August — Between Memory, Landscape and Spirit
August has arrived with a time of deep reflection, change, and those tender moments with the people we love.
It is a curious time of year. It brings both new memories and old ones back into focus. Sometimes we move closer to one another; sometimes we feel a distance quietly slipping into the ethers — perhaps to be released, perhaps treasured somewhere within us, in that natural space we can return to when no one is watching.
And sometimes the road ahead simply isn’t clear.
We find ourselves standing before something we cannot yet see beyond, knowing that somehow we must unlock the path ahead, or patiently work towards finding it.
Perhaps that is where some songs begin.
While I have been waiting for the final pieces of my tiny boutique studio to arrive, and continuing to work on this house, I have found myself writing again.
Two new pieces have emerged for the Blubellwood collection:
Iona
and
Blue on Blue
Both have come from a very particular place in my life — from travelling this summer, from landscapes that have stayed with me, and from the people I have spoken with, met and connected to along the way.
They are different songs, but both seem to inhabit that same space between time, place and spirit.
Iona
Iona has become especially precious to me.
The song was born partly from the geography of the Hebrides, and partly from the changing landscapes much closer to home. I have always been drawn to the way a landscape can hold memory — how the sea, the hills, the weather and the silence can somehow become part of a person’s story.
There is also a quiet thread of wartime history beneath the song. The waters around the Hebrides carry memories of vessels lost during the early years of the 1940s. I haven’t set out to tell one particular historical story; rather, that sense of the sea holding things that have disappeared has become part of the atmosphere of *Iona*.
At its heart, though, this is a much more intimate story.
It is a mother’s lament, and the touching observation of a man who loves her.
He understands that there is something within her that will never quite surrender its connection to the land — to the memories, the places and the love held within it.
There is a moment in the song when he hangs his hat on the telegraph pole.
For me, that image says so much without needing to say very much at all.
It is almost an acceptance.
He understands that some loves cannot be persuaded to leave. Some connections run deeper than circumstance, deeper than distance, perhaps even deeper than the people who are trying to understand them.
So he takes the high road home.
There is something about *Iona* that I find difficult to explain.
Perhaps it is the sea.
Perhaps it is the landscape.
Perhaps it is the feeling of standing somewhere ancient and real, where past and present seem to occupy the same moment.
Or perhaps it is simply the quiet ache of knowing that love does not always mean holding on.
**Iona is one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever written.**
Blue on Blue
Blue on Blue arrived somewhere else entirely.
It has its own atmosphere, its own colour and its own language.
The river became the emotional thread running through the piece — carrying memories, distance, movement and the feeling of being drawn towards something that may be impossible to name.
There is mist, water, sky and landscape within it, but there is also something more elusive.
**Blue on blue.**
Two colours merging.
Two places becoming one.
Two people separated by distance, yet somehow still connected.
The song carries its own visual vocabulary, but underneath that imagery are people I have known throughout my journey — people who have left impressions, memories and traces behind.
Sometimes we don’t realise what a person has given us until much later.
A conversation.
A glance.
A moment of understanding.
Something unsaid.
Something we carry away without knowing that we are carrying it.
Perhaps that is what *Blue on Blue* is really about.
The things that remain when the moment itself has passed.
Two new pieces
Neither *Iona* nor *Blue on Blue* arrived with a neat conclusion.
Perhaps that is why they feel right for this particular moment.
They are songs about landscape, memory, love, distance and connection — but also about the things we cannot always resolve.
Sometimes we release them.
Sometimes we treasure them.
Sometimes we simply allow them to remain somewhere within us, waiting quietly for the right moment to return.
And perhaps that is what music does best.
It gives us somewhere to place the things we cannot quite put into words.
For now, these two songs have found their place in my little collection.
**Iona** carries the sea, the land and the enduring pull of love.
**Blue on Blue** carries the river, the distance and the people who have touched the journey.
Both began somewhere in the landscape.
Both found their way into music.
And both, in their own quiet way, are still unfolding.
If you would like to explore the words behind these two new pieces, the lyrics to Iona and Blue on Blue are available to read here, alongside the growing collection of Blubellwood songs.
Explore the lyrics: Iona & Blue on Blue https://songbay.co/portfolio/100051/
