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Tyler Nathan is making his musical debut on our website as the youngest musician to be posted so far. Tyler’s original song entitled “I’m so tired��? was recorded in his dad’s basement on September 3, 2007. Additional backing tracks were added in Vincennes, Indiana the following day.  

Tyler is a student at the University of North Alabama and currently is employed in the restaurant business.

 
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Phillip Daligan is the second songwriter to grace our podcast site from across the big pond, although he has been in America for about ten years where he is working as a carpenter and living on an island off the Portland Coast of Maine.

I was lucky enough to capture this song during one of Phillip's visits to Camp Dances with Armadillos at the Kerrville Folk Festival this year. 

Phillip's songs are stories which may or may not be true, but are influenced by things that he has seen or done, including experiences from his life near the sea and a stint in the merchant marines. 

This song, entitled Waiting, is a beautiful love ballad about that which is lost and the promise of that which is to come. He is accompanied by Robert Lindsay Nathan on lead acoustic guitar. 

You can reach Phillip at pdaligan@maine.rr.com

 
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The other day I tried to think back and remember when I first met Robert Wilson and I drew a blank. I remember him in the background of one of the Enclave events that were held in South Austin in the early part of the decade, and more recently hanging out with us at Camp Dances with Armadillos during the 2006 Kerrville folk festival. And maybe a few chance meetings in between. 

But I didn't really get to know him until this year when I was able to spend 11 days at the Kerrville folk festival, where we had the opportunity to swap a bevy of lies, songs and stories. I also became more familiar with his music, which includes a song he wrote about Jack Rabbit Road in Houston, Texas. It"s a location that I'm fairly familiar with, having spent the last two years of high school there. There's a story about how a coyote got hung from our high school bonfire, but I won't go there in this article. You who are familiar with Jackrabbit Road will know about the coyotes. 

Robert is kind of soft spoken at times, but he has a booming baritone voice that really comes out in the tune "Memory Waltz". This version was recorded at camp Dances with Armadillos during the 2007 Kerrville Folk Festival. He is accompanied by yours truly (Robert Lindsay Nathan) on guitar and a host of campmates singing the chorus. 

Thanks to Carol Peterson for the photograph (Gary if this is really yours, let me know, I never know who to give credit too and usually it's wrong). 

You can reach Robert at wilsonwrobert@yahoo.com

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We are happy to bring to Podcast listeners Stuart Reily, our first songwriter from accross the big pond.

Stuart's interest in music began at school age when he convinced his mum that he 'really' needed that guitar. He went on to play in several bands when he lived and worked in South London  from 1986 to 1998. It was during this time that Stuart embarked upon a musical journey that gave him a solid grounding in song writing and afforded him the opportunity to work with Billy Kuy (Mike Berry & the Outlaws) and Brian Parker (co-writer of Unit 4+2's No1 hit "Concrete & Clay"). One of Stuart's compositions was also reviewed very favourably by Russell Ballard.

In mid 1998, Stuart withdrew from the music scene when he emigrated to South Africa and took on the responsibilities of fatherhood and husbandry! In 2000, Stuart returned to the UK (with his family) and set about re-establishing himself as a composer & songwriter.

The vocalist performing on this Podcast is credited to Jasone Jones. For more information on Stuart, the composer of "Comin' 2 Getcha!", follow the link to www.stuart-reilly.co.uk

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I met Rob in 2001 when he became a New Folk winner at the Kerrville Folk Festival. It was a real hoot to acquaint this Canadian with some of the Texas Hill country.

From time to time one of his songs comes up on my 400 disk CD player and all of these fond memories from that week come flooding back to me. Like the collapse of his tent. I guess he wasn't too much of a camper, God bless him.

I contacted Rob the other day to see if he would be interested in having a post on this website, and he replied with this file of the song entitled "Throw me from this train". It's some sort of serendipitous thing that he would propose this song, as I am currently working on several railroad projects in Southeastern Indiana.

The railroad can be a powerful metaphor for life, as we can tend to get caught up in a single minded direction with our careers and relationships and never get to explore the rich countryside that surrounds the tracks.

If you enjoy this song as much as I enjoy Rob's music, you will probably want to check out his website at www.roblutes.com . You can order his CDs from this site.

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What ever I say about Gary Cross is not enough. 

I met Gary at a Kerrville folk festival early in the decade. He and his buddies were sitting on "The Rock", which is this outcropping in the smoking section; left field of center stage. For years I had gone to the Festival alone and this time was no exception. I was wandering around looking for a place to sit, looking a bit like a lost stray animal I suspect. 

But there are no strangers in the world of Gary Cross, and he immediately struck up a conversation with me. We have been close friends ever since. His enthusiasm and marketing background always make me feel better about my own music than I ought to, and he has provided valuable assistance and insight in some of my endeavors in this regard, including the production of the Enclave event in Austin that we began a few years back (I have recently suspended this due to my travels). 

Horizon is one of many songs that Gary has written, and is a good example of his style and poetic sensitivity to the human condition. It's a long piece (not as long as American Pie) but Gary, as we all know, has a lot to say. 

Enjoy.

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Back in September of this year I was in Austin on a Friday night. As is usually the case in Austin on any Friday night, musicians tend to coalesce and perform melodic compositions, and this was no exception. But since this visit was such a short notice only four folks showed up and only two were musicians.

One of the two non-musicians is an able story teller, and this story was captured during the recorded session entitled "The Band's Getting Back Together (Not)". The Sailor, as told by Charles "Balloon Dog" Wakeland (AKA "The Professor") is a little rough but a good example of Charles's sense of humor.

The first time I met Charles at his home in south Austin I shook his hand, which is this massive mandible thing, similar in girth to the paw of a grizzly bear but gentle as that of a kitten. He proceeded to show me some of the metal working toys that he has in his shop and described some of the projects that he was working on and others that he was planning to be working on; all the while using the technical prose of an aerospace engineer to portray such mundane events as how the hot plasma from the cutting torch vaporizes the metal that it hits while the surrounding ferrous lattice remains cool and undisturbed. This type of description is why he is known to his close friends as "The Professor".

But others who have seen him tying up balloon animals at local events for the kids and the ladies  in Austin know him as "Balloon Dog".

Such is the flavor and character of the South Austin residents.

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