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19 SONGS FROM A DECADE OF CLASSIC RECORDINGS. A PERFECT INTRODUCTION TO DAVID HUGHES. A TWENTY-FOUR PAGE BOOKLET. COMPILED FROM FOUR SOLO ALBUMS, A LIVE ALBUM & A SINGLE. WITH NOTES BY NICK SKEENS... IIt was a mirror-still autumn night on the River Crouch. David Hughes was sitting on a jetty on the river side of the seawall, drawing on a long, Rizla-rolled cigarette. I was on my way back to my house-boat. I'd just been to seen him play at the Crouch Yacht Club, and now here he was, in the flesh, on the other side of the seawall with a couple of mates, staring at the river, with wreathes of smoke rising about him like an image out of one of his own songs. I inhaled deeply, and knew immediately that this was a man I could talk to. I congratulated him on his virtuosic performance of a half-hour before. He smiled graciously, not an outright rejection. So I invited him and his buddies back to the boat. To my surprise, they came. Truth to tell, as I walked back with them all in tow, I was somewhat awestruck. David was intimidating enough. But the two other friends were violin-makers, for fuck's sake. I pride myself in my ability to put up a shelf, I can even make little wooden boats. But making violins! I was terrified if I said anything to any of them I risked being seen as stupid. David piped up on the walk up the quay, but it seemed to me he spoke in riddles. I laughed idiotically, probably in the wrong places. We arrived aboard Innisfree. And there we relaxed. Happily the boat didn't give a shit who he was. Since then he has become a regular visitor, though he used to spread a similar terror with every visit. A friend of mine, who plays a mean slide guitar, visibly deflated when David first walked aboard. "Oh God" he said, moving to put the guitar down. What's so awe-ful about this man? Well, his playing, of course. The way his thumb snakes to a syncopated rhythm, picking out a liquid bass-line while his fingers dance over the sound hole and rap on the guitar top, as his left hand slides, and hammers, and pulls off bewitching melodies. And the rapid tapping of his foot. And his laid-back, smoky vocals. And his lyrics -dry, funny, incisive, clever. The man's style is engaging. He is cool. In his pinstriped suit and open shirt, David exudes his love affair with pure class. Folk clubs are horrified: "We've never had a man in a suit play here before. This is a folk club…." Well, it's where he should be. He is, without doubt, a folk musician. He writes about folk. He tells tales about ordinary people, in ordinary situations, and about the places we live. (But then, as I discovered, he is an ordinary guy, living an ordinary life, but blessed with an extraordinary talent, which seems to get in the way of his ordinary life.) His songs are ballads and tales. What's the difference between Matty Groves and Heart of Stone? Both are stories about love and murder. Both have funny lines, both have tragedy. One's set in the Middle Ages, the other in modern Maldon... It's folk. There's no getting away from it. And here the finger lays upon the point. Old folk songs tend to be heroic. David's characters are heroic too, but his heroes are flawed, staggering under the weight of their own inadequacy, tottering because they're dreaming, wasted, confused, too small… So there's no need to be overawed by David Hughes. True, you will probably never be able to play quite like him or write lyrics quite like he can. But you can dream like he can, you can make him laugh, and the chances are pretty good you make more money. But then, he's a man on the run, a moving target. Despite being married with two children, he's still ducking and diving like the Scouse-born Essex grammar school boy he is. "You know the story, you know the score / Keep on the run till you can't run no more." Damned good idea, if you ask me.				david hughes Recognised 1. Jelly Babe 2. Project X 3. Heart Of Stone 4. Active In The Parish 5. Who's That? - The Summer Of Love 6. Wasted 7. Everybody's Talkin' 'bout FM 8. An Ordinary Life 9. Watching Brazil 10. The Human Heart 11. Curtains 12. Matilda 13. A Song Of England (Live with Ric Sanders) 14. Hold Your Horses Woman (Live with Fairport) 15. 50 Yards (Live) 16. Recognised 17. State Of The Nation 18. This Other Eden 19. Being A Poet All songs copyright David Hughes 2002. Produced by David Hughes & Mark Tucker. Remastered at Ibiza by Mark Tucker. Sleeve notes: Nick Skeens. Design & Artwork- John Adams. Executive Producer - Colin Edwards. "WHAT THEY SAID: "..dry as tinder, more observant than Jodrell Bank and featuring some of the year's most memorable guitar playing." Q Magazine "one of the country's most witty, able writers" fROOTS "Sharp, literate...apply here for a treat." MOJO