Our new album, ‘A sudden rain’, is now available. After a long songwriting drought, spending time in Nepal in 2019 reawakened my creativity and all but one of the songs emerged over the following year and a half. However, lockdowns restricted our opportunities to rehearse, play and record the songs. They have only reached their current form thanks to Lucinda Fudge and Matt Kelly, whose beautiful string arrangements brought them to life, and to Rhys Wilson, who in addition to his own musical contributions gave patient advice and help with recording and production, and mastered the album. Hedy Boland played kora on ‘Boulevard de Strasbourg’ and the choir Mnatobi joined me for a re-recording of Thessalonika. You can listen to, order or download the album here.

I’ve prepared a video for the first song on the album, ‘Panauti’. Panauti is a small rural town a two-hour bus ride east of Kathmandu, and we stayed there with the family of Biju and her daughters Aayusha and Nirusha. The welcome they gave us was beyond compare – it was a privilege to meet them and our stay was most memorable. The video includes pictures of the town, surrounding countryside and the family. There is more about our stay in Panauti here and you can watch the video below:

Lucinda, Matt, Rhys and I will be launching the album at Cambridge Folk Club on March 22nd, in partnership with The Battered Case (Mark Gamon and friends). The concert will start at 8pm and takes place in the Golden Hind, 355 Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1SP. Tickets are available here.

We will also be playing songs from the album in Rock Road Library on May 24th, and will play a short set in support of Angeline Morrison at the Black Fen Folk Club on March 17th.