Welcome to my website, which has now been on line for about five years.
Take a look at my YouTube channel, where many of my tracks have been masterfully re-worked with video sequences.
To everything, of course, there has to be a beginning! And the beginning of this little enterprise
goes back rather a long way, some 47 years, or so, to be precise. 1962, when I was still at school,
and the singular event which led me on to the first faltering steps of my very 'strange journey,' was
a song that I heard on the radio one Saturday morning. It was called 'Love me do' by a group that
I had never heard of, The Beatles! Strange name, I thought to myself, but I did like that song, for
it seemed to be so different to all of the other stuff coming over the air waves back then!
There's no need for me to explain what happened next, is there? And what appealed to me, more
than anything else about them, was the fact that they wrote their own songs, and what great songs
they were too!
Now we need to jump forward a mere four years to 1966. Now, quite obviously, I had heard of, and
was well aware of, the work of Bob Dylan. But it was the song 'Positively Fourth Street' that for some
strange reason awoke something inside of me that had been dormant, but that I also think had always been
there since the moment that I had been born! It's very difficult to describe exactly how I was affected
by this song, but hearing it changed my life, for ever! The old Terry was dead, and the new one was very
much alive! I purchased every Bob Dylan album I could get my hands on, and just played them over and
over again, allowing those songs to soak right into me. In December 1967 I began to write my first lyrics.
There was no stopping me now!
Realising that these lyrics of mine required tunes, I contacted an old friend of mine from our Junior
Leader days, Rob Van Spyk, and asked him if he could put music to my words? He said he could, and so began
the Van Spyk/Friend song writing partnership, which began at the end of 1970. Would last for six years,
resulting in three album projects, and the formation of the Folk band 'Stonefield Tramp.' And it was Rob
who introduced me to the third main influence of my song writing quest, The French Canadian song writer,
Leonard Cohen.
Just prior to the birth of Stonefield Tramp, as Rob and Brian Balster were rehearsing the material for
our first commercial album, the acoustic 'Follow the Sun' by 'Van Spyk and Friends.' I presented them
with the first song written completely by myself, both words and chords! It was called 'Come the Day,'
and it would be included on the 'Follow the Sun' album. This was in the summer of 1974 and I was now a
fully fledged song writer in my own right. Since then, as this website will surely testify, I have gone
from strength to strength! And, as long as there is breath in my body, and my muse does not desert me,
I hope to continue to write my songs for as long as I am able to.
So far I have written, or co-written, and recorded four albums in the 70's. Two in the 80's, but only
one in the 90's! And what a bleak decade that was! But since the turn of the Century, I have written and
recorded six more albums, and my 18 minute long song dedicated to the story of The Alamo! And am presently
engaged on another new album project! Most definitely making up for lost time, so there's still life in
the old dog yet! And this year, 2009, has proved to have been most interesting, for I have had some of my
writing published in three books, and on a website, The Army Children Archive.
See my links page for details! And I have taken part in my first T.V Documentary!
Thank you for viewing my website. And my thanks also go to Doug Parish, for playing my songs on his
radio shows in Devon. And special praise must go to my producer, David Pick, in whose delightful,
FFG studio, in the village of Bredon, which is located just outside Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire.
For this is where, in his very capable hands, my last four albums were recorded.
Please come back and visit us again, for this website is updated on a fairly regular basis. With best
wishes from Terry Friend.
