Some musicians collect records. Hamish seems to collect stories. Three decades spent wandering England’s music scene, setting up the Rabbit Hole at Glastonbury, quietly supporting young bands, hitchhiking across America with a guitar, and somehow ending up at Lisa Bonet’s party after getting lost in Venice Beach have all become part of his story. He also wrote “Singing In My Soul,” a track from his 1999 debut album, “Picture In My Bag,” and it’s only just now getting its day in the sun.
And, to be honest, the song sounds exactly like something with that much history in it.
Recorded at Hatfield Court, a sprawling, dilapidated mansion in Herefordshire, “Singing In My Soul” was produced by Les Penning, who is known for his work with Mike Oldfield. The recording environment isn’t so much a studio as a random setting: ‘There, I knew what it needed: an ancient oak-panelled drawing room. An old, wood-fired Aga.’
As a result, the song has a raw, atmospheric feel that places it firmly in the realm of real life. Local musicians were brought into the mansion and, instead of wiping away every abrasion, the song captures the vibrancy of that experience. “Singing In My Soul” is folk-rock, but not the sort that is poured into a glass display marked AUTHENTIC FOLK MUSIC. It’s more alive, human, and lived-in.
Surprisingly for any song that has only just emerged from the musical equivalent of a forgotten drawer, it has already enjoyed a long existence. It became a hit on the New Zealand folk charts while Hamish was touring there and was subsequently featured in one of the country’s top television shows. The song also continues to be played at weddings and other functions to this day.
That perseverance makes sense when you consider how simply Hamish approaches songwriting. It’s all about melody and storytelling, and “Singing In My Soul” doesn’t appear to be too preoccupied with impressing; it just wants to say something.
It is somehow fitting that Hamish has come back to this material as he is on the cusp of releasing “Significant Others.” The album languished for 16 years under a mountain of cuttings before being resurrected by local musicians with producer Chris Oldfield, formerly of Dreadzone.
Hamish’s history with up-and-coming artists makes that spirit of collaboration even more fitting. He hosted The Rabbit Hole at Glastonbury for 16 years, giving young and emerging bands a platform to be heard. The venue became so popular that even Hamish’s stage costume of a rabbit became part of his identity, and he eventually got a LEGO character made in his likeness.
So “Singing In My Soul,” ultimately, is not just a song from 1999, but a snapshot of something Hamish seems to have known all along: Good songs, even old ones, can still live on if they have a little life left in them and keep finding new people.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
