Track 1 – Traveling. Music and lyrics by Kate Goodall (c) Vocals performed by Kate Goodall and Bryony Goodall. Guitar Kate Goodall. Flute – Bryony Goodall. Mouth organ Adam Simpson. Recorded and arranged by Adam Simpson. May 21st 2021.
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Track 1 Drifting – Words and Music by Kate Goodall © With Rupert Gillet playing the Guitar solo. The inspiration for this song “Drifting” came as I sat on the beach in Haverigg, Cumbria one balmy summer’s evening. I love Cumbria and whenever I go back to my roots there is always something to inspire me.
Track 2. The Love Song of the Universe – Words and Music by Kate Goodall ©. Flute input Rupert Gillet I wrote this song after family friends lost one of their sons in a tragic accident. We were living in Germany at the time and I was running workshops on various subjects. The Power of Nature and how we can connect with the elemental forces and use it for harmony, balance and healing.
Track 3.My Promised Letter – Words and Music by Kate Goodall © Musical arrangement by Rupert Gillet . Gosh I wrote this song in the 70’s when I was still Katie Mayne. I was living in Gibraltar and had not heard from my fiancé in a while. So I thought it was the old heave ho, but, apparently he was stuck on some remote island in the middle of nowhere with an engine failure on his aircraft. Anyway – as a footnote – we will be celebrating 40 years of marriage next year. So, Drifting, The Love Song of the Universe and The Love Bug were all recorded in Germany almost 10 years ago now. I do not know where the time goes.
Track 4. Christmas Gifts – Words and Music by Kate Goodall© Musical arrangement by Phillip Caton and recorded by Jon Hart at Driftwood Studios who engineered and transposed Phil’s arrangements for both Christmas Gifts and Mr Wind I wrote this song when we lived in Lanercost in Cumbria for the Christmas Carol concert held in Lanercost Priory.
Track 5. Mr Wind – Words and Music by Kate Goodall© Again thanks to Phillip Caton for his musical arrangement of Mr Wind. . Mr Wind was written in the 70’s as well and hidden away in a draw. I have an awful habit of starting to write something, then I get distracted and the work is discarded until I find it again. This is my husband’s favourite song. Also thanks to Jon Hart at Driftwood studios who engineered and transposed Phil’s arrangements
Track 6 Irony Rose – Words written by Toni Meyer Wood © Music by Kate Goodall © My friend Toni asked me if I could write a tune to go with the words she had written about a family brooch that had been passed down from generation to generation in her family.
Track 7 Melting Pot – Words by Jenny Mayne and Kate Goodall© Music by Kate Goodall© Written in the 70’s again. My mum and I wrote the words for this one it started out as a poem and progressed to the song.
Track 8 Spirit of the Sea – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall © Again, Haverigg Bay in Cumbria was the inspiration for this song. This is the original recording recorded in Lincolnshire a long time ago.
Track 9 The Homeless of Montreal – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall © Musical Arrangement by Fouad Faraj. I was inspired to write this when we visited Montreal Canada in the summer of 2011. I saw a large homeless lady in a pink cotton skirt fast asleep on the pavement/sidewalk and wrote the first verse of the lyrics. I then put it away and forgot about it until last year when I found it and almost immediately had a tune in my head. It took me ages to finish it because I had to research what I wanted to say. Anyhoo – It is applicable really to all homeless people anywhere in the world.
Track 10 Alabama Memories – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall © Musical Arrangement by Fouad Faraj I was trying to paint a picture here of what it was actually like when we lived in Alabama. There are 3 sets of number plates which all have words above the numbers like ‘Heart of Dixie,’ Stars Fell on Alabama and Sweet Home Alabama.’ So I wrote the chorus around the licence plate words. I loved Alabama. Lovely people, lovely memories. Some of my Alabamian friends tell me they don’t say fireflies, they say lightning bugs but what the heck. I am English after all.
I am very thankful to all those people that helped me finally get the songs recorded. I have met some amazingly talented people that I would have loved to continue working with, but alas just when things would start to flow and come together we found ourselves on the move again. So a big thank you to Rupert Gillett , (Germany)Fouad Faraj (Abu Dhabi) Phillip Caton and Jon Hart (Cumbria) Roland Carson, Alex Carson and Claire Waters in Suffolk)and Toni Meyer Wood. (Alabama USA) Thanks also to Andy Murdoch of Design Fly who has designed and looks after my website for me.
It was a few years ago when I was living near Carlisle Cumbria that I heard that my name had been mentioned on the local radio and that some one was looking for me. I called the number and it was the Millom Folk Museum (better known now as Millom Discovery Centre). They had received a lottery grant to put an oral board into the museum and they wondered if I would be willing to record some of my songs about the Lakes that I had written during the time as a young adult I used to live and perform there. They chose 10 songs that were relevant to the West Coast of Cumbria and off I went to record them onto a CD.
So my claim to fame is that I am now an old fossil in a museum. I hasten to add that I am very proud and feel honoured that I am part of the history of my beloved Cumbria, in particular the West Coast where my creative juices flow and I am always inspired to write.
Stacked away in my cupboards are poems, plays, short stories, even a romantic novel that I started to write for Mills and Boons in the 90’s. When I got to Chapter 8 I lost interest but it is still there. Most of my plays have been performed and won awards. I have always been involved in theatre and ran a number of youth theatre in the 80s which produced some great talent. My ambition is to write a musical and I have the plot, story etc. Just need to get it organized.
So with regard to “I Lived there Once,” All these songs were written before I married and back then if you knew me I was Katie Mayne.
Track 1 Our History – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
I was a bit older when I wrote this song and living at The Ship Inn, Holborn Hill, where my mum and dad were the landlord and landlady. We were at the top of the hill I wrote the words but had no tune for it for a long time. It wasn’t until I had moved away from Cumbria that I wrote the tune.
Track 2 Millom Lament – Words and Music by Kate Goodall ©.
In 1968 Hodbarrow Mine closely followed by Millom Ironworks finally closed. This put many people out of work. Now we no longer had the red skies at night created by the Ironwoks industry. Those red skies are one of my fondest memories. We used to find lots of haematite along the shore line. Millom and surrounding area almost became a cemetery with lights on. Apart from the Tannery the nearest employment opportunities were quite a distance to travel to, Barrow, Askham or Sellafield which added yet more hours to an already overloaded working day. Concrete Square and Steel Green housed many miners over the years and as the years progressed they fell into terrible disrepair. It was a sad time. When I wrote Millom Lament I was living in Marine View, by the tannery I sang all around Cumbria and every week sang at the folk night in The Harbour Hotel in Haverigg. I used to cut across Concrete Square which was never very well lit. My pace always doubled as I made my way home on foot. One day when I was at work I received a phone call from someone purporting to be from the BBC’s Tonight show and asking me if I would sing Millom Lament on a programme they were doing about the closure of the Ironworks. I thought it was a joke and so did my boss. However, they allowed me to take the afternoon off work to go back to Millom to record it for them. The programme producers also asked me to go to London with them the following day so that they could film me singing on the hovercraft as it went up and down The Thames. I declined the latter as I did not think my bosses would appreciate me having another day off work.
Track 3 Rumour – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
So there was so much gloom and despondency after the Ironworks closed and lots of Rumours about new industry coming to town. The hovercraft had arrived and plans were afoot to build hovercrafts in Millom. The mine buildings and old sea wall were blasted and plans were made to make a nature reserve and encourage tourists to come to our sleepy little town.
Track 4 T’laal Rattie – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
This is a miniature railway that runs from Ravenglass up to Dalegarth. I worked at Dalegarth in the holidays and at weekends before I left school and as I had no other form of transport I used to catch the small train to work. It only had the stops that I mention in the song in those days but having done the journey again this year with my grandchildren I see there are quite a few more stops now. I will have to put pen to paper again.
Track 5 Haverigg Versus the Sea – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
Every year we used to get the High tides at the equinox which pushed up The river Lazy causing serious flooding. They seemed to be worse in the autumn. We had no sea wall then in Haverigg and the water just used to flow up and over onto the road into people’s houses. The traffic had to detour. As youngsters we loved it. It was exciting to see the water coming onto the road at Poolside and then people would swim in it and wade through it. The locals had their sand bags covering the entrance to their houses and flood gates, but in those days, the River Lazy was an unwelcome visitor to all of the householders as it popped in to visit, leaving mess and destruction all around. The residents were always campaigning for a sea wall. They did get one eventually and now it doesn’t flood. There is a natural flood plain further along the river Bank. Another fond memory.
Track 6 Spirit of the Sea Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
I wrote this one earlier than this recording and you will find the original on my second CD. It is a message to the world about pollution of our seas. The oceans and the seas are a living, breathing mass and without it we will all eventually perish.
Track 7 Cumberland – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
I wrote this after a day out in the Lakes with friends. The Cumbrian weather is generally inclement but this particular day we had rain, sun, hailstorms and thunderstorms. I realized that I didn’t have a favourite season in the Lakes because they all have such amazing beauty, which brings forth different emotions. Also Cumberland was still Cumberland then.
Track 8 Train Ride to Work – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
After I left school I worked for a time at K shoes in Askham and as I didn’t drive my journey to work was always by train. The spectacular countryside with the sea on one side and the fells and rolling fields on the other was lovely to witness and it was all so rural. The sunlight streaming down and colour contrasts were amazing. I must do this journey again some day to see if it has changed.
Track 9 You Must be Joking – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
I wrote this as a joke for a good friend who was always saying to me “you must be joking.” The other reason was that every time I went home to Cumbria my old friends used to tell me I was talking posh! I only need 1 hour back in Cumbria to be talking like a native I just can’t help myself.
Track 10 1320 Departure Millom – Words and Music written by Kate Goodall ©.
After I left Cumbria I was very fortunate to be able to hitch a ride on the Vickers aircraft from Lyneham into Walney sometimes when I had time off from my work. That is because the pilot used to file his flight plan with me at the ops desk and he would tell me if he had a spare seat on the aircraft. Sometimes I would get a ride back but I had to catch this train to get to the aircraft on time. Or if I couldn’t get a seat I would train ride all the way back to Wiltshire. When I wrote this song I was feeling quite down. It was a cold winter’s day and I wanted to stay yet I had to go.
I have not lived in Cumbria for 42 years, apart from a 2 year stint in Carlisle in 2004. I still call it my home, which does not sit well with my husband, and I get really homesick for the place. I regularly visit though and we have recently bought a little cottage in Haverigg so in my retirement we expect to spend a lot of time there.