At the end of 2022 George had an idea for a project that explored the life stories of older people. He had been reflecting on the age of his own parents and we had already touched on themes of growing old in our songs Evergreen and What's Left Of The Day. The topic felt like a good one to explore. So George came up with the concept of an album of songs based on the reminiscences of elder residents in Gloucester. Shane said he was up for the challenge. Both of us wanted to be ambitious, so George applied for funding from Arts Council England and Voices Gloucester - and on the second attempt was successful. The funding made it possible for us to spend time meeting older people in the community who have had incredible life experiences, and to record their stories. We then spent time condensing these stories into sets of lyrics and crafting them into songs. We were eventually able to produce fully-fledged studio recordings by bringing remarkable musicians and singers from Ireland, Scotland and Denmark (as well as Gloucestershire, of course!) to a studio on the edge of The Cotswolds. After these successful studio sessions, it was a delight to complement the music with additional colours and flavours from some of our favourite local singers and musicians - in some particularly special cases, younger relatives of the actual people in the songs. We commissioned a talented film maker and a gifted illustrator to round off the immersive experience with intimate footage of the process and impactful visuals to bring the stories alive in the most rounded way - in the eyes, ears and imagination of the listener.
