Guitar Emporium

Stefan Grossman - One of the great ragtime folk finger pickers I first came across in 1977 - a Saturday evening in concert on Radio1.  This was his opener - I thought it was calledJoanne - but I've never found a transcription . This is my version. Support the show

My first gardening song ... I've been trying to get out and tidy the garden and plan some veggies this year - BUT the weather has been so awful... Every weekend has thwarted my plans. I thought I'd be OK this weekend - wrong again showers intervened. Keep trying Support the show

We all have a friend who can tell a story or recall something from our shared lives that holds the rooms attention endlessly... My friend Will used to hold the 3 boys in the palm of his hand when they were young and he was recounting one of his many exploits. Great to have around. Support the show

Kit - the amazing computerised car and the equally amazing ( but for very different reasons ) David Hasselhof made this 1970's /1980's US drama an incredible watch. Its back on UK TV - try it some time  Support the show

Every so often most of us push as hard as we can to progress something dear to our heart, to find it ain't ever going to happen. Its so easy to look around for a scapegoat. In the end you end up looking much closer to home than is comfortable... Support the show

In my naivety I was once invited to "supper" by a very posh elderly lady ( posh elderly ladies have supper - not tea, apparently ). I said I'd be delighted and she asked if there was anything I couldn't eat. I said no - no problem with allergies etc. She replied and told me she'd take pot luck. Strangely I had never heard that expression before. That is a very apt descript...

Wednesday has become an important divide to me in the week . If I make Wednesday without disaster there's a good chance I'll get to the weekend in one piece. Here's hoping ! Support the show

The James Taylor version of Carole King's " You've got a friend" was one of the first acoustic based songs I came across. This has more to do with James Taylor's guitar style than any of his songs where the melodies were so good. Reset tune - about being positive -  continually. Support the show

1st April and the clocks have gone forward to give us more daylight in the evening. The days will soon seem longer and Spring is finally here. Tremendous Support the show

Take a chance - have a go - is the philosophy behind this tune. You'll need to understand that in 9/10 cases the chance you take won't work - but there is always that 1/10 ! Support the show

You know that feeling when, in your head, you've already completed something and you're just waiting to finish. Thats what this piece represents - the slow sections in particular represent the interminable time it takes to get it done. Support the show

An upbeat tune for those of us taking on new challenges - not only that Spring is just around the corner. Support the show

If you've listened to more than a couple of my compositions on this podcast you can hear certain repeated ideas that come around intentionally or ( mainly ) unintentionally as I go from day to day. I would imagine its a bit like writers block - when its difficult to come up with an idea that fires up the imagine. I'll call it a Log Jam  Support the show

The politics of this I find very frustrating - but the UK needs to realise that we have always benefited from immigration and whatever the die hards think it continually enriches the culture of this inward looking nation. On the news during the week of 4th -8th there was this tragic story of a family trying to get to the UK - Mum, Dad and 4 children + Mum was expecting. People Traffickers sold the...

I work from home - there are occasions when I've had enough of looking at a computer screen that I'll check out a bit of daytime TV.  Loads of charities are after the oldies donations and offer - a free will making service as part of the deal to get you to donate a gift to them. I just took another interpretation of the term in this song Support the show

Happy 1st Birthday Little Man ! Support the show

An expresson I was just thinking about in relation to a colleague who is having a terrible time of it - what's interesting sometimes is how so me people derive a strange , cruel pleasure from watching others going through the mill . I bet we've all seen that one. Support the show

Mindinha was the nickname of Villa Lobos second wife to whom he dedicated many compositions- Arminda Villa Lobos. The chord progression is taken from the middle section of Prelude No.2 for guitar. Support the show

This is a rather sad tale of a man in late middle age ( in his sixties) who went to the top of a mountain in a cable car and decided to walk down on his own. He was found dead sitting by a tree the next day, apparently. The cause has not been established. Support the show

At the end of a job there was ( a long time ago ) a traditional handover of work in progress that had not been finished . It was always done with a delightful employer who was so grateful for the work you had undertaken for him. The lyrics clarify how I feel about it. Support the show

The music for the Spanish film Endless Trench was composed by  Pascal Gaigne. Th plot of the film is about a young Republican who goes into hiding in his own village at the start of the Spanish Civil War because he was scared of reprisals by the Falangists. His wife works with him over 30 years to protect him in some dire circumstances before he and other "moles" finally come out of hidi...

Nothing is irreversible until the very end - the association with opera and the traditional  sturdy nature of the sopranos is an oblique reference here.. I've always enjoyed instrumental electric guitar music from Focus, to Camel to Satriani and Steve Vai  and of course Jeff Beck in there  somewhere. Support the show

One of those expressions when you are reluctant to get going -  you've got to leave some good company, a special occasion.. it always comes to an end eventually . The piece is built from a snippet I heard a cellist practising today - round and around until she got it right. Support the show

A man of habit - not just me but so many of us - and not only the middle aged/ old ( its interesting I still refer to myself as middle aged when just about everyone else thinks I'm old ! ). But anyway a lot of us like things to stay pretty much the same - and are generally resistant to change . Support the show

Serving Time - sounds like a prison sentence - a little bit dramatic on my part. Sometimes it feels like it ! I'm moving job soon and I can't wait to go - I know it will be more of the same but you always hope it might be a fresh start.  Support the show