THE BLUE DRAGON ALBUM

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 A rocking opener that dates back to when Steve and I worked together in the 90s. I based this tune on the intro and format for a cover we did at the time. The band was Blueshouse and so calling it Blueshouse Boogie was a natural thing to do. I was thrilled one day when, listening to David Freeman’s Blues and Boogie on Jazz FM, he used it to open his show

 Despite what people may think, this is not an anti-smoking rant but a comment on my own struggle to give up cigarettes! There is always a reason to wait until everything is perfect and then giving up will be easy. Well, it isn’t!

 The Blue Dragon Hotel was a very strange place in my home town of Cardiff. There was a large bar and I was dragged there by my cousin to see a band he knew. To say it was run down would be an understatement and it had a forlorn feeling with customers who looked like they were there for life. It had the worst Trip Adviser reviews I have ever seen. It’s been demolished now.

 This is a fabulous song written by Micky Jupp, who should have been a huge star.

 Life is a strange thing and you can never really plan the future, but you can set a path and try to stick to it. This is my view on how my life should have been. Well-meaning people give you the advice that “music is fine but you must always have something to fall back on”. Trouble is, if you have something to fall back on, that’s 99% likely to be what you end up doing. But it’s never too late.

 James Taylor’s song, and if you think this isn’t a blues song, you don’t know the blues.

 An often covered classic of the British Blues Boom of the 1960s. Written by Willie Cobbs and covered by so many, including Junior Wells & Buddy, John Mayall (with an early vocal from Peter Green), The Allman Bros and even a Jamaican Dancehall version by Dawn Penn. The version here is an upbeat shrug - You Don’t Love me? Well, I don’t care! 

 Another blues classic with more versions than I can recall. We give it a bit a New Orleans feel.

 I wrote this not long after Bo Diddley “joined that great band in the sky”. Bo was one of the pioneers of Rock’n’Roll and one of its kings. Why isn’t it based on the Bo Diddley beat? I don’t know really, this was just the way it came out. When we do it live, we segue it with “Can’t Judge a Book” and that gets the point across. But what was it he had in his pocket to keep a lot of folks alive? You’ll have listen to his I’m a Man to get the answer!

 he world looked pretty dark when I wrote this but it seems to be even darker now. Hold on to each other.