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playing, with the exception of the one electric guitar part in ‘I Long for a Sail’ which is pretty blues-
rock. That was an experiment in trying to do blues-rock without the band [chuckles] and I’ve got

clapping on there to fill in the gap from the drummer, but apart from that one, they’re all old style.
I was very conscious in my role as a producer on the album, it’s very easy to bore people if it’s just
one person making the music all the way through, and I know this from listening to a load of
albums of solo artists before. People who play all the instruments and doing the whole lot, it gets
wearing, so I’d been consciously making all the arrangements as varied as possible on this album,
so there’s stripped-down just me and a guitar songs.

BiTS: Do I hear a banjo on a couple of tracks, or is it just my ears?

EM: [Chuckling] There was a banjo on the ‘The River Song’, that’s right and mandolin on ‘Happy
Broke and Free’ as well. There’s quite a few instruments on there.

BiTS: Eddie, tell me a bit more about the title that intrigues me most of all, that is ‘I Long for a
Sail’. It sounds as though you’re a frustrated sailor not able to go out on a yacht.

EM: [Chuckles] Yeah, it’s a bit more metaphorical than that, really. It’s basically just the feeling of
compassion for people out there who are suffering more than you and you just long to make things
better for them. ‘I long for a sail in a clear blue sea to take the wounded away to sanctuary’, is the
first verse. It’s basically just looking at the idea of looking out to sea and just wishing that you
could wrap up all the people suffering and take
them somewhere better. It’s that idea, really. The
last verse is that we all might have these feelings,
but we just have to carry on doing what we can
and unfortunately, we can’t really solve a lot of
the problems of the world, but it doesn’t stop us
feeling the need to try.

BiTS: I take it that you haven’t ever gigged any of

these songs yet, or are you starting to do that
now?

EM: I have had a couple of gigs actually where Eddie Martin (and Big Red Radio) "Ingolstadt"
they’ve got their act together in terms of meeting
the rules and the local venue here in Frome is a great venue called the Cheese and Grain, a big
touring venue and I just did a gig there two weeks ago. That was the launch gig of the album, yeah,
I managed to do that. I’ve got a big son as well, my 15-year-old who I live with, but my big son lives
in Bristol, and he’s got a recording studio and he’s out there as a recording engineer once again
when the gigs are available. He mixed the album for me in his studio and then he did the sound in
the Frome gig, so that was a nice little family affair.

BiTS: Tell me about ‘Kitchen Boogie’ Eddie. It sounds as though you might have been wandering
around the house and just started playing in the kitchen [chuckling].

EM: [Chuckling] Yeah, it’s funny that. You look back over the year and there are times when it’s
not all down. We’ve had some lovely times in our house. If you’re lucky enough to have a good home
atmosphere and good relationships at home and maybe a bit of space and a garden, you’re one of
the lucky ones in terms of your lockdown circumstances and we’ve had that. ‘Kitchen Boogie’, we
regularly dance around the kitchen on Saturday morning and Sunday morning, so that was what the
song was all about, really. It’s really just me jamming a blues shuffle on guitar and harmonica, but
when I hear it back, it always reminds me of Snooks Eaglin, actually. I loved Snooks Eaglin’s