The re-release of my first album on 1st January 2026 will mark ten years of writing, recording and performing songs and making albums. While I have made up songs since I was three, 2015 was the first time I started performing songs in public professionally and 2016 was the first time I put songs I had written and recorded together on an album, which to my surprise, some people bought.
It has been an eventful ten years, with around 30 albums published, many café, music festival and market performances and new friendships formed across the world.
For this re-release, I have re-recorded the original songs that appeared on the album, ‘A Summer Harvest’, and a few that I have updated. For this re-release I decided not just to re-record, but to swap out the covers/traditional songs for new songs written around the same themes. A little of the background for each track included below:
Everything is Going to be Okay
2025 has been a year of difficult things, with people lost, US institutions like generosity, respect and integrity trampled by the Trump administration, and the horror of war in Palestine and Ukraine brought to our screens in a way never before experienced. I wrote this song to encourage myself to keep looking at the positive, however dark the horizon might seem.
Trees of our Town
I live in a beautiful town in Australia, where the first European settlers here in 1821 began planting the trees of their homeland. I wrote this after walking through the town, as my wife and I frequently do, to celebrate the Pines, London Plane, Ash, Field Elm, Beech, Willow and Poplar trees that grow here, despite the vast distance from their homelands.
A Summer Harvest
I wrote this song as a title track for the new album, reflecting the title of the original album published ten years ago. I’m fortunate enough to have the land to grow fruit trees and vegetables. While this song is an allegory for life, it is also about the joy that comes with tending to things that grow and enjoying the produce.
Giants
Bob Brown is a giant in the Australian conservation movement. This song was written after watching the documentary of the same name, covering Bob’s career fighting for the environment and inspiring so many others.
Three Trees
Soon after writing my song about the trees in Yass, there was a move by the local council to cut down some of the trees in the street to make way for powerlines that had been installed many years after the trees were planted. The situation showed clear disregard for the trees, with convenience and cost savings coming before any value placed on the lives of the trees. Thanks mostly to the efforts by a local, Susan, the Council backed down (but not until significant damage was done to the trees).
Ode to the Potato
To make sure that no one gets the impression that I take my songwriting too seriously, here is a fun song about potatoes. While the Tolkien estate does not allow musical adaptation of his work, hopefully songs about potatoes loosely connected to Samwise Gamgee will escape any scrutiny.
Hoofbeats on the Green
This song was on the original album, written for a true story that happened to one of my great-great uncles in Ireland. He was appropriately named ‘Horsefall Jackson’ by the family.
Running in Circles
The Melbourne Cup is a famous horse race in Australia. Quite often horses die in the race. This song was written after one such incident.
At the Window
The eldest of the children that I originally wrote this song for are now in their twenties. The challenge for every parent when they realise how little of their children’s life they will get to be part of is a shared one.
Twisting the Rope
One of my favourite songs is the version of this in Irish Gaelic, as sung by Micheal 0’Domhnaill. The song is called Casadh an tSugain and this is my attempt at an English version.
Fix the Barton Highway
On the album ten years ago, I recorded a song after sitting in traffic on the Barton Highway for an hour after another serious accident. This song is an update to the problem that is still claiming lives and not much closer to being addressed by the State or Federal government.
Please Let Me In
The issue of treatment of refugees remains a problem in Australia and globally, even after this song was first published ten years ago. This specific song was written in relation to the murder of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati, at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre in 2014.