This website is a celebration of Woody’s legacy, a place where you can sample his songs, browse his books, and delve into a growing collection of music, writings, and reflections. Discover Woody’s creative spirit and find inspiration in his words and music
A legacy is a gift you leave behind when you pass away and here on this website are some of the things that I’m leaving. I hope you enjoy them and they may be useful to you. To be honest, I wouldn’t need to do this if things had been different in my life, but often to my despair and deep frustration things happened to prevent my words and music fulfilling their potential. Ironically, it’s only now that my time here is coming to an end that this opportunity presents itself. Ironic because thanks to Parkinson’s disease I can no longer play guitar and thanks to throat cancer I’m unable to sing or use my voice effectively. Maybe the Universe was trying to tell me to not bother! However, the songs were included in a number of radio interviews that were recorded with my wife Jayne recently and along with the publication of my latest book -Reflections From A Strange Island - this has resulted in some renewed interest.
My songs were shared to a limited degree in the past – I made several CD’s that sold fairly well in spite of having no promotion other than being recommended to others. At the time, I only made my first CD – ‘The Blood Of The Muse’ in 2005 after vowing to collect my music together from various old tape reels and cassettes and record it properly on my own digital equipment playing, arranging and producing it all myself. It’s true that if you want something done properly it’s best to do it yourself and avoid the contamination of ‘well placed idiots’ who will inevitably ruin things. My motive was to reassess it and draw a line under it and move on to other things. However, the response I got and the requests for copies encouraged me to continue. I followed up with ‘The Other Side’ which was something of a concept album. Then several others – including a comedy album which sold well.
More big changes followed in my life and I made the decision to go and live off grid in the Cambridgeshire Fens. My sixteen years living on a narrowboat are portrayed in the book ‘Reflections From A Strange Island’ only now published. I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2003 and not long after cancer of the throat. However, after two operations at the time of writing this the disease in in remission. The PD continues to make things difficult as it progresses, but I’m blessed to be supported by my wife Jayne. More about this elsewhere on the site.
