My songwriting partnership "The Powdered Earth" with Shane Young is strong. To date we have written 33 songs and made and released recordings of those songs. This is one of my favourites.

Shane attended a funeral during pandemic. It was for the father of one of his childhood friends. The deceased was an amateur musician who had played alongside prominent professionals during his time on earth. Under his father's tutellage Shane's friend had gone on to become a famous music star in the 90s and write with some of the biggest pop stars in the world.

Earlier that same week I had sent Shane a musical sketch to digest. Listening to the eulogy at the funeral got Shane thinking and inspired lyrics that told some of the story that he had heard in the eulogy about the last years of this old man with Alzheimer's spent in a care home.

This is Shane's friend's mother's response. She sent the song to the nursing home her spouse resided at:

I hadn't realised they lost 22 residents to covid in the early days of the pandemic. One is humbled by the bravery of staff of nursing homes that were so neglected to begin with. It is an extraordinary song

and this is the nursing home manager's response:

Thank you for sharing the song/poem with me. I felt very emotional listening to it. I recognise people in the song. I remember Caroline asking to have Harry’s door open to hear his beautiful music … Wendy sorted flowers and called everybody darling etc etc ….

 

It made me cry for all the lovely residents I have known and are no longer with us and it made me cry for the way Brockworth House used to be. I don’t think it will ever be the same again.