Best place to find recordings of Tony Burt’s songs is on the blog – click here.
The sound files below are high quality mp3 files at 320 bps. In the main they are demos made for me in 2012 and 2013 by the much missed John Acock who we so sadly lost in 2014.
They include instrumental gaps for the band to fill in so you’ll just have to hum along with those bits.
Blind Eye by Tony Burt
Written in July 2010, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, sat on the patio with a glass of cold white wine – recurring theme that one! I think it displays bravado more than anything, maybe the protagonist hasn’t moved on quite as much as he wants us (or himself) to think. Chorus has a great hook – just try not singing along!
The Ship by Tony Burt
Written on 18th November 1973, the final song of my early writing phase and the only one I still perform regularly. How come the date is so precise – ask my old buddy Pete Bath – it was his birthday! Love the fiddle solo Ally adds to it – but you’ll have to see us live to hear that version.
You’d Better Be Gone (The Young Man’s Song) by Tony Burt
After writing “The Ship” I didn’t write another song until the 80’s and this is it; the one and only song I wrote in that decade. Wanted to write something that suggested the tradition, like Richard Thompson so often does.
Expresses a feeling of not belonging in the country, no longer belonging in the city and not even feeling comfortable in my own body. Must have been a particularly dull and drizzly Sunday afternoon when I wrote this.
Fly Closer To The Sun by Tony Burt
Written in a holiday cottage in Carmarthenshire on the day Lehman Brothers went bust. It was the wettest and most miserable of days and I wrote three songs that day (a record!). The first, which never saw the light of day, was encouraging the bankers to jump out of their windows. The second was “Face The Truth” which I perform still and does refer to “bankers” and “robdogs”.
This one was more of a call to action for myself. A call to take more risks for greater gain, though not really financially. To cut loose from the past and cease self sabotage. It’s a bit wordy and maybe somewhat self consciously clever but I still listen to it myself and try to act accordingly.
The Mood Of Moniack by Tony Burt
In July 2013 I attended a 5 day Songwriting Workshop at Moniack Mhor, a secluded Writing Centre converted from an old farmhouse, somewhat to the north of Loch Ness. Along with 10 other songwriters from a broad range of backgrounds and guided with skill and generosity by Christine Collister and Steve Tilston, I spent an extended period focused on writing songs which, I believe, moved me on greatly. The exercise was repeated, with equal success, in October 2014 with Boo Hewerdine and Edwina Hayes.
I wrote this song at Moniack in 2013 to commemorate the unique atmosphere of this truly peaceful place and the wonderful friendships and musical growth shared with my collaborators.