I was born to a family of seven with 5 sisters and one brother- only 2 in every 1000 families have seven children ! – gulp. We were brought up in council housing, part of the 8% of people in the UK ,living in council houses.
Our parents divorced, like 8% of the population, versus married and single people. To say our childhood was stressful is an understatement.
All my siblings live in the Uk except my brother. He is part of the 160,000 Briths ex pats that live in France. 5,700 people ( was 10,000 pre-Brexit) move to France every year from the UK, with about 20% returning within 5 years.
530,000 people immigrate every year from the UK in total to all countries, whilst 1.2m move to the UK. Mr Brother and I look very similar, often being taken as twins. But we are very different.
We were both good at sports at school but my Brother was exceptional, representing both the City and the County. He is also much better looking than I am –although things have levelled up a bit. post baldness.
My brother has been married for 40 years ands had three grown up sons and grandchildren.
I love country muisc. There have been millions of country songs released from hundreds of thousands of artists. Country music is most popular in the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia. For me the challenge is to take an every day situation and create a country song that does not sound formulaic or twee or like thousands of similar songs. I like country songs with an edge and maybe a message. This is a country song about my brother, living quietly, with out stress, in a small village in France for the last 10 years
I like the phrase ‘strong jaw bone loner cowboy’ as it sums up my brother's personality. The song starts by saying ‘ we allowed him to go’ ( not that we had much say in the matter. Once he arrived, he ‘took his jacket off and has not been in touch’
One thing is for certain he ‘Had the courage to chase ‘his-and his wife's- dream. So now he lives ‘Out of town. Somewhere way out far’. He’s had ‘the same gal for well over forty years. Three kids and a dog. Sure, gone through the gears.
We think of him as ‘private soul’, who will one day ‘let us know what he feels. I visit him one of twice a year to clam down and take stock. I love this song. For me it’s an edgy country song about a real-life situation and a brother I miss a lot
