HOW IT STARTED
in Greg's own words...
"Having been indoctrinated with music at an early age by listening to my late father playing his records and harmonicas throughout my childhood, I grew up with a broad love of music. To me music evokes such powerful emotions, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but all part of life's 'long highway'. I remember as a child being one of the 'Cherokees' chasing my dad around our house as 'Three Wheels On My Wagon' was playing on his record player. I remember the clock on the wall ticking in the film High Noon to 'Do Not Forsake Me'. Moments in time, captured forever in my mind by the magic of music.
"In my early teens I purchased my first 'LP' Elvis Rock and Roll No:2 and was awestruck by the raw emotions evoked by Elvis's vocals. His singing captured my heart and led me onto other similar artists like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. These artists were not in anyway 'in vogue' with my school contemporaries. However one classmate did lend me 'The Eagles Greatest Hits' and I fell in love with their music. I'd secretly listen to it, in stereo, on my dad's record player before he came home from work. The Eagles are still a favourite of mine to this day.
"In my later teens I discovered the work of Bruce Springsteen when I purchased the album 'The River'. I found that Bruce could invoke a whole movie of images in my mind with just a few words in the line of a song, a beautiful talent, one that makes him my strongest songwriting influence. To me a song needs to convey a story, a mood and feelings, so that the listener can picture and have empathy with the song, the story, or the characters in it. This is something that I strife to achieve when I write my own songs.
"For the last twenty odd years or so, I have listened to many other singer-songwriters too. Some of my favourites are John Hiatt, Chris Isaak, Nick Lowe, Steve Knightley, Sarah McLachlan and Mary Chapin Carpenter, to name just a few".
Over the last few years Greg's own songs have been reaching out to new ears and gaining their own momentum.
He was awarded a semifinalist placing in the UK Songwriting Competition in 2007, 2009 and 2010 and a finalist placing in the same competition in 2008.
His songs have been used to promote many diverse issues, from drawing attention to the loss of ancient woodland by The Woodland Trust, in 'All Gone', to raising awareness of the injustice of the legal system when dealing with the issues of road death and the terrible loss suffered by the families who are left behind, as in 'Mary Lou'.
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