It was a real honour to have been one of the 8 from 100s of applicants to play my song “Sweet Delphine” in front of prestigious singer songwriters at the Americana Music Association UK Conference on February 1st 2018. 

The panel consisted of Chris Difford, Mary Gauthier, Beth Nielson-Chapman and Sam Baker some of the most respected songwriters in the world today. 

Among the 8 of us were such fabulous artists already making headway into the Americana music world such as Liv Austen, Dave Hanson, Kristine Wilkinson Hughes, Stanford Road (Rachel Muller & Terry). 

So no pressure on me! 

And to be honest I got some fabulous positive feedback and constructive criticism. 

Suggestions were made on the song to dirty it up or take more risks on the lyrics and take some of the sweetness out or tell the story from the Captain’s point of view or “give us more idea of who the singer is so that when the shock ending comes then the knife goes in even deeper “but the positive quotes I can use about the song were as follows: 

Chris Difford “That was Brilliant, it took me back to a really great place like early David Bowie” “I love some of this kind of song writing, its right up my street” 

Sam Baker “I love story songs; I’m into it, Like Townes Van Zandt.   I’m with Chris, Dirty it up, it’s so pretty, so clean but so dark!” 

Beth Nielsen Chapman – “I was shocked by the twist at the end. It was “wow” 

Mary Gauthier – “Love the song, the twist at the end I didn’t see it coming” “It’s a Beautiful song”