Counter's Creek
My Treasured Land
'My Treasured Land' is a collection of songs and instrumental compositions that describe our lives in London over the last 5 years (including under 'lockdown' restrictions during Covid) and also evoke the idea of escape to a rural idyll (namely the Lake District and Suffolk in two of the songs on the album). Themes of entrapment ('Birds Without Wings', 'The Gilded Cage'), environmental concern ('Earthrise') and wistful longing for a simpler, rural life ('My Treasured Land', 'Home At Last') sit alongside celebrations of municipal foresight (the planting of a cherry tree by Waltham Forest Council) and the innocence of childhood ('Brand New World', 'That's Not My Unicorn'). Stylistically varied, the album brings together different strands of the British folk tradition Irish low whistles and flutes jostle up next to traditional English folk songs ('Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy', 'Bold Riley') and fuses Celtic reels with American Bluegrass ('Americana') and Indian music ('Brand New World'). The album was recorded in the tiny Cowshed Studio in North London on the hottest day of 2024; the oppressive heat and limited space in the studio (where cows had long since ceased to live) seemed apt for recording music that has as its themes the stifling nature of city life and dreams of pastoral bliss.