter of a million pounds, his tenor voice was discovered by Count John McCormack's teacher - Dr Vincent O'Brian, his Mexican wife and Hollywood starlet Movita married Marlon Brando after she and Doyle divorced. Long before Barry McGuigan's father Pat sang 'Danny Boy' at boxing matches Jack Doyle's rich tenor had serenaded fight fans with Frederic Weatherley's timeless lyric.
This is one of the earliest songs that Kathryn and I worked on together dating back two years. She has been a long time fight fan which I think enabled her to bring an authentic atmosphere to the lyric. She was at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas in August 1995 to witness Mike Tyson's comeback bout with Peter McNeeley. Michael Watson, Lloyd Honeyghan, Chris Eubank and Frank Bruno are among the notable UK fighters she's seen, including the unforgettable contest between Eubank and Nigel Benn at the NEC in Birmingham. An accomplished artist she has done portraits of Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns for private commissions.

Jack Doyle

1
Jack Doyle was a handsome man
born in the County Cork
his hair was dark and wavy
as into the ring he walked
some he won and some he lost
but he won the hearts of all
with the lights and cheers and hand clapping
thund'ring 'round the halls

2
Jack joined the British Army
made a name with his fists
Danny Sullivan bought him out
said "you can do better than this"
Jack he trained and Jack he drank
not always equal measure
sometimes comes a fighting man
who wants to taste all life's pleasures

Chorus
At the end of the miles
change the oil
and count the spoils
what do you do
when your name is Jack Doyle

3
When a crashing, hammer blow
felled the young Jack Doyle
he would reel and stagger back
with a verse of Danny Boy
he would launch into 'the pipes'
that called from glen to glen
and raise a glove and find his feet
before the count of ten

4
Jack Doyle sailed into New York
was the toast of the town
Buddy Baer was the fighter
who put the Irish down
then Jack married Movita
from the lands of Mexico
they had some good years together
before she left for Marlon Brando

Chorus
At the end of the miles
change the oil
and count the spoils
what do you do
when your name is Jack Doyle

5
Jack Doyle and Movita
toured the English towns
they drew the heat from the footlights
then brought the curtain down
Jack would sing 'Danny Boy'
while Movita watched his lips
they got married in Dublin
then cashed in their Catholic chips

6
Jack went on the road again
chanced his arm at wrestling
but ringside loyalties move on fast
the crowd had all but left him
Jack Doyle's star had faded out
like his memories and photos
of that fiery starlet
with the look of Frida Kahlo

7
He took up with a Kilkenny girl
who worked in a Lyons teahouse
was barred from every drinking den
the length of Shepherd's Bush
he slept out on the city streets
till an old fan took him in
until he died one Christmas
in St Mary's, Paddington

Chorus
At the end of the miles
change the oil
and count the spoils
what do you do
when your name is Jack Doyle

Lyrics by Terry Clarke & Kathryn Lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music.


'Mickey Rourke' manages to bring boxing imagery into a tribute to one of my favourite actors.
At one point Kathryn and I joked about how maybe we should write a whole album of boxing related songs - may still do it. Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner, Billy Walker, John Conteh, Nigel Benn deserve to be immortalised in song I think.

Mickey Rourke

1
I come to talk about Mickey Rourke
he keeps chihuahuas
he wears great shoes
Mickey carries his father's name
he knows the New York City Blues
Robert Mitchum and Al Pacino
add his name to the list
he walked away
for fourteen years
to earn a living with the fist
I wanna get a glass
I wanna pop a cork
I wanna share a table with Mickey Rourke

2
It's all in the detail with Mickey Rourke
new white shirt
like a hotel bed
but his fingers shake from a backstreet life
as he works through a pack of Marlboro Reds
charm and grace in a pin-stripe suit
he's the ghost of the Rat Pack
rattled and raging
and on the edge
like a smoking train-wreck
I wanna get a glass
I wanna pop a cork
I wanna share a table with Mickey Rourke

3
Tonight I sing of Mickey Rourke
he walks like
an exiled king
saying a prayer for the dying
singing the Song of Songs for the living
spar with 'Lights Out' Toney and Roberto Duran
you're gonna carry the bruise
close your eyes
say " ... our day will come ... "
and don't get ash on your shoes
I wanna get a glass
I wanna pop a cork
I wanna share a table with Mickey Rourke

Lyrics by Terry Clarke & Kathryn Lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music


'The Drifters Come to Jack Town' combines a lyric with a Welsh setting with a tribute to The Drifters. Before the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Four Tops, Belmonts were THE DRIFTERS. Two of the biggest chart hits for my personal all time favourite Dion DiMucci were Drifters covers; 'Drip Drop' and 'Ruby Baby' (I still often feature the latter in my live shows). The current touring version of The Drifters played here in The Grand theatre in Swansea recently and it was one the greatest gigs I've ever seen; Peter Lamarr, Rohan Delano Turney, Victor Bynoe and Patrick Alan are more than worthy to wear the mantle of the greatest harmony group in the history of rock 'n' roll - in my opinion. www.thedrifters.co.uk

The Drifters Come to Jack Town

1
The sun goes down on Jack town
girls are dancing to the Drifters
that red dress shakes and sparkles
see how the spotlight lifts her
a light rain's falling on the bay
September's cooling down
the band's red hot singing 'Ruby Baby'
the Drifters are in Jack town

Chorus
Drifting on a backbeat
gold chain and satin lapels
while some are casting nets
they are casting spells
the Drifters are in Jack town

2
That harmony walked from Harlem
passed the Belmonts on the corner
stopped for a shine on the subway
bought his rhythm for a quarter
they found me in the 60s
Rudy Lewis and Ben E King
wait for the Stylistics
to add that sitar zing .. thing

3
Was back in the old days
and the army came to call
Clyde McPhatter went away
went marching down the hall
but here come Johnny Moore
a new link in the chain
Doc Pomus and Mort Schuman
with songs straight off the love train

Chorus
Drifting on a backbeat
gold chain and satin lapels
while some are casting nets
they are casting spells
the Drifters are in Jack town

4
Dionne Warwick's voice
Burt Bacharach at the keys
getting a 'Mexican Divorce'
in the early 1960s
I've got a 'Honey Love' sugar rush
no trace of Swansea blues
come on over to Jack Town
and get some sand in your shoes

Chorus
Drifting on a backbeat
gold chain and satin lapels
while some are casting nets
they are casting spells
the Drifters are in Jack town

Lyrics by Terry Clarke & Kathryn Lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music


If it had been written at the time we recorded it then 'Dion, 'The Wanderer' and 'Ruby Baby' would have been on 'Night Ride to Birmingham' but ... next time. Dion I have loved forever and he still inspires me ... this song says it all.

Dion, 'The Wanderer' and 'Ruby Baby'

1
Where I came from boys grew their hair ...
wanted to be in the Rolling Stones
me ... I went to school with Italian boys
I wanted to be Dion
I still love the way he sings
like a rock 'n' roll Caruso
go down Dion - Bronx to Florida
orange blossom blooming when you go


2
Where he came from they cruised the streets
in packs and in the shadows
the same streets Bobby Darin walked
where they trained young Jake la Motta
I still love the way he talks
Like a rock 'n' roll James Cagney
a rolling panorama, a streetlife symphony
in the subway magic and alchemy

Chorus
It's Dion 'The Wanderer' and 'Ruby Baby'
swaying down the avenue
engine idling at a red light
Dion always goes on through
he always goes on through

3
Was a black and white television set
was on a Saturday night
was Dion singing "Runaround Sue'
- God gave the blind man sight -
in 'the Holy Land of Marinara'
is where you learn to sing like that
when the high tenor sings the blues
you even dance on your own doormat

4
Bruce Springsteen on backing vocals
Phil Spector at the mixing board
welcome to the 1970's
hold on tight pull the ripcord
the bass drum kicks and the rimshot hits
and the backbeat is the king
'West Side Story' was incomplete
because - when did Dion sing?

Chorus
It's Dion 'The Wanderer' and 'Ruby Baby'
swaying down the avenue
engine idling at a red light
Dion always goes on through
he always goes on through

5
Growing up riding the 'D' train
through girders and shadows of evening
marionettes are dancing
while in a sweatshop somebody's weaving
the old folks have memories of Bari
on the coast of the Adriatic
the young ones are looking at the jukebox
and the wonders of 'automatic'

Chorus
It's Dion 'The Wanderer' and 'Ruby Baby'
swaying down the avenue
engine idling at a red light
Dion always goes on through
he always goes on through

Lyrics by Terry Clarke & Kathryn Lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music


During the late 1960's I was lucky enough to have seen a lot of my early country music heroes in London; Willie Nelson, Hank Snow, Skeeter Davis, Bobby Bare, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Chet Atkins and ... Buck Owens. Buck's London performance was captured on one of his all-time classic albums Buck Owens in London. As I write this he has recently passed away .... 25th March 2006. He leaves us a legacy that will never be equalled in country music.
'A Little Bit of Bakersfield (Buck Owens Odyssey)' is Kathryn's lyric tale of my journey from Reading to the London Palladium to see the incomparable Buck Owens and The Buckaroos.

A Little Bit of Bakersfield (Buck Owens Odyssey)

1
In a yellow, satin suit
Buck sang 'Together Again'
long after Bonnie had left
for the voice of the working man
but we waited on the steps
of the London Palladium
for Buck Owens and his Buckaroos,
Skeeter Davis, and the Orange Blossom Sound

2
He sang 'Dust on Mother's Bible'
like he came straight from Sunday school
he was blue-grass, he was gospel
and he was country through and through
but the man who played with Sonny James
and Tennessee Ernie Ford
knew a bit about rock & roll
he tore through 'Johnny B Goode'

chorus
There's a little bit of Bakersfield in London
on the spot where Buck Owens stood
and as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow
that swinging country sound is in my blood

3
Don Rich was up there with him
my girl was on my right
I wonder if the Beatles
heard 'Act Naturally' that night
one day I want a Manuel suit
with rhinestones down the seams
in that yellow fabric
that flows like pouring cream

4
The Buckaroos wore pink
they shone like abalone
lightning finger-picking
and soaring harmony
anyone who saw those boys
was blessed to hear them play
we lost too much when we lost Don Rich
on the road to Morro Bay

chorus
There's a little bit of Bakersfield in London
on the spot where Buck Owens stood
and as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow
that swinging country sound is in my blood

5
We headed for the station
in the dirty London rain
remember that little recording booth
that cut 45 RPM?
you and I made our first record
while we waited for the train
the 'A side' label said 'Calibre'
we sang 'its crying time again."

6
In 1969
Mick Jagger rocked Hyde Park
and the Beatles played up on the roof
before they fell apart
I loved the British rock scene
but there's a place my heart
for the red, white and blue
of Buck's Fender guitar

Chorus
There's a little bit of Bakersfield in London
on the spot where Buck Owens stood
and as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow
that swinging country sound is in my blood

Lyric by Kathryn Lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music


I always loved the western ballads of Marty Robbins, the epics of Gordon Lightfoot, Ian Tyson and especially the songs of Johnny Horton. The movie theme song 'North to Alaska' has long been a staple of my live sets. Horton's 'When It's Springtime In Alaska' is a song lyric that seems to me could have been penned by Jack London or Robert Service.
I think that Kate's 'Skagway City 1897' is an awesome piece of work and am glad that it was me that got to write the music for it.

Skagway City 1897

1
Seattle Jim in the corner
he's no more than 15 years old
he was at the quay when the Portland sailed in
heavy with Klondike gold
the stories spread like a virus
the bounty was raised with each telling
he borrowed the fare from his mother
and in three days he was sailing

2
Harmonica in his pocket
to pass the long nights ahead
around his neck a locket and chain
he's got a tent and a canvas bed
he'll drink his first whiskey in Skagway tonight
and be followed home in the rain
his throat will be cut for a handful of coins
he won't see Seattle again

3
Belinda Mulrooney brought silk boys
and bales of cotton to Skagway
with all the flair of an entrepreneur
Belinda traded in luxury
in six months she opened a restaurant
and collected the dirt from the floor
miners' shoes carried gold dust
and she wasn't born to be poor

4
She built the Grand Forks Hotel
on the corner of Princess Street
with china cups from Limoges
and the whitest linen sheets
She caught the eye of a nobleman
who called himself Count Carbonneau
he stole her Kodiak rug
and her favourite nugget of gold

5
Marguerite L'Aimee kept a food store
with a stable of girls out the back
but she had her eye on her future
and the millionaire George Carmack
George had started the gold rush
and taken a native lover
but George and L'aimee were soulmates
avarice brought them together

6
A hundred men died on the trail today
and horses lay cold in the mud
nobody stopped to bury their bones
they had too much digging ahead
children were claimed by hunger
their eyes were shut with two stones
strong men wept with cold despair
for their family and for their homes

7
Some made it to the rapids
with no strength left to row
boats were dashed on the Yukon rocks
and bodies were lost in the flow
but for every man that fell
another joined the ranks
lust for gold kept them coming
to the treacherous riverbanks

8
500 miles from the city
of chancers, conmen and thieves
was the land that kept men awake at night
A place called Rabbit Creek
to the death they would fight
for a plot of Canadian dirt
that would be their mistress or fortune
or their burial plot

Lyric by Kathryn Lay
Music by Terry Clarke © Bucks Music

This page will be updated as the trains move on ... collecting stories and luggage.