I’m David Harley, a Shropshire Lad by birth, though I’ve spent longer living outside the county than in it. I now live in the West Country, so I can’t be quite as assiduous about keeping this blog as up to date as when I lived in London. I’m now more or less retired from the security business, so spending more time on music than I did.
To my slight bewilderment, there is a Wikipedia article about me here, but it’s mostly about my daytime job(s) in IT security. However, I did play guitar for a living long ago, and never quite grew out of it. In the early 1970s I played with a number of bands in Wales and the Midlands, and worked as a duo with Sally Stevenson (now Sally Goddard) who is still giving it some welly with the Canadian band Atlantic Union. In the later 70s and 80s I worked with various bands and artists including Kathy Bowen-Jones, Nick Warman (as a trio we called ourselves the Flying Piglets), Lyn (Anna) Thompson, Don MacLeod, and poet and songwriter Bernard Puckett. There are some miscellaneous recordings (mostly from the 80s) on Soundcloud and on a blog site imaginatively called David Harley Songs, which includes some more recent demo recordings. I’m currently going through my 1980s studio recordings, which might be released as CDs at some point.
In recent years I’ve been much more engaged with songwriting than with performing (as a guitarist or as a singer), but I do inflict myself occasionally on audiences around Shropshire and Cornwall. Sometimes solo, sometimes with ceilidh bands (most recently with Commoners Mock), sometimes (but not nearly often enough) with the fine American singer Ann Gray.
As a soloist, I tend to play my own material (on acoustic and electric guitars) with a heavy leavening of blues, especially bottleneck. I have been known to play other instruments, but only in bands or in the studio.
If you want to know about me and Small Blue-Green World, my personal site is here and my business site is here.
- David Harley’s Songs (Song lyrics, recordings and demo recordings, related info.)
- Dataholics: the IT addiction (Ravings of a security-obsessed internaut, with the occasional cartoon…)
- David Harley’s Verse (This site is going from bad to verse.)
- Parodies Regained (Parody and pastiche.)
- Shropshire Blues (Various aspects of living in Shropshire.)
- Shropshire Laddishness: my settings of Housman’s verse and other Housman-related articles.
My main blog now is more Cornwall- and music-centric: Wheal Alice Music
You’re welcome to mail me via the contact form, but I don’t promise a speedy reply.
David Harley
Small Blue-Green World
