When
friends announced the birth of their second child in October 2004 I had
the rare experience of a song simply happening. Admittedly this song is
largely a variation on the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight, but it really wrote itself for baby Theo while I sat watching
the pen moving. Recording was similarly smooth, with beautiful bouzouki
from Mark Kane, plaintive pipes from Eamonn, and a really astonishing
session from the massively talented Diane Ward.
Although Diane did equally incredible work playing drums on
Skeleton Crew and Brother Judas it's her great gift on and of this
session that I'll remember best. The vocal part was put together as we
went along. I knew I wanted a catch or round at the end, but it hadn't
occurred to me that it could be harmonised as well. Diane not only
harmonised it beautifully, impromptu, but she nailed every single one of
the nine parts on the first take, and without apparent effort. The album sessions were almost all
enjoyable, but moments like being present while Diane worked on these
harmonies are the reason that I consider music to be so precious. Just
as I'd heard Diane's co-conspirator Magda's voice in a line of laughter
in Night on Earth, so I had heard Diane unmistakably in the Green Man's
cry "And I don't want to see you suffer," and when Diane made it come
true, well, you can't put a price on things like that.