Harvest Home is a song by Bard of Ely for Summer Solstice

Harvest Home is a folk rock or acoustic rock song by myself the Bard of Ely but it wasn't always a musical recording. Harvest Home started life as a poem that was published originally in the nineties by Alan Craw in his fanzine Cyrkel Spynn.

However, a friend of mine suggested that I should try putting some music to it because it would make great lyrics so this is what I did, having worked out a chord pattern that fitted the verses. The words make direct reference to the Summer Solstice, a very important time and event in the traditional pagan and Druid calendars.

A lot of people liked the song and it was released online on various music sites but Bard of Ely was really delighted when Rhys Mwyn, who signed the Bard's controversial song You're a Liar, Nicky Wire to front a release on Crai Records entitled the Taffia EP, gave the go ahead for it also to be included as another of the tracks on the release.

Crai Records, by the way, is part of Sain Records, a leading Welsh record label, and where the band Catatonia first started their career. So Harvest Home was released on a CD EP in 2002.

I had my new song Harvest Home in its basic form but wanted to get it recorded so asked my good friend and fellow singer-songwriter and rock musician Nathaniel 'Nat' Shelley if he could help. Nathaniel, by the way, is the son of bass player Burke Shelley of the legendary Welsh rock band Budgie, so music and talent run in his family.

I sent a cassette recording to Nat so he could get an idea of how the song sounded and was structured so when we met up next we could record it using his home studio in Penarth. Both Nat and I are big fans of John Lennon and we thought we could make tribute to the former Beatle by giving it a psychedelic sound with some backward tape playing as the intro. This was done using the actual cassette recording.

I can't be sure what was actually being sung on the tape playing normally but reversed it sounds like "Horses can harm you." Much as I love these animals, funnily enough, I once was harmed by one when I got kicked up the backside, literally, by a mare in a field I was walking through as a boy.

I sang the vocals and played acoustic guitar and Nat came up with the rest of the rock song backing for Harvest Home and I was very pleased with how it sounded.

Canadian singer-songwriter Daniel Iorio was so impressed with Harvest Home that he recorded a cover version of it. Daniel is a John Lennon fan too and his own songs have a distinct Lennon influence so he was just the right person to record a new version of the song.

Alan Craw, who has released two albums by me on DMMG Records - Welsh Wizard and Dive in Deep - is a good friend of Phillip Gardiner, author of the best selling book - The Serpent Grail, and who coincidentally was also in Cyrkel Spynn in the past. Besides being an author, Phillip makes documentaries and films for the major USA film/multi-media label Reality Entertainment.

Alan sent my promo pack to Philip last year, and I got in touch with him myself via Facebook, with the result that he was impressed enough with Harvest Home to include it as part of the soundtrack for the horror film The Curse of the Blue Moon Inn.

Harvest Home, at time of writing (27 May, 2011) is currently doing well entered in a song contest on YouBloom. It is listed in the rock category. The judges for the finals in which the winner can be awarded a big cash prize include the legendary Sir Bob Geldof.

To make sure Harvest Home wins its way through to the next round, and hopefully wins in the final round, it needs your votes though, so please take a few minutes to join the site and then vote for it! The voting link is in the second paragraph of this hub by the photo.

Copyright © 2011 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.