Folk For Peace

Rod was just one of a consortium of highly acclaimed musicians enlisted to perform on this Band Aid-style one-off charity single, which went on general release on the 29th of November 2004. Rod's contribution consisted of Dobro and backing vocals. Rumours of Rain was written by Cathryn Craig and Brian Willoughby.

The list of musicians featured reads like a virtual Who's Who of the folk-rock genre, and many of their names will be very familiar to regular users of this site from other sections of this discography, and elsewhere. They are:

Martin Carthy - Ralph McTell - Tom Paxton - Nanci Griffith - Bob Fox - Benny Gallagher - Jez Lowe - Steve Tilston - Tommy Sands - Saskia Tompkins - Stephan Hannigan - Derek Brimstone - Emily Slade - Clive Gregson - Cathryn Craig - Harvey Andrews - Brian Willoughby - Chas Cronk - Dave Lambert - Chris Leslie - Martyn Joseph - Ric Sanders - Gerry Conway - Jacqui McShee - Rick Kemp - Rod Clements

The newly-forged cultural links between Rothbury, Shepperton and Nashville led eventually to my being let in on one of the transatlantic folk community's worst-kept secrets, namely the recording of Cathryn's song Rumours of Rain, a plea for world peace performed by many of the genre's leading names - most of whom I knew, and many of whom I'd worked with in the past. The genesis of the project is well-documented in its own website. My contribution was scheduled to be recorded in early April, when a break in Lindisfarne Acoustic's Final Fling tour coincided with one of Cathryn & Brian's visits to the North East; all I had to do was find a local studio willing to give us half a day, turn up and sing a couple of lines over the work-in-progress that Cathryn & Brian would bring with them, and Bob would be my uncle. A demo CD of the song and a lyric sheet duly arrived and accompanied me for the first part of the tour, to be pondered over and practised to in whatever quiet moments I could find. My first hearing of the CD made several things immediately clear: first, that this was an ambitious, high-quality project with state-of-the-art production values and some seriously good performances already laid down; second, that it was a lyrically accessible, melodically catchy song in a key that was easy to sing - a classic of its kind; and third, that a dobro would sound nice on it.

Finding a local studio that would fit us in presented more of a challenge, until I remembered that my old pal Ron Angus had told me he was opening a digital recording facility for acoustic music in the garage of his home in County Durham. I knew Ron as a guitarist and sound engineer who once had his own radio show in Sunderland, for which I did a session around the time of One Track Mind, and as the resident soundman at the Davy Lamp Folk Club in Washington. A phone call to Ron revealed that he already knew Brian & Cathryn from the Rothbury gig - he'd actually mixed the sound for the support act - and was more than happy for us to come to him. Having confirmed the compatibility of Ron's equipment with the work-in-progress, the date was set.

So on the morning of April 8th I found my way to Ron's studio. I knew I'd found it when I saw Brian unloading guitars from the boot of his classic Mercedes, which I'd heard about from its visit to Rothbury. It was ten years since I'd last seen Brian and I hadn't met Cathryn face-to-face before, and it was the first visit to Ron's for all of us, so we spent a while over coffee, looking round the studio, playing with each others' guitars and generally catching up before getting down to it. When we did, Ron set the track playing and I went in, donned headphones and had a few vocal try-outs of the lines I'd been allocated to sing. After a while, somebody said "That sounded fine, do you want to hear it back?" Surprised to learn that I'd already done what I came to do, I returned to the control room for more coffee and chat before trying the dobro parts I'd been playing about with. Brian hadn't been sure at first about adding an extra part to what he saw as a finished instrumental track, but he was quite happy to give it a go. I did one "pass" covering the whole song from start to finish, not intending it all to be finally used, but to provide bits to be picked & chosen on the final mix. Then, on another track, we did a couple of bits that Brian suggested once he'd heard the basic idea. This done, we repaired to Ron's kitchen where Sandra had very kindly laid on soup & sandwiches.

I hung around for a while after lunch while Ron, Brian & Cathryn played around with the multitrack recording. Ron's enthusiasm for the job in hand was impressive and it is little wonder that he has gone on to assume a key role in the process, devoting his time and energy to it over several more sessions with artists newly recruited to the project. That same afternoon, Ron mentioned that Bob Fox lived nearby and it might be worth a call to see if he was at home; he was, and came straight round to add vocal and bouzouki parts to the track.

I haven't heard Rumours of Rain since that afternoon, since when it has been across the Atlantic and back, been through further mixes and brought yet more singers & players together. I understand from Ron that it's progressing well, and - like many others - I'm looking forward to hearing the finished result. It's great to have been involved with a record reuniting so many old friends, even though we played our parts at different times, in different places, and the bringing together of so many of us to sing this one song is itself an achievement of which Brian & Cathryn can be justly proud.'

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