Bücher der Reihe David Harley: Words & Music

In the early 80s I contributed much of the songs and music (and some other bits and pieces) to a revue called Nice, if you can get it directed by Maggie Ford, which was centred on the world of work. Some of that material appeared more recently on the album Hands of the Craftsman. That album formed the basis of this book: however, it includes much supplementary material. This includes not only historical and anecdotal material, but material that wasn't included in the revue, and other material that wasn't originally intended for the revue, but fits the topic. Some of this material has never been published previously in any form.

This is the first (main) book in a series of books based on the music of David Harley. This one is based on the album 'Tears of Morning', which comprises songs and settings of poetry with a sometimes tenuous connection to Shropshire and the Welsh Marches. One such connection is that several (not all) of the poetry settings are from Housman's 'A Shropshire Lad'. The book contains a wealth of commentary information on the historical, traditional, musical and/or biographical background to the songs and poems.An updated version of the album called "So Sound You Sleep - More Tears of Morning" features many more tracks in order to reflect the content of the book. Another collection of musical settings to verse by other poets will appear in due course.