SOUL SURMISE

AT ONE WITH BEACH, FAMILY AND DOG - SIGN OF THE KINGDOM

(Let me start this blog by asking you to read on in this blog even when you are at a point when you think that Stockman has become a tree hugging sentimentalist; there is substance at the end; I think!)

For over twenty years Janice and I have owned a house in Ballycastle on the north coast of Northern Ireland. 

I hated Ballycastle as a kid, preferring the louder, brighter, busier main north coast town of Portrush. There was a lack of amusements in Ballycastle and I never understood my friend Sammy Mawhinney speaking of the spiritual refreshing of a walk across Ballycastle beach. 

For me back then beaches were for Beach Missions and running on and Portrush and Portstewart were great running beaches; substantial sand and no stones! You grow up though and look for different things. I often think of Sammy in my deep souled times with God on what is now my favourite beach!

Ballycastle beach is framed with its lovely little town which lies snuggled in around a hill, some of it sheltered below and a few houses sitting on top of the cliff. 

In the other direction is the majestic jut and

strut of the Fair Head and Scotland beyond. Rathlin island runs parallel with the beach, a few miles out from shore, and on the other side is a golf course sitting high and climbing further up there is another headland. The green fairways roll down to the blue sea with that little golden strip of sand, yes and a few stones, in between. 

There are longer, wider, sandier beaches on this coast but none has the stimulation of this scenery. There are so many places for the sun to change the colours or the moon to dance across. On a summer evening with a little blue sky and sunshine it is my favourite place on earth.

When we are in Ballycastle we walk this beach almost every evening. On almost all of them I feel that am having Garden of Eden moments. When I stop for a deep breath and allow myself to take in what is happening around me I often have a sense that in a very ordinary evening walk something extraordinary and redemptive is going on around me. 

I look across at Janice and know that for her this is the best place of all too. Jasmine or Caitlin or both might join us. Jed our dog is always there. Indeed, some nights when the weather is not the best he is the one who brings us out. He loves chasing his ball and the taking a wee prance into the sea or have a swim in the mouth of the Bonamargy river. 

I love the sense of refreshing as the waves race up the beach and then retreat, with the evening sun’s light making beautiful colours, off hues of blue and brown. 

Almost every time I am on that beach I feel like I am at one with it all. In love with life. I thank God that such moments are recurring.

(Now I told you to carry one when you got to this warm feely weely tree hugging stage, so stick with me.)

A number of years ago I was very influenced by the writings of Scot McKnight. I loved The Blue Parakeet, a

new way to read the Bible. It had made a lot of sense to me. McKnight encourages us to read the Bible as story and that story is of a oneness broken in the first three chapters of Genesis, made one again in Christ with ultimate unity ahead of us at the culmination of the Kingdom coming in its entirety. We should read the Bible in that story. That oneness of Eden, God and humanity, man and woman, humans and the animal kingdom, and indeed the earth, was an image I liked. 

Dr Muthurai Swamy in his book Reconciliation: The Archbishop of Canturbury’s Lent Book 2019 take a similar stance. The idea of Christ’s mission to be one of restoring that oneness gave me a deep desire, in my ministry in Fitzroy, the 4 Corners Festival and the Cloanrd Fitzroy Fellowship, to be about bringing that reconciliation of man and God, man and woman, human and the creation and human and human out of our localised conflict.  

So in those moments on the edge of the Seas of Moyle  I believe I catch a glimpse of the Kingdom’s oneness. Man and woman, one in marriage, with daughter and animal and earth. They are moments when I realise that this is why I get so much physical and spiritual refreshment on this every vacation. 

It is good to read the Bible’s vision for unity, good to have a theology of it, good to preach and hear sermons on it and good to pray for it but when you are living for just a moment in the tangible reality of that redemption that Christ brought then that is a spiritual place so much more potent than words or ideas. On my beach is in the truest sense of the word a God given, Christ earned blessing. More of them I say!

STOCKI'S FLORENCE & THE MACHINE RARITIES PLAYLIST

I would like to be a Florence & The Machine fan but her work is a little overpowering for me but when she does radio sessions, acoustic versions and covers the I can listen... 

 

SHIP TO WRECK

(from BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge)

 

NOT FADE AWAY (Buddy Holly cover)

(from Rave On Buddy Holly)

 

OH DARLING (LIVE AT ABBEY ROAD) (Beatles's cover)

(from Lungs 10th Anniversary Edition)

 

NEVER LET ME GO

(from BBC Radio 2: The Piano Room 2019)

 

WHAT KIND OF MAN

(from Dermot O'Leary Presents The Saturday Sessions 2016)

 

TINY DANCER (Elton John cover)

(from Revamp: The Songs oF Elton John & Bernie Taupin)

 

STAND BY ME (Ben E King cover)

(from Songs From Final Fantasy XV single)

 

YOU'VE GOT THE LOVE (Little Noise Sessions)

(from Dog Days Are Over EP)

 

JENNY OF OLDSTONES (Game Of Thrones)

(from the single)

 

HALO (Beyonce cover)

(from The Best Of Radio 1's Live Lounge)

 

PATRICIA (acoustic)

(from the single)

 

BREATH OF LIFE

(from Snow White and The Huntsman Soundtrack)

 

JACKSON (feat. Josh Home)  (Johnny Cash cover)

(from MTV Presents Unplugged: Florence and The Machine)

 

MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME (from The Hootenany 2009 - with JOOLS HOLLAND

(from The Golden Age Of Song - Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra)

 

MODERATION

(from the single)

 

I LOVE YOU ALL THE TIME (PLAY IT FORWARD CAMPAIGN) (feat. The Maccabees)

From I Love You All The Time (Play It Forward Campaign)

 

ARE YOU HURTING THE ONE YOU LOVE

(from Rabbit Heart; Raise It Up EP)

 

TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS (Otis Redding cover)

(from MTV Presents Unplugged: Florence and The Machine)

 

DRUMMING SONG (acoustic)

from Drumming Song EP)

 

MY BOY BUILDS COFFINS (acoustic)

(from Lungs 10th Anniversary Edition)

 

 

KEVIN BARRY - NIGHT BOAT TO TANGIER

A few years ago I stumbled across a book called Beatlebone. Those who know my Beatle fandom will not be surprised that it caught my attention. I picked it up, bought it and truthfully enjoyed the read. It was a little whacky for sure. 

John Lennon had bought a island off Mayo in 1978, about a decade after he actually had, and was wanting some Scream therapy, about 8 years after he actually had. It was a book that was at the one moment insightful on love and life and at the next quite crude. 

I enjoyed it but didn’t expect the writer Kevin Barry to be taken too seriously. It turns out he has been taken very seriously and one of the critically acclaimed novels of the year is Barry’s Night Boat To Tangier. Beatlebone had given me a soft spot for Barry so I needed no more convincing.

In many respects the two novels are similar. First things first. Barry is a lyrical writer. He is all about weather and skies and rivers and seas and the colours and moods that they conjure. He attempts usually successfully to conjure words that are almost poetry.

Into this poetic prose he has a trait for the profane and the profound, sometimes in the very same paragraph. I need to warn you that there is a lot of violence and sex in Night Boat To Tangier and the sex references are uncouth most of the time.

The drama is built around two Irish rascals Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond. The book starts with them in the port of Algeciras in Spain just sitting, chatting. When I say just chatting, it is page after page of Irish banter, hilarious much of the time. You will laugh out loud. Barry has a talent for the conversational. 

From this seemingly harmless and almost endearing beginning Barry throws us into a world of  sex and drugs and murder. There is an intensity to the story. Fear and love flow together as avarice overtakes any sense in the life choices of our main protagonists. 

Night Boat To Tangier is a book about choices and regret, every day love and the terror of drug trafficking. It is about the domino effect of one of life’s decisions knocking down every other domino in the collapse of marriage, family, friendship, the heart, the soul and the mind. It’s like a long tense journey towards the desperate need of repentance and grace and somewhere in there, if you listen to Barry’s literary wonder closely enough, you might find your own life. I did!

HOW U2 RESPONDED TO THE OMAGH BOMB

Tears started running down my face. U2 tugged my emotions. I was in a lecture theatre at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They had a screen that filled the entire wall of the theatre. The sound was great. I was showing U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday from the U2 Go Home: Live From Slane Castle film. 

The obvious reason for the tears was that this was filmed in Ireland. I had only been away from home for a few days but there is nothing like seeing home in a faraway place to feel that yearning. 

Bono was playing all the moves. Sunday Bloody Sunday is, of course, all about Belfast and our Troubles. In 2001 when they played Slane Castle we had had three years since the Good Friday Agreement but politicians were still in talks as to whether they could make our peace deal work. 

Bono use the concert to encourage the “brave men” to compromise for peace. He then literally turned the song into a prayer. Bono walks out across the Elipse stage into the middle of this Irish audience and chants:

“Put your hands in the sky
Put your hands in the air
If you’re the praying kind
Make this song into a prayer
Put your hands in the sky
Put your hands in the air
If you’re the praying kind
Cos we’re not going back there”

On that big Calvin College screen, this was epic. This is about home. This prayerful hope sung across a vast crowd. The screams of “No more!” Wow!

Then, as if that wasn’t enough Bono turns the thoughts of this Irish crowd to the events of August 15th 1998. Just three years earlier the Real IRA, opposed to the IRA ceasefire, left a bomb in the centre of the market town of Omagh, on a Saturday afternoon. When it exploded 29 people lost their lives. The island went into shock and grief.

Slane Castle was U2’s first gig after Omagh. As Sunday Bloody Sunday ends Bono starts to name every victim, one at a time. With the band pumping out the beat of Sunday Bloody Sunday the emotion is palpable. Bono’s voice cracks.

Then with Bono sitting down the band move into a stripped back Wake Up Dead Man. Oh my. This is the most perfect location that that song ever had. Right there. After Sunday Bloody Sunday. After the names of the Omagh victims. The grief, the anger, the confusion, the grapple for faith. It has the catharsis of the blues, the protest of folk and the power of stadium rock. Tears… 

This wasn’t actually U2’s first public reference to Omagh. On November 20, 1998 RTE’s Late Late Show broadcast an Omagh Tribute Special that also included The Corrs, Bob Geldof and President Mary McAleese. 

U2 sang two songs on that show. North and South of the River, written along with Irish folk legend Christy Moore, came cross as almost a grown up Sunday Bloody Sunday. 

In this co-write there is an awareness that religion has led minds astray, and there is yearning for repentance, reconciliation and mutual understanding without any need for surrender, a reference to the clarion call of Ulster Protestants: “No Surrender!” The lines that became most powerful and poignant as U2 performed the song for the TV special were those that suggested the loneliness of hurting your own. There are also fragments of hope in the midst of the evil that love is not lost and has its place in the future.

The band also played All I Want Is You which, in this context, metamorphosed from a yearning for love, in a romantic sense, to a lament for those who lost loved ones in the bombing. It was again powerfully emotional.

Today, 21 years on and I will make a little playlist of these 4 songs, as I remember those lost in that horrific afternoon and indeed everyone who lost lives or limbs, or their sight, or mental health or whatever else as a result of our terrible Troubles.

IN A WEEK LIKE THIS (MY RESPONSE TO THE OMAGH BOMB)

21 years ago today my country was in shock as news of the Omagh bomb broke.  It was a Saturday afternoon when the Real IRA, who opposed the IRA ceasefire, set off a bomb in Omagh town centre. Everyone thought of who they knew that might be caught up in it. In the end 29 were callously murdered.

It was my turn to do a Thought For The Day on BBC Radio Ulster six days later. This was my prayer as I reflected on the week that we had grieved through.

 

Lord, we come to the end of another week
Except it hasn't been just another week
It has been the worst week of our lives
And even worse for some
Lord help us to be honest, vulnerable and somehow hopeful in the reflection of our feelings

Lord we have been shocked
Shocked by how one tiny second can tear our lives apart
Shocked by how far humanity can fall
Shocked by how callous and painful mankind's actions can stoop

Lord, we are grieving
Grieving for the loss of lives with so much love and energy still to give
Grieving for the man and woman and child who we will never be able to hold again
Grieving for our history that is as sad and twisted as this

Lord we are confused
Confused at why this should happen
Confused about how this should happen to the innocent
Confused about where you and faith enter into these events

Lord we have been angry
Angry at why we allowed our family and friends to go shopping
Angry at how evil people could rip our world asunder
Angry that you allowed it to happen

Lord we are seeking
Seeking some kind of feeble consolation in the midst of our deluge of tears
Seeking some kind of hope that good might come from this evil
Seeking your Spirit whom Jesus called a Comforter to whisper into our maddening silence

Lord we are squinting for faith
Faith that the majority might have some kind of a say in the future
Faith that love will end our hate, good will end our evil and grace will touch our broken hearts
Faith in a God who is as angry as we are and who is reaching out his hand to us.

Lord we are remembering
Remembering those who today can no longer be shocked, grieve, be angry, be confused, seek or squint for faith
Remembering that you watched as your son covered in blood, died at the futile whim of injustice
Remembering that that very death is the only thing that we can grope in the dark for in a week like this.

Lord we have planted our loved ones deep in the bloody earth of Ireland this week
We have watered them with our tears
Lord may you allow them to be seeds of a love that will grow into our peace.

Lord remember us. 

A LEVEL RESULTS DAY...

So the results are out.

If your A Level results are good then a hearty congratulations. Good grades at A level are an amazing achievement and you deserve the accolades of family and teachers. It has been two years hard graft, in school and out of school. Many of you will have sacrificed some teenage things to put in the extra work. Enjoy the day. Milk the parental favour!

It might also be good to have a thought for those who didn't achieve what they wanted. Those, around you, who are down today. The pressure might not be so much the grades or that they didn't get the University choice they wanted. Their depression might be that they cannot jump up and down, get on the front pages of newspapers or put up happy emojis on social media. The sense of failure, when you are in a sea of successful peers, is perhaps the hardest part.

So a sensitivity might be needed in the celebrations too! Judge those social media posts with a caring perspective.

For those who think they've failed. Erase that F word from your minds and maybe, more particularly, your souls. School exams are not the beginning or the end of your humanity. Simply because I cannot run the 10 miles that I did a few years ago says nothing about my humanity. It does not declare me a failure. Not getting an A Star, or five, in your A levels says nothing about the preciousness and genius at the heart of your humanity.

If you haven't achieved what you expected or what you needed then think of it as a diversion. In July we were supposed to have a short stop over in Madrid before flying on to Addis Ababa. Storms caused a diversion to Barcelona and a long wait to refuel before heading back to Madrid! Seven more hours on that plane! It wasn't the plan. We could do nothing about it. Yet, eventually we got our next flight rescheduled and our lives only took a minor blip.

If your first or even last choice of University doesn't work out because of these results, it is only a diversion. Even if the examiners get it wrong, you have a contribution to make. You have a gift deep within. You'll find your place. Take this as a time for reflection. A time to reassess. You might have to confess that you need to go back and work harder at those exams. Or you might find another way to your destination from here. There is no rush. This is not the end of any world, just a crossroads to what is next.

You are made in the image of God. You are a wondrous creation. Jesus came to reclaim you into the family of God. Heir of the Father, co-heir with the Son is how Paul put it. God has given you gifts and invites you into his work of justice and peace and good news.

My friend Justin Zoradi put it like this in his book Made For These Times:

“I envision the work of the Lord as gigantic heavenly wheels rotating all over the earth. They roll around scrubbing up the darkness. mowing down injustice, and building up shaky structures of redemption and renewal. Put in motion centuries ago, the wheels are relentless vessels of creativity and disruption. The greatest opportunities of our lives are when you are invited to ride on the wheels for certain seasons. We may join with God for one or two rotations, and then shift off so others can hop on when our time is up.”

A Level examiners don't get in the way of that invitation. 

Those of you celebrating good results. Do not let these results define you either. Use these results to open doors and make sure you seek out what God has made you for. For many of you, you will now flourish in your chosen subject at University and fly to your next destination. Some of you might find that good results can open wrong doors to destinations that you are not built for. Never be afraid to change course. Your good grades should give you that luxury. 

In the end my old mantra, stolen from Frederick Buechner is the mantra for today, "your vocation is where your deepest gladness meets the world's greatest need." Today, whether you did well or not so well, is just a day to ponder that and find your gladness and where it meets the world's needs. You can get there, wherever you feel you are today!

STOCKI'S COVERS OF U2 SONGS PLAYLIST

Another of my wee self indulgent playlists. This time it is covers of U2 songs. This collection took on a personality of its own and has a downbeat sound. That is why there is nothing from AHK-toong BAY-bi on here (you can read my review of that one HERE) 

There is also a wee section dedicated to Andy Rowen. Bad was written about him so after Luka Bloom's version of that I add a few songs of redemption... (Read my Surmise on Andy's amazing story HERE!

It all goes on an 80 CDR as is my old fashion wont!

 

OCTOBER - THE DIVINE COMEDY

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE) - SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR

(from In The Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2)

 

WHO'S GONNA RIDE YOUR WILD HORSES - DREW HOLCOMB & THE NEIGHBOURS

(from Through The Night: Live In The Studio)

 

RUNNING TO STAND STILL - ELBOW

(from Heroes)

 

IN A LITTLE WHILE - BRIAN HOUSTON

(from The Raw Sessions)

 

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU - KEANE

(from Radio 1's Live Lounge) 

 

ALL I WANT IS YOU - JARS OF CLAY

(from In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa)

 

EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING - JACK L

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

BAD - LUKA BLOOM

(from Keeper Of The Flame)

 

WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN - DECLAN O'ROURKE

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

GRACE - NICHOLE NORDEMAN

(from In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa)

 

40 - THE FRAMES

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

STUCK IN A MOMENT (live) - MARTYN JOSEPH

(from Official Bootleg Vol 3)

 

NORTH & SOUTH - CHRISTY MOORE

(from Live At The Point 2006)

 

MISS SARAJEVO - GEORGE MICHAEL

(from Songs From The Last Century)

 

ONE - THE COWBOY JUNKIES

(from Early 21st Century Blues)

 

LOVE IS BLINDNESS - CASSANDRA WILSON

(from New Moon Daughter)

 

I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR - CHRISTINE COLLISTER

(from Into The Light)

SNOW PATROL - REWORKED (EP1)

I have been waiting patiently for this Snow Patrol Reworked project since I heard rumours of the cunning plan.

When Gary Lightbody finally went public with the idea in an interview with Jo Whiley, on Radio 2 in July, he declared that this version of Chocolate was better than the original. When you hear it, you understand why.

In September 1984, when Gary Lightbody was but 8 years old, Aztec Camera released, on their 12” single of All I Need Is Everything, a very downbeat acoustic version of Van Halen’s Jump. It was so alternative to the Van Halen original that I wondered how you could so reinvent a song. 

Then I realised that Jump was inspired by someone who was going to jump to their suicide. Van Halen felt that there might be somebody watching the drama of someone on the ledge who might shout “Go ahead and jump”. Though the song shifted to the idea of jumping into love Roddy Frame, main man in Aztec Camera, went for the suicide scenario.

It would have been impossible for Van Halen to have eeked that depressive mood out of the song, being so rooted in the genre of hard rock. It took another band to maybe give the song its defining sound.

Fortunately Snow Patrol have created a space in their body of work where they can stand outside that anthemic rock sound that they  stadiums with, to experiment with soundscapes. For their 25th year as a band they have left a stack of their songs in the hands of Iain Archer, who was a former member and has stepped in on occasions down through the years, to play around with the originals. Hence Reworked (EP1).

And so… Chocolate. Yes Gary, this is the definitive version. So glad you didn’t need Aztec Camera to do it for you! The lyric of near spiritual awakening and confessional regret needed this more reflective face. Archer gives the whole thing an almost prayerful guitar shimmer and then gives us an understated take on the original riff as a repentant Amen! 

Crack The Shutters is the song least changed in these reworks but any self indulgent radio flirting shine has been taken off. It makes the romantic glory of the song more intimate and this lyric is intimate. Very!

Eyes Open? Well heavens but the guitar intro reminds me of Aztec Camera’s Jump. Archer’s imaginative wonder here is in the song’s climactic crescendo. When you expect Nathan Connolly to strut guitars, there is a beautiful blend of voices, almost like the Voice Squad, pushing it beautifully to conclusion.

The opening Time Won’t Go Slowly is the new song on the EP. It is another requisite Lightbody penned love song. To a fairground carousel waltz Gary ruminates on the relationship between love and time. 

Time can stand still as if Empires and cities have disappeared but most often time is rushing too fast. Even when we want to speed up the relationship we don’t want it to all slip away. The truth is that this song might be an early 40s look at mortality as much as the romance! You are getting to that age boys! 

All 4 songs considered and this is an EP right up my street. Gary Lightbody’s lyrics and voice get a firmament to shine. The songs get opened up… and flourish.  

More!

DANGEROUS GRACE - GOD IS A PIPE BOMB WAITING TO BLOW

You thought God was an architect, now you know

He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow

And everything you built that’s all for show goes up in flames

In twenty- four frames

 

I have been using this quotation from Jason Isbell’s song 24 Frames for a couple of years. Chris Wilson did a great cover of 24 Frames when he played a gig in Fitzroy and it has been whirling around my head ever since.

It is one of those quotes that when you first hear it you think, “oh no, that’s not very Christian.” Yet, as you reflect on it and marinate it over time you think, “Wow, that is a powerful truth!”

Isbell’s idea is that we sometimes see God as someone building something around us. Architects forgive me, or at least forgive Isbell’s poetic licence, but there is a sense of safety in the architect image. It describes a God building nicely, with straight lines and mathematically accurate planning.

It is funny, put pertinent, that my first hearing of God as a “pipe bomb waiting to blow” made me wince! We do not want to imagine God as a destructive force. Pipe bombs indicate bad things in our minds.

It is the third line that brings the solution to the conundrum. The things we build for show go up in flames. The architecture here is about what is on the outside. It is to impress others and make us self righteously smug. 

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day had God as an architect and God arrived incarnate in Jesus and like a pipe bomb blew away their attempts at religion for show. 

God keeps on doing it. He keeps blowing up the how it is with a grace force that replaces it with how things can be. I remember once wanting to call a youth event Dangerous Grace and being told there was nothing dangerous about God! Oh dear!

God is a dangerous force from the beginning of the Bible until its end. People are constantly being blown into new ways of living. Safety is hard to find in the biographies of any Scriptural character who dared follow God. Any theological attempts to describe God that leaves out dangerous doesn’t seem to have any idea about God as far as I read it.

I think that CS Lewis gets it right in the Chronicles of Narnia. he writes of Aslan who represents God in the Chronicles, "He is not a tame lion... he is not safe, he is good... Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”  Aslan is more pipe bomb than architect!

I used the Isbell quote at a commissioning service for students going off to serve God in India. I told them at I hoped that in India they met God as a pipe bomb. 

I told their parents that I was sure that the organisation they were going with, Saphara, would do all they could to make sure their offspring came home safe.

BUT… I added… that if their sons and daughters dared to open themselves to the fulness of this new experience that there was no way that I could guarantee a safe future. It might cause them to change their University courses, shift to different vocations and end up living in some interesting places across our world. There was a chance that they would meet God as a pipe bomb, blowing their minds and hearts and souls, changing them forever.

Let me not confine that experience to young people off to experience the world for the first time. In Fitzroy I have been calling all of us to be open to a God of transformational power, explosive in his ability to rework our lives and our world. May our spiritual lives be constantly exposed to a pipe bomb God who blows up all that we do for show!

STOCKI'S ELVIS COSTELLO RARITIES PLAYLIST

FULL FORCE GALE (Van Morrison cover)

(from No Prima Donna: The Songs Of Van Morrison)

 

THE LOVERS THAT NEVER WERE (cowritten with Paul McCartney)

(from Purse EP)

 

SHE 

(from Notting Hill Soundtrack)

 

SPARKLING DAY

(from One Day Soundtrack)

 

BRILLIANT DISGUISE (Bruce Springsteen cover)

(from It’s Time single)

 

IT HAD TO BE YOU (feat. Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks)

(from Boardwalk Empire Vol 2)

 

EDITH & THE KINGPIN (Joni Mitchell cover)

(from A Tribute To Joni Mitchell)

 

WALKING ON THIN ICE (Yoko Ono cover)

(from Every Man Has A Woman)

 

LICENSE TO KILL (Bob Dylan cover)

(from Chimes Of Freedom; Songs of Bob Dylan Honouring 50 Years Of Amnesty International)

 

TELL ME WHY (Neil Young cover)

(from The Bridge School Collection Vol 5)

 

BACK STABBERS

(from Vinyl; The Essentials (Best of Season 1))

 

POINT OF NO RETURN

(from Vinyl: Music From The HBO Original Series Volume 1.9)

 

LONG JOURNEY HOME (ANTHEM) with Anuna

(from Long Journey Home soundtrack)

 

THE NIGHT BEFORE LARRY WAS STRETCHED

(from Common Ground)

 

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (Beatles’ cover)

(from Live Aid)

 

DON’T THROW YOUR LOVE AWAY 

(from Does This Train Stop at Merseyside;The Very Best Of Ian Prowse)

 

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

(from Return Of The Grievous Angel: A Tribute To Gram Parsons)

 

KISS LIKE YOUR KISS (with Lucinda Williams)

(from True Blood: Music From the HBO Original Series, Vol. 2)

 

I SURRENDER DEAR (feat. Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks)

(from Boardwalk Empire Vol 3)

 

DOWN ON THE BOTTOM (cowritten with Bob Dylan)

(from Purse EP)

 

I’LL STILL LOVE (co-written with Johnny Cash)

(from Johnny Cash: Forever Words)