We have received some very positive reviews for our new album, A sudden rain. John Barlass, writing in At the barrier, enthuses:

‘If you haven’t come across John Meed before, let me tell you that he’s songwriter of great perception and insight, willing to tackle the issues that have the greatest impact upon people’s lives and interactions… He’s taken the opportunity to enhance his thoughtful songs with a little help from some talented friends, and the result is something quite remarkable.’ The full review is here.

Ian Hall, writing in Liverpool Sound and Vision, comments:

‘The sense of fulfilled flawlessness that resides in John Meed’s exploration of sound and the haunting additional, unhindered string arrangements reflects the continued abundance of thought that the musician utilises… A wonderful album, John Meed proving that inspiration is only a storm cloud away, and one that can bring a soul back to life in its wake.’ The full review is here.

David Pearson writes in Spirit Rocks:

‘His songs are thoughtful and deep, paced for you to soak in the arrangements and content. It is uncomplicated yet thought-provoking, his voice having an almost spoken, poetic quality, yet with strong melodic timbre that suits the clear melodies.’

Steve Johnson writes in Morning Star:

‘This album is basically a call for faith in humanity wherever we live.’

Carl Filby, in Unicorn Folk, concludes:

‘After all that do I have to spell it out that I like this lovely album? It has the feel of a long letter written by a friend about his adventures and subsequent thoughts since you last saw him.’

And finally, this lovely comment from Mick, who enjoyed our set in support of Angeline Morrison at the Black Fen Folk Club:

‘I love your album – it’s playing as I write this. As a (very amateur) songwriter myself I can only listen to your album with a mixture of admiration, pleasure and insane jealousy!’

A sudden rain is available here.

Consumate storyteller explores new musical territory with addition of evocative string arrangements.

Release date and album launch at Cambridge Folk Club: 22nd March 2022.

On his ninth album ‘A Sudden Rain’ Cambridge-based lyrical storytelling songwriter John Meed explores new musical ideas and territory with the addition of evocative and emotive string arrangements and a choir. ‘The songs 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 gave patient advice and help with recording and production, and who mastered the album’ says John. Equally the choir Mnatobi joined him on Thessalonika, and Hedy Boland played kora on Strasbourg.

Regarding the songs John states that ‘After a long songwriting drought, spending time in Nepal in 2019 reawakened my creativity and all but one of these songs emerged over the following year and a half.’ Four songs on the album: Panauti, Real life, Summer rain and Progress, were directly inspired by the Nepal experience. John adds: ‘In Panauti we had the great privilege to stay with a local family, whose hospitality was remarkable. And across the country, we were time and again touched by the warmth of the welcome we received.’

Real life stories have always inspired John and this is certainly the case with three of the album’s songs. On Le boulevard du Strasbourg John states that: ‘Les 18 du 57 boulevard du Strasbourg’ – workers without papers – went on strike against their appalling working conditions, and won the right to regularisation after occupying their workplace. Many of the words for the song come from the workers themselves in a film produced by the Collectif des Cinéastes pour les sans-papiers’. Cotton famine road tells the story of how the American civil war cut off supplies of cotton to the Lancashire mills. Rochdale mill workers, aware that their cotton had been picked by slaves, supported the struggle for freedom, despite the resulting ‘cotton famine’. Public funding paid them to build the road across Rooley Moor, an area where John used to walk during his childhood.

Thessalonika is an older song that John had always wanted to re-record with strings and a choir. ‘It’s about Zoe Kaltaki, a remarkable Greek woman who fought the Nazis in her native Greece, and then fought for the communists against the Greek army, before fleeing to exile in Czechoslovakia’ he states. ‘When she finally returned home she was asked where she felt more at home and she replied, rather ambiguously, ‘I feel at home where I can be myself’. John comments: ‘I felt her story somehow summed up the turbulent twentieth century.’

The remaining 3 songs tell differing tales. Rooted is a song of belonging or seeking to belong, Arden, with its nod to Shakespeare, is an emotive tale, while the album concludes with Don’t Look Back urging us to learn from the past, but to look to the future. John’s writing has been compared to Al Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Christy Moore, Jacques Brel and Richard Thompson, widely reviewed and played on many BBC and community radio shows and stations across the UK and beyond.

‘A sublime singer-songwriter, whose beautiful songs are thoughtful, emotional and political.’ Strummers, Cambridge

Listen/buy on Bandcamp.

With the complications associated with Covid over the least 2+ years I’ve had very little news to share with you. But, rather like London buses (or possibly the last bus to Leeds), you wait for ever for an item of news, and then three come along at once.

Firstly, many of you will know that I am also a writer and researcher. I conduct ecological surveys for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the RSPB, and the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Over the last ten years I have been surveying the wildlife in a group of arable fields in the green belt just south of Cambridge which provide a home for threatened farmland birds including grey partridge, corn bunting and yellow wagtail. I have learnt much about their ecology, why they are under such threat, why they flourish in the small area I study, and about their fascinating and comples behaviour, relationships and social lives. And I have just published a book, A haven for farmland birds, which describes what I have learnt. You can read more about it here and you can order a copy here.

Secondly, Rhys and I had long harboured the idea of revisiting some of my early songs live – just me with a guitar or piano – to reflect better how I play them now. During the Covid lockdowns a genuinely live album became impossible, so the closest we could get was to record each song in Rhys’s front room in a single take. And in the end we were even able to record The last bus to Leeds live at the Cambridge Folk Club this February. The ten songs are now available on a new album, ‘Almost live’. You can listen, order or download it from my Bandcamp page and I will have copies at my forthcoming gigs.

Talking of which, I have a very local gig on September 30th, organised by the friends of Rock Road library. It was originally planned for the library itself, but will now take place in the Friends Meeting House in Hartington Grove. This is a double-header with the String Section, and I will be joined by Lucinda Fudge (viola), Matt Kelly (violin and viola) and Rhys Wilson (guitar). Entry is free.

I hope you have been surviving the strange times we have lived through over the last two years. It’s been a difficult time for all involved in the music scene, but I’m especially conscious of the small clubs who have had to navigate their way through changing and often opaque restrictions while caring for the health and well-being of their audiences and performers. I have many reasons to be grateful for the support of Cambridge Folk Club over the years – they nurtured me through my early years as a performer and even enabled me to share a stage with the legendary Norma Waterson who so sadly passed away last month. And they rose to the challenges presented by the pandemic with their characteristic good humour and great competence, firstly running on-line Zoom concerts (of which a highlight for me was an unexpected star appearance by Boo Hewardine’s cat!!) and then experimenting with a different venue for social distancing purposes. All of this, I know, takes time, energy and commitment.

But they are now back in their usual venue and I’m therefore especially pleased that my first gig of 2022 will be at their showcase on Friday February 18th. Also playing will be two singer-songwriters who I hold in high esteem: Gary Woolley and Belinda Gillett. It takes place in the Golden Hind, 355 Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1SP; the music starts at 8pm and tickets (£9) are available from the club’s website. Do check out the other gigs they have planned – the club deserves all the support we can give them.

Looking ahead to later in the spring, I have two church concerts planned for May in collaboration with Thursday’s Band: Saturday May 14th in St John the Evangelist, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 8RN (https://www.stjohntheevangelistcambridge.org) and Saturday May 28th in St Mary’s Church, High Street, Ware, SG12 9EH at 7.30pm (https://arts.stmarysware.co.uk/upcoming-events/). A third may also happen at the very start of May – you will be the first to hear!
It would be lovely to see you at one or more of these events; but I completely understand anyone who feels it may still be too early to venture out at this stage.
With my best wishes, especially for good health

I don’t think any of us will be too sad to say goodbye to 2020. It has been a difficult year for everyone, and I hope you have been able to survive so far. Here are my annual musical reflections.

I managed a handful of gigs before the lockdowns started, though that all seems a very long time ago now! Thursday’s Band I played a lovely concert to a packed Stotfold Church (Bedfordshire) in February and with Mark Gamon’s help managed to film a new song, ‘Progress’, with Lucinda Fudge on viola and Matt Kelly on violin. You can watch it here:

After that the only scope for live music was Zoom and Facebook Live – not the real thing of course, but it helped to keep us slightly saner. Most of the concerts I have taken part in (and helped organise in the case of Cambridge Acoustic Nights) are still available online – there are links on my gigs page.

Despite all the problems there has been some really good new music this year. Here are some of my favourites:

– Adrianne Lenker’s ‘’
– Juliana Barwick’s ‘’
– Swedish duo I Break Horses’ ‘’
– Harpist Mary Lattimore’s ‘’
– Scottish/Lancastrian band Modern Studies’ ‘’
– Yorkshire group The Howl and the Hum’s ‘Hostages’
– The sensational ‘Kick‘ from Spanish Love Songs

It’s been a tough year for musicians – the absence of their usual revenue from live concerts leaves music sales as their main source of income. So please consider buying music direct from the artists (I have given Bandcamp addresses where possible), or from independent record shops, rather than streaming via Spotify et al who pay artists virtually nothing.

Away from the music, it’s been a difficult year for us personally, as indeed for so many people. We lost both my sister and Isabelle’s mum in the autumn – indeed the two funerals took place just a week apart. I gave a tribute to my sister which you can read here.

I did at least have more time for my ecological survey work. If that interests you, there are more details here.

Here’s hoping that once enough of us are vaccinated (my 94 year-old mum has just had her first one) live music will once again become more feasible and that we’ll perhaps be able to share a real concert before too long. And here’s wishing you as good a festive season as will be possible in this so unusual year, and good health for the year to come.

It’s slightly scary to see that another year has slipped by, though I’m not sure we will lament the passing of 2019. Here, anyway, are my annual musical musings.

‘Never enough’, which we launched at the end of last year, has been well received. I seem to have been busy playing gigs through the year – the highlight was the inaugural Royston Folk Club Summer Shindig on the August bank holiday weekend, where Matt and Lucinda joined me on violin and viola and we had a lovely welcome from the audience – including some who had travelled from Oxford and Milton Keynes! There is a video of us playing La Fayette live here – all in evocative black and white.

And I have several gigs planned already for next year. I’m particularly pleased that my friends Thursdays Band I have at least three more church concerts to look forward to: on February 16th in Stotfold, near Hitchin; on February 29th in Ashwell, near Roystom (though this one is to be confirmed); and if your church would like such entertainment to help with the restoration fund, do let me know. We really enjoy playing unplugged with the acoustics that churches provide.

Our trip to India and Nepal in April opened the flood gates of my songwriting and, after a barren year, I have eight new songs – several inspired by our experience there and also a new song inspired by my home town of Rochdale – which I’m currently testing out on long-suffering audiences. Rhys and I are starting to turn our attention to reworking some of my older songs for a retrospective album as well so 2020 promises to be busy.

Thankyou for your continued support. And may I wish you Happy Christmas and all the very best for 2020.

Here is the video for La Fayette, taken from my album Never enough. It features Matt Kelly (violin), Lucinda Fudge (viola) and myself at the Royston Folk Club Shindig in August 2019.

I originally began the song on a December early evening in Paris. I had arrived with time to spare for a Eurostar, and spent a few minutes wandering around the always interesting streets close to the Gare du Nord. I noticed someone standing in a doorway on the Rue La Fayette who was to prove the inspiration for the song.

My train was a little delayed, and while the business people were busy with their laptops and mobiles, I was quietly singing the first lines of the song into a microphone.

The remainder of the song emerged from my imagination, albeit under the shadow of Le Pen over France, though it rapidly became equally relevant to the EU referendum in the UK, the election of Trump in the US, and the rise of the right generally around the world.

La Fayette himself was a French aristocrat who commanded troops in the American war of independence before joining the French revolution as commander-in-chief of the National Guard. While a street in Paris is named after him, there is not in practice a Place de La Fayette – however that fitted better with the feel of the song.

You can download the song from my music page.

We launched my new album, ‘Never enough’, on November 10th at CB2. You can listen to or download the songs, or order the CD, here:

There are some fabulous contributions from other lovely musicians – Rhys Wilson, who co-produced the album, played many of the instruments. Matt Kelly and Lucinda Fudge from Thursday’s Band played the delightful strings on ‘Never enough’ and ‘Blackbirds’. Myke Clifford added breathtaking sax to ‘Strange thing’, while Dawn Loombe’s wonderful accordion takes us to Paris in ‘La Fayette’ and Brian Harvey adds bass to ‘Never enough’ and ‘Bordeaux’. I’m grateful to them all.

And the artwork for the cover is from our good friend and wonderful artist, Gail de Cordova.