These recordings are from the audiobook “Small Stories” which I recorded in my art studio in the Texas Hill Country in 2015.
The stories originated as object writing exercises, a technique taught to me by Pat Pattison author of “Songwriting Without Boundaries” and I am honoured to have some of my writing included in this publication. Many of these stories draw on experiences from both Ireland and Texas.
INTRODUCTION
1996 on a whim, I up and left my Australian home and soon found myself unexpectedly living in a small fishing village on the west coast of Ireland.
In a flimsy wooden cabin, directly across the road from Dunguaire Castle, a stone’s throw from the pier in Kinvara, I would look out the large single paned window that overlooked Galway Bay and write my songs.
When the wind blew the thin wall creaked. When the rain fell the window streamed and misted. But days when the sun dried the sky I could see rainbows stretching across the bay from Galway City to the Burren without leaving my chair.
Ireland fits into Texas eight times and more. I do like this big blue dome with dry distant clouds but in Ireland the horizon hugs in close and I love that. Sometimes the sky is so low you can almost touch it. the hills roll toward you, they don’t scuttle away in ripple of heat. Ireland is small. It fits neatly into the heart. Maybe that accounts for why a number of these stories hark back to there. Besides, nothing gets you loving a place like up and leaving it.
PS Most of these stories are autobiographical. Four are fiction. I’ll not tell you which.
PPS The echo you hear is the natural reverb of my high ceilinged art studio in the woods.
Here are just 3 of the 17 stories to get you started.
1. “BANJO”
2. “SIGNAL”
3. “CRYSTAL”