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• Memoirs From The Crooked Road

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  carbonhobo are: Neil McCartney - everything except piano. Ben McCartney - piano
  
  All songs written by Neil McCartney except 'The Maids Of Michelstown' Trad, based on The Bothy Band arrangement and 'The Man In The Moon and The Heron' words - Neil McCartney & Jonas Read, music - Neil McCartney
  
  Special Guests: Laura Forrest-Hay - violin on 'Stranger'. Jenny Wood Sullivan - backing vocals on 'Stranger' and 'Fifteen Miles To Buy Tobaxxo'. Seanin Hawthornthwaite - mandolin on 'Audrey & The Old Caravan'. Lee Goulding - banjp on 'Somewhere Down The Northern Line'. Jeff Hudgins - saxophone on 'John Coltrane on Bleeker Street'.
  
  Recorded and produced at the carbonhobo ramshackle studio by Neil McCartney
  Artwork & photography by Neil McCartney
  
  Special thanks to Mike Jones for your input and support.
  
  For my kids, Ben & Daisy. The crooked road brought me two pots of gold.
  
  Management: Damian Liptrot merryhell@hotmail.co.uk
  
  Memoirs from the Crooked Road is carbonhobo’s 12-track wander through over 30 years of songs, written and lived around the world. At times whimsical, wistful and wonderful, there is love and loss, hope and regret, fact and fantasy, lessons learned and dreams of what is yet to come – a range of moods, both emotional and musical.
  
  Who is carbonhobo? Reflecting both his life and interests, carbonhobo has made music on five continents, starting his musical life in bands formed with musical friends in his native Wigan. Following a Fine-Art degree in Sheffield, he decamped to London, where he formed The Big Geraniums, as raggle-taggle a band of musical gypsies as you would ever wish to meet. Having moved to Ireland and worked with that legendary master of Irish music Donal Lunny, their first album produced a top 3 single written by our hero, along with a hit album. This was followed by gigs and festivals around the world, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Bryan Adams. A second album and a move to New York brought interesting times but mixed fortunes, leading to a variety of further musical projects, frequent visits to Scandinavia and the Arctic Circle, before relocation to Thailand and nearly 2 decades making a living playing the bars and venues of the holiday and ex-pat community. Returning to his old stamping ground has seen him re-join friends from his teenage years in their rise to become festival favourites, contributing musical and stage presence to both live appearances and 4 critically acclaimed albums
  
  Reminiscing on different times, different places, circumstances and company, Memoirs From The Crooked Road takes all these experiences, plus the music, collecting and completing creative notes made along the way. With folk, trad, pop, Thai and soulful jazz inflections, the album traces a long and twisting journey that, whilst certainly not yet finished, required a little mapping of progress to date. Hopefully you will enjoy the ride.
  carbonhobo is the musical self-expression of Neil McCartney (yes, he is related - but distantly so), currently fiddle player for folk-rock band Merry Hell, previously a guiding light of The Big Geraniums and a multi-instrumentalist in his own right. He is joined on his journey by bandmates past and present, with the only constant presence being his son Ben.
  
  A track-by-track guide to where and when:
  
  1. Chasing a Bluebird - Galway - early 90s - finished in present day Wigan.
  2. Warm in the Bed – Switzerland -in a farmhouse in the mountains near Montreux - mid 90s
  3. Somewhere Down the Northern Line – 21st Century update of a tune from my teens in 80s Wigan
  4. Blackberries - written on the Sugarloaf Mountain outside Dublin City - early 90s.
  5. Fifteen Miles To Buy Tobacco - The Cottage, Ballycurrin, County Mayo, Ireland - early 90s, finished in present day Wigan
  6. Audrey & the Old Caravan - present day.
  7. Stranger - The Cottage, County Mayo - early 90s
  8. The Maids of Michelstown – trad - arrangement by The Bothy Band.
  9. Road to Old Siam - present day - about finding a son in Thailand (who now plays keyboards on this album).
  10. The Man in the Moon & The Heron. Monroes Tavern, Galway City.
  11. John Coltrane on Bleeker Street - New York City - mid 90s
  12. Seagull - tune written in my teens in 80s Wigan.
  
  Includes unlimited streaming of MEMOIRS FROM THE CROOKED ROAD via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more
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