John Clachan
A lifelong singer and musician, John has been recording music and performing 'live' since the early 1980's.
His 'easy on the ear', unaffected, melodic singing has won many plaudits over the years and, whether
accompanying himself on the keyboard or Irish 'flat back' bouzouki, in his own unique style, he has the
ability to draw an audience into his own musical world. Taking up song writing in 2017, John quickly built up
a collection of his own songs to add to his wide repertoire of material.
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This website gives access to his music, his own thought provoking songs and his musical activities. Explore
the site and check out the 'Songs-Words' page, which also shows the chords of each song. Free acoustic
downloads that 'tie-in' with them can be found on the 'Songs-Audio' page.
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A ’John Clachan Retrospective’
To mark the advent of my 70th birthday in January (2025), I’ve been searching through my solo home recording archives to compile a selection of folk material for a ‘Musical retrospective’, taken from over 40 years of un-issued tracks captured on various types of recording equipment.
It’s been a fascinating exercise, listening to old favourite songs that were once regulars in my singing repertoire and, for various reasons, were never released on any tape, CD or video. It brought back so many half-forgotten memories from the past.
I’ve uploaded the resulting selection below and made all the songs available to ‘play’ or ‘download’ for free, singly or ‘en bloc’, should anyone wish to hear them. I’ve also written some notes that came to mind as I listened back to the songs. Most of the tracks are presented unchanged from the original recordings and left like the 'museum pieces' they are.........warts and all!
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The whole project has reminded me how fortunate I have been to have spent my life singing and playing so many wonderful songs, and to have so many recorded memories and captured moments to be able to go back and listen to has really been the icing on the cake for me.
Thank you to anyone taking the time to read these notes, I hope you’re intrigued enough to listen to some of the songs as well.
Best wishes – John – January 2025
Notes for each song
1 - Be Still (Hildago/Perez)
Learnt from a 'Los Lobos' Greatest hits CD in the 1990’s. Recorded as a possible choice for my ‘One Man’s Freedom’ CD around 2013 but not used. Never sung ‘live’ to my remembrance.
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2 - Calton Weavers (Traditional)
Taken from a ‘Scotch Measure’ LP bought in the 1990’s; the band were Jim & Sylvia Barnes and keyboard player Andy Lavery. They were ‘live’ favourites at the Hand & Spear Folk Club at the time and the LP had several songs that I loved to sing myself. I remember this recording was made in 2018 as a demo suggestion (alongside a number of other songs) towards a short- lived idea of ‘beefing up’ ‘Machan’ with two new members, to include electric guitar and bass!
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3 - Close Your Eyes (Hutchings/While)
Learnt from the 'Albion Band's' 'Albion Heart' LP around 1995. The song proved difficult to sing and I never felt I quite got to grips with it as I would have liked – this version, intended for my ‘Moving On’ CD in 2008, came close but, as I ran out of room on the CD, I never re-recorded the vocals to improve them!
4 - Dame Durdan (Traditional)
In the late 1980’s I sang and played in a three part harmony group called ‘Doodahkapoochi’, with Jane and Brian Ravenhill who ran the Hand & Spear and the Ram Folk Clubs for many years. Dame Durdan was one of the harmony songs we used to perform and, a few years after the band broke up, I recorded my own three part harmony version of the song with two overdubs – I’d long forgotten this recording and had to chuckle when I heard it again for the first time in decades!
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5 - Dancing Song (B. Pegg)
Anyone seeing me sing ‘live’ during the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s would not have been able to avoid hearing this song. It was one of my favourites and was turned out at the drop of a hat at every opportunity – how this never appeared on a cassette or CD I’ve no idea, so it’s good to rectify that omission by putting this early 90’s version onto the retrospective. Written by Bob Pegg for his band 'Mr Fox', I first heard it sung on the 'Mr Fox' double LP, 'The Complete Mr Fox'.
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6 - Do You Love an Apple? (Traditional)
Learnt from the 'Bothy Band’s' LP 'After Hours'. I remember recording this gentle song (amongst others) as a demo, when offering suggestions for songs that I could sing for 'The Knock Knee’d Bumblebee Band' – probably during the mid 1990’s, none of which we ever performed 'live', unfortunately.
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7 - Galway Girl (S. Earle)
First heard from the singing of local band ’The Rusty Rovers’ and taken up by John M. for ‘Machan’ in 2018. I recorded my own version as a demo for a small group of friends who gathered for occasional ‘music, food and drink’ sessions, in a garden outbuilding that we called the ‘Hobbit Hole’, ostensibly to help one of the guys improve his guitar playing......any excuse for a musical get together!
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8 - Get Rhythm (J. Cash)
This was a firm favourite in the ‘Old Friends’ set list during the 1990’s. It was Dave Illingworth’s idea that we sing the song unaccompanied and we often used it to open our gigs, singing from opposite ends of a room, slowly coming together on stage by the end of the song. This version was recorded in 2000 as a demo, when I had short lived plans to perform solo in pubs – abandoned when I discovered I could no more walk into a pub and ask for a gig than I could fly to the moon!
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9 - Man in the Moon (J. Spurlock)
Since the mid 1980’s I have played music for fun with my good friend Dave Shires and this was one of the songs we often played together. I think this solo recording was made as a demo suggestion to add to the ‘Machan’ repertoire; surprisingly, John M. didn't take to the song so we never tried out a duo version which was a shame - I’ve always liked the plaintive chorus and the imagery of the words.
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10 - Moving On Song (Go, Move, Shift) (E. MacColl)
In the late 1990’s I was part of a short-lived group called ‘Pregnant Pause’ and the lady singer in the band (Barbara) used to sing this song quite slowly (like Ewan MacColl’s recording of the song), bringing out the sadness in the lyrics – years later, when we came to try out the song for inclusion in the ‘Machan’ repertoire, John M. only knew the song as an angry, up tempo number (learnt from Christy Moore’s recording). We settled in the end on the slower version and this was my demo recorded around 2018 for John M. to work out what to add to it.
11 - Not like Jordan (A.Prosser/I.Telfer)
Another song that ended up in the ‘Machan’ repertoire. John M. and I decided we’d like to add an ‘Oyster Band’ song to our set list and this was our choice taken from a compilation CD of their past recordings. This version was my attempt at a demo for John M. (around 2019) and has many dodgy moments but, I love the song and have never got round to recording a better version unfortunately.
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12 - Rout of the Blues (Traditional)
I came across a compilation CD of the 'Dransfields' in the late 1990’s called ‘Up to Now’ which really grabbed my attention. Their playing of traditional songs was inspirational to me, while their performances of their own self-written material helped inspire me to begin writing my own songs years later. Their stunning version of this song, with their wonderful harmonies, captivated me totally and led to me recording this version around early 2000 – for some reason I never overdubbed my own harmony at the time, presumably because I was intending to add the song to my solo repertoire at some point.
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13 - Smuggling Song (R. Kipling)
Another song that I have regularly sung ‘live’ over the years but has remarkably never appeared on a CD. I learnt the song from a Peter Bellamy recording and it’s one that I never tire of singing. This version is hard to date but the slight ‘tape hiss’ in the background probably means it was recorded on my old pre-digital multi-track cassette recorder, during the mid 1990’s, and it was good to hear it again after such a long time.
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14 - The Swallow (S. Rothero)
I remember this song being very difficult to sing so I never sung it out ‘live’ at all and although I recorded this demo, ostensibly to appear on my ‘One Man’s Freedom’ CD in 2014, it got pushed aside by other songs and this first attempt was never re-visited. On listening to it again I think the song is interesting enough to be included in this retrospective, despite the vocal slip ups! It’s another song that comes from the same Scotch Measure LP as the ‘Calton Weavers’ above.
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15 - Turpin Hero (Traditional)
This is one of my all time favourite songs and is such great fun to sing, I love the imagery in the words. I learnt the song from the singing of Arthur Knevett, a soft-voiced, unaccompanied singer of traditional songs who was another popular performer at the Hand & Spear Folk Club back in the 1990’s. The tape hiss again betrays the age of the recording and places it in the mid to late 1990’s.
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16 - Waltzing for Dreamers (R. Thompson)
Considering the number of Richard Thompson songs I’ve sung over the years (many of which have seen the light of day on my CDs!), it’s no surprise that I’ve picked one for this retrospective. This particular number was on a shortlist of songs for John M. and myself to try out when forming ‘Machan’. I recorded this version as a demo and added the tune ‘Rothbury Hills’ at the end, as it seemed to link perfectly with the song. Sadly, we never incorporated the pair into the ‘Machan’ repertoire so it’s nice to give them an airing here.
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17 - Who Knows Where Time Goes (S. Denny)
This is another favourite song, written by one of my favourite singers, Sandy Denny. Unfortunately, I find it quite difficult to sing for some reason, so never included it in my repertoire. I was surprised to find that I’d even recorded it and can’t really date the recording. Although there are some dodgy moments with the vocals, I thought I’d include it to finish off the retrospective as the title alone seemed so appropriate to mark my 70th birthday.