Dance Of Life

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                    Dance of Life (£10)                 Reviews

A studio album featuring, Elaine, Jane, Joey, Mike and Paula

 

Purchase the album

The Tracks

 

 

 

Tracks

1. Catch the Wind - 4min 21sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine Samuels : vocals, guitar, Jane Eldridge : vocals, violin, Mike Patton : vocals, mandolin, Joey Burke : vocals, bass guitar

Features Elaine’s band "Kindred Spirit". Inspired by visit to HMS Victory while playing at the August ‘96 Dockyard Festival in Portsmouth. About a young man who gets press ganged into the navy - but escapes.

 

2. Dance of Life - 5min 7sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar Jane violin

Features the Kindred Spirit duo with Jane Eldridge. Inspired by my young son and the loss of a family friend; a young man, whose mother I also knew well. It made me think of the bond between mother & son and how we must cherish the moments we have in our lives.

 
Hear this whole title track on Spotify

 

3. Thomas Nuttall - 5min 4sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & banjo, Mike vocals, guitar & mandolin ; Jane violin, Joey bass guitar
      Features the "Kindred Spirit" band. Not all of the new world explorers were action men. Thomas Nuttall was a brilliant botanist who explored America from around 1812. He had few survival skills and kept getting lost. The song chronicles some of his adventures.
Thomas Nuttall is to feature in storytelling presentations in his home region with a group called
"Drama In Education" and this song might also be included in the stories.

 

4. Feelin' Free - 4min 36sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar.
     A solo piece about escaping North of the border into the open country of Scotland. Inspired by a tour up to Scotland in June ‘96.

 

5. Bard - 4 min 10 sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & cittern, Jane violin
     Features the Kindred Spirit duo with Jane Eldridge. A song of the magic of the wandering minstrel telling his tales and weaving his spells.

 

6. Just Go On - 4min 23sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar, Jane vocals & violin, Mike mandolin, Joey vocals & bass guitar
     Features the "Kindred Spirit" band. The struggle with emotions following a split up. There’s no way to go back to the way things were but they have to pick up the pieces and go on. Inspired by an early morning walk along the Thames 

 

7. You Just Have To Believe - 4min 41sec (Elaine Samuels) Hear me 
Elaine lead vocals & guitar, Mike vocals & mandolin, Jane vocals & viola, Joey vocals & bass guitar
     Features the "Kindred Spirit" band. Based on a true story told to me by a young Asian girl of clashes of cultures and how she dealt with changes in her life.

 

8. Green Man - 4 min 28sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar, Jane violin
     Features the "Kindred Spirit" duo with Jane Eldridge. About the belief in the spirit of nature called the "Green Man" whose image appears in carvings on many ancient buildings and churches.

 

9. Breaking Free - 4min 34sec (Elaine Samuels) Hear me
Elaine lead vocals & guitar, Paula flute
     Features the "Kindred Spirit" duo with Paula Smith. About wanting to return to a simpler way of living that doesn’t damage the planet.

 

10. The Tunnel Song - 3min 42sec (Elaine Samuels & G Hounsell)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar 
     A solo piece (co-written with G. Hounsell) about the incredible technical achievement of those that built the channel tunnel. Strongly influenced by my background as an engineer and my many trips to Folkestone in Kent.

 

11. Searching For The Road - 2min 56sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar, Mike mandolin, Jane violin, Joey vocals & bass guitar
     Features the "Kindred Spirit" band. About the choices we must make in life and how the choices available get fewer as life goes on.

 

12. Elizabeth - 4min 7sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & cittern
     A solo track, with cittern playing, about the life of Elizabeth I. At my home town in Richmond Surrey there is Elizabeth’s "Richmond Palace". It is said that following Elizabeth’s death her ring was dropped from the Palace window and taken by riders to Scotland to her successor James.

 

13. Storytelling Chair - 5min 7sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar, Paula vocals, tin-whistle, Celtic harp, flute
     A true story about the making of a magnificent storytelling chair, how one of the chairs creators died just after it was made & how his partner vowed it would be his last piece of work. Read more...

Hear this whole track on Spotify

 

14. New Frontier - 3min 37sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & banjo
     A solo track, with banjo playing, about the pioneers searching for the land of their dreams.

 

15. I’ll Always Love You - 3min 43sec (Elaine Samuels)
Elaine lead vocals & guitar, Mike mandolin, Jane vocals & violin, Joey vocals & bass guitar
     Features the "Kindred Spirit" band. About someone separated from their loved one far away across the sea and longing for their safe return.

 

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Joey Burke, Jane Eldridge, Mike Patton and Elaine Samuels

 

 

Elaine with Paula Smith at Southsea Festival

 

The band featuring Paula Smith at Kingston May Merrie 1997

 

Paula Smith with her Celtic harp and Elaine

 

Jane Eldridge with her dartboard halo!

 


 

More About the Storytelling Chair
Back in the nineties, Jane Eldridge and I played at a pub called The Roebuck, in Marlborough. We were really impressed by a large, ornately painted storytelling chair in the pub and asked the landlord about it. He said there was quite a story behind it and went on to tell it to us. He explained how he and his wife had wanted to have storytelling evenings as well as live music and had wanted to purchase a really great throne-like chair for this. They were out searching round junk & antique shops in Guildford one day, looking for a suitable chair when in one shop they spotted what looked like a great old looking church pew. Enquiring about its origin, they were told that it had been crafted recently by these two Penzance craftsmen to look really ancient and special. The craftsmen worked together, collecting old pieces of wood and treating them to make them seem even older. Then David, the carpenter of the two, would create a piece of furniture and Terry, the artist, would paint beautiful pictures on various panels. The landlord and landlady got in touch with David & Terry and commissioned them to make a special storytelling chair for the pub. Eventually, the chair was finished and, according to their usual practice, David and Terry flagged down passing lorries until they found one heading in the right direction and asked the lorry driver if he would deliver the chair. The first thing the landlord and landlady knew was that their chair had miraculously arrived on a passing truck! When they were carrying the chair into the pub, they accidently dislodged a small tile on the arm and discovered that inside was a letter. Curious, they read the letter and discovered to their dismay that shortly after their chair had been completed, David had had a heart attack and died and Terry had vowed that this would be the last piece he would make, since they had always worked together as a team. I felt this story deserved capturing in a song and that is how the song came about. After finishing the song and recording the album I happened to get a gig down in Penzance and while I was there I visited the workshop where Terry & David had made all their beautiful pieces.

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