Two years ago, contemporary folk artist Ian David Green was one of three winners in season two of AUK’s Twang Factor contest. His second album – “Songs from the Wheel” – followed and now here he is once more in the mini-gig series, playing two songs from his 2023 release, “Songs to the Dust,” completing the trilogy that began in 2021 with “Songs of the Sea.”
Sing a song that you hope will be enough is a line from the title track of his most recent album. It’s a sombre tune that questions our mortality and sets the tone for a ruminative record that should be heard from the first song to the last. In effect, as with the best folk musicians, Green is inviting the listener to afford themselves some introspection. As he sings in ‘The Last Days of Bonnie and Clyde’ over banjo accompaniment: What more can the heart do but send out a sign?
The intent with this trilogy seems clear. Humans evolved from sea creatures and came to land seeking food where they existed on the wheel of time before ending in decay and dust as in the Gospel of Matthew – “for dust you are and to dust you shall return,” or perhaps the Gospel of Kansas – “all we are is dust in the wind.”
One hopes that at some point Green will return through the Wheel of Time with new music, but until then we have this recording, made from his home in SE London, accompanied by his son Joe on piano. “He’s a student at Durham University (engineering, not music!). I roped him in,” he admitted with a wink.
Green has been in SE London for about 20 years now, but his first 20 years were in Liverpool. “I appreciate my background there and still have an affinity for it,” he related. “It’s a city that loves music and has no time for the self-important, both admirable qualities in my view.
“Music is not actually my profession and in truth I make very little from it financially (his albums were all self-funded). Thankfully a separate career takes care of the mortgage and putting the kids through college. I’ve touched upon the processes for trying to make a living from music and I’ll be honest it’s not pretty. I feel for the people who are trying to make it in that way.”
The first two songs on the mini-gig are played on an Alvarez classical guitar that Green bought a few years ago, so not really a lot of backstory to that one. However, song three is on his Gibson Epiphone, which was his first ever guitar. “My parents bought it as my 16th birthday present, so it has been around quite a bit,” he said. “I’ve played it in some pretty unusual places, including a mountain-top temple in Japan and the state dining room in 10 Downing Street. it still sounds great for a 35-year-old, mass-produced model.”
He will get no argument from us on that score, but of course it is the musician more than the instrument which makes the music that entertains us and opens our mind. “When I can make time, I hope to record a lot of my unreleased material and also write some more ‘folktronica’ music similar to my EP “Songs of the Electric Night.” I’ll need to box clever on financing though as my ‘Songs’ album trilogy more or less wiped me out (but no regrets).”
All of Green’s music is accessible from his link tree as well as his Bandcamp page Ian David Green. “Bandcamp gives the most back to artists, so always good to share that directly.”
He has offered AUK’s audience two tunes from “Songs to the Dust” and another that has yet to be released. Notes from the songwriter follow.
- Kostya Got a Gun– taken from my most recent album, “Songs to the Dust,” this was inspired by a documentary called “The Distant Barking of Dogs,” which follows the everyday life of Oleg, a 10-yr-old boy in eastern Ukraine, during the separatist fighting prior to Russia’s full invasion. In one scene, Oleg’s older friend (Kostya) visits him to show off a gun that he has obtained. I’m happy to say that news came out last year that Oleg, now in his later teens, was alive and well having managed to escape to western Ukraine.
- Parachutes– also taken from Songs to the Dust, this song is a personal, reflective song about the process of transition in relationships and recognising when it is necessary to move on even though that may also be difficult. This was originally strummed, but when recording it for the album my producer challenged me to come up with a picking pattern for it and that’s what we recorded (it’s definitely better picked).
- Thought I Was A Soldier – I have about 30 songs from over the years that I’ve never released and this is one of them. I wrote it while observing someone close to me in a relationship that didn’t seem to be working and wasn’t right for them. It’s one of my classic “two-chord” songs, but I like simplicity a lot of the time and my focus is almost always lyrical, the music is to support that. Maybe one day I’ll write a single chord song, who knows.
All 3 of Ian’s albums are excellent and I thoroughly recommend them to everyone. This guy deserves a much wider audience.