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Well look what just came through the door. Thanks @mountain goat! (And thank you for the nice note you included with it :))

Here's a short song inspired by Lord of the Rings. It's been a while since I read it (or even watched it) so I've no idea if the Council of Elrond took place in an actual Castle, but for the purposes of this song I've decided that it did. I apologise in advance. You'll see why. And if you...

Here's my attempt at the opening track from Mark Knopfler's 2000 album "Sailing to Philadelphia". The song, "What It Is", is about Edinburgh, and references the castle. I can't play guitar like Mark Knopfler, so I didn't. I did overdub a tenor anyway to see if it helped. It is, as they say...

I've never got around to visiting Doune Castle (it's in Perthshire, but not all that far from the edge of Fife) although I did once go and visit the killer bunny cave from the same film which is in a field just off a tiny road next to Loch Tay. Oddly not signposted...

Hi Del, thanks for hosting, and I hope you get well soon! A fun thing to use your larynx for is to tell stories. After all, before writing, that was the only way stories got passed on. So here's a song about where stories come from. And, on its own, that'd be really tenuous, so to be on the safe...

It's always interesting to read different perspectives on this. If I get a new uke, it's because I want it to do something different, but even that means different things to different people. I've recently got a new tenor because I didn't have one with a pickup, and decided I had to sell an...

Thanks for hosting Paul! I hope you're having a fun week :). It's taken me a while to get around to something this week, but, nevertheless, here's a Squeeze song. It mentions some days of the week, and a specific time of day. I would have liked to get Jools Holland to do the keyboard part, but...

Pfft. Hosts get to make the rules (it's half the fun of doing it) and you are always a wonderful host. Thanks for a great season!

Happy 80th birthday Jim Yates (@Canada Jim)! As a kind of a birthday message I recorded this song that I learned from a Maple Leaf Champions Jug Band CD that he kindly gave me. It was either as a seasons prize or when I visited last year, I can't remember which. Either way, I'm sure you won't be...

Thanks! I'll put you on the list.

That's yours, thanks!

Any takers for the coming weeks? 634 and 636 in particular...

Thanks for a great season Jon, and for keeping us up to date with the weather reports (and the Peanuts :)). And of course for picking me out! It'll be lovely to receive some Tasmanian artwork.

Hi Val, thanks for stepping up again! I found quite a few songs about dreams that I haven't done before, but then I remembered this, and couldn't resist doing it again. After all, if you haven't got dreams, where do you go? That's right, the Dream Seller! Here's a Lindisfarne song (written by...

So I won't be able to post any more this week (much as I've been enjoying it!) but I will catch up with the other posts in a couple of days. Still, since it's weather week, I thought I ought to share today's experience: I went to Edinburgh this afternoon to meet a collaborator to work out some...

Here's a little slice-of-life song that I wrote last month. I had the idea while I was standing at the bus stop in the rain, and the song is about standing in the bus stop in the rain. That is how I came up with the title of the song, which is "standing at the bus stop in the rain". Funnily...

Slightly off topic, but... I had a UU lesson with Aldrine a while back (only one, and it's not his fault, just that I felt I couldn't commit to the practice to do them justice, but that's even more off topic) and this was what I asked about. I said I wanted to learn to play around the fretboard...

Since @bobjking posted the CCR classic "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" I thought I should dig out my answer to that question, which I wrote for a season last summer. I may have taken the question a bit more literally than John Fogerty intended.

It might be the middle of the night, but I just remembered this, which involves wind and rain and rainbows, and even though I've done it before I decided I had to have a go on my 6 string tenor. The soundproofing is good, so I hope I didn't wake anyone up... might be a bit rough but, hey, we're...

I'm sure there'll be as many suggestions here as there are ukulele players, but I'll offer some thoughts anyway since I'm here :). I struggled with barres for a bit (still do, to be honest) but a couple of things helped. One was the realisation that not everyone's fingers are the same shape, so...