Our Tune of the Day is from Paul James who many of you will know as a member of Blowzabella. Wakeful is from his forthcoming new album The Drowned Lover & Other Dark Tales which is due for release in September 2016. When I spoke to Paul recently, he explained that “Wakeful” was inspired by having periods of insomnia and eventually embracing it rather than fighting it. “When you are the only one awake sometimes your thoughts and fears crowd in on you. And then the dawn arrives and everything’s OK again.”
The Drowned Lover & Other Dark Tales features five songs (four re-workings of traditional English songs and one cover) and four instrumentals. Talking about the instrumentals he tells me “I wanted the instrumentals to be about something, to try and tell a bit of a story in music – even if the only person who gets it is me!
Paul tells me that he’s been working on the album since last autumn in between other things. All of his previous attempts have ended up as band projects – Scarp, Horse, Evening Star. He explains “So this is the first time I’ve managed to do something properly resembling a solo album. I’ve got some great guests on it from Britain, Italy, France, Spain, Australia .. people I’ve known and played with over the years.”