My Music
Latest Release
Reviews for “Money Where My Mouth Is”
“Money Where My Mouth Is” is an EP of memorable tunes that will remain with you long after hearing them.”
“Written, performed, recorded, and produced at his studio in Sussex, Paul demonstrates the power of the home studio with this EP, and how the journey from dream to reality can be achieved on any budget.”
Song Breakdown
More Past Than Future
“The title of this song came from a phrase I read in a Bill Bryson Book - The Road to Little Dribbling. Bryson referred to himself as a man with more past than future and that resonated with me as I was writing the Money Where Your Mouth Is EP in my 50th year. As I wrote the lyrics, themes of life’s too short and not to suffer fools easily started to appear and then it wrote itself. It was also based on a hook that had been rolling around since my teenage years. It’s simply taken this long to find the spark to write the lyrics.”
Paul Smyth - December 2020
A Little Bit (of What I Need)
“This is another old idea from my teens that has been with me forever. My parents were both country music fans, and therefore the influence of hearing old vinyl LP records on a Sunday morning when I was young will always find a voice in whatever I write I think. This was also a collaboration as my good friend Steve Gordon played the acoustic guitar solo on this track, and extra special thanks goes to Ian Churchill for some great arrangement and lyric edits on this one.”
Paul Smyth - August 2020
Little Sparrow
“Little Sparrow was inspired by a Marianne Faithful song - The Ballad of Lucy Jordan. The lyrics paint a harsh reality for women in the modern world, and suggest we’re not all ‘living the dream’. I never really worked out whether Lucy Jordan slipped into her own fantasy world, or left this world completely, possibly intentionally, and it was this ambiguity I wanted to develop in Little Sparrow. There’s something of the Little Match Girl here too with unfilled hopes and dreams.”
Paul Smyth - April 2020
Slide
“Slide was another riff that came to me from nowhere and then plagued me until I finally sat down and sketched out the song. It started life as an acoustic guitar idea with a B7 chord and an alternating bass while I was waiting for a pupil to turn up for their guitar lesson. I also wanted a blues track on the EP too and so it felt right in a 12-bar format. The turnaround is a bit different as that came about to suit the line “When you reach that famous final scene / You’re not looking back on what might have been”
Paul Smyth - January 2020
When Did You Trade Heaven
“I have always been fascinated with this song since I saw Big Bill Broonzy’s old black and white footage playing live in a cafe. I’ve heard many versions since and the idea to cover it in a completely different way occurred to me after watching Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton busk their way through a version of Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright live in Maddison Square garden. Their playing was loose but fun, and the groove got me wondering if I could get away with the same approach here”
Paul Smyth - November 2020