All of the World is a Song…
“There you stood, eight hundred years,
While ages passed away
Kings and Queens, young lovers’ dreams
Fal-de-rah-the-day
Beside the Priory standing tall,
Standing strong and surely
How can it be that we have lost
The old Wych Elm in Beauly?”
“Oh, hush, my soul, she’s painting daydreams,
Yellows, reds and gold and lilac moonbeams;
She speaks to me, so innocent and so carefree,
How can it be, I close my eyes yet I can see
her fantasies?”
“Sunrise, it’s another day,
My Queen is dead, what can I say, uh-huh?
So I wash my face and grab a cup
Of something meant to wake me up, uh-huh
This work’s a drag, it doesn’t pay;
The mortgage, bills won’t go away
The taxman tries his best to rob me blind
While, I’m here searching for my peace of mind.”
For almost four decades now, Dave has written and performed his songs – telling stories of places he has lived and visited, venues where he has sung, people he has met and people he has lost, love and hate, hope and sorrow, the seasons, life and death. Every song a journey he’d love to share with you …
“Soldier Boy, why did you go when battle’s bugle called you?
If you’d stayed the price you’d have paid would be less than what they made you;
You went away, one fine day, a young man to be proud of
To country far and to a war in places never heard of…”
Pubs, bars, restaurants, steakhouses, coffee shops, farmers’ markets and festivals… Busking in the streets of Glasgow and Newcastle, travelling around the UK and the world singing and playing bagpipes…”Sings for free but will stop for payment!”
“The heavens are on fire,
A raging, livid hue
Of tempered steel or twilight shades
Of black and blue
The air roars like a freight train
Or the crashing of the seas,
I feel it – hot and heavy,
With foreboding and unease
UMvelinqangi!”
“When a man loses all that he owns,
When his loved ones are gone
In a storm tossed and blown,
When he’s old and alone
Wishing he could go home
How Can A Man?”
“I walk these winter streets beneath the frosty lights
as cars go rushing by
The rain has turned to sleet, the trees are silhouettes
against a threatening sky
As I pass the cemetery
I hear the headstones beckon me
Every story etched in words of stone
like buried memories…”
The times, Mr. Dylan, certainly have changed and nowadays we find ourselves as much in “virtual” folk clubs as we do in real, live ones. Today, it’s possible to visit the US, Canada, Germany, Australia – all without leaving your home…
“When the warmth of each day like a dream slips away
When the north wind brings an early twilight
When breezes that moan chill you right to the bone
When snowflakes dance for the lonely street light
Winter has come, with nights dark and long.”
“How come “The Hedgehog”?”, I hear you ask.
Well it all began with a song I wrote in the 1980’s called “Hedgehogs…and other animals of the night”. No longer considered politically correct (was it EVER?) I very rarely sing it nowadays unless I’m singing to a group of drunken South Africans my age or older…
Finally, back in the UK for good (?) and hoping to get his face and his music out and about so, if you like what you hear, Dave would love your continued support…
“Online, it’s song time
got to get some rhythm in my day
‘Cause, sometimes, when words rhyme
a melody can take me far away
Far from all those things that try to break me
Far from everything that brings me down
When life itself seems somehow to forsake me
On music’s wings I’m high above the ground…”.
“I took a walk up Calton Hill,
To see the city far below
In clear blue skies the sun did glow
Yet tempered not the autumn’s chill …”
“A cold wind blow…
Through the streets of Washington DC
A tyrant gloats for a world
Watching on TV
The martyr stirs in his grave,
She’s turning in her grave
Rancor burns with a flame of the way we all behave
In this free land of the brave….”
Dave’s music can be purchased and listened to at https://davemasonmusic.bandcamp.com
Dave is also a skilled highland piper and has composed three books of music for the Highland Bagpipes https://tummelyerwilkies.com