Hello TMTCH people,

here's a brief update about a project i'm working on at the moment which you might find interesting. regular gig go-ers have probably seen naomi bedford at our shows, particularly singing the female part in silver gun. well, for the last few months i've been collaborating on her 2nd album 'tales from the weeping willow' - a folk/country hybrid of murder ballads both old and new. i'm playing guitar, plus a few other things and helping to produce and write.

there's a fair few special guests on this album. justin currie from del amitri sings 2 duets; 'one of a kind' a new song by naomi, and 'castle and keep' which he wrote especially for the record. there's also a new song 'ferryboat inn' written by paul heaton from the beautiful south which he also sings on. It is a bizarre kind of fairground waltz.

elsewhere there's two guest contributions from will oldham - also known as bonny prince billy - one on a very old ballad called 'elendor' and also a vocal on a new song of mine called 'daddy's got a gun' about a notorious recent family murder.

as if that weren't tasty enough there's also two spots for ultra good new folk artist alisdair roberts - including a cover of 'colwyn bay', a yet to be recorded track with dick gaughan, contributions from our own ricky mcguire and tom spencer and a version of warren zevon's 'roland the thompson gunner'.

should see the light of day in the autumn with a bit of luck.

for previews check out naomi's site: www.myspace.com/naomibedford1

see you down the line

Paul Simmonds