On to the third volume of songs resulting from Darren Hayman’s Thankful Villages project. The first village in this new volume is Bigby, Lincolnshire.

It’s nearly spring but there are still the tiniest scraps of snow in Bigby. I arrive in the evening just as night started to fall. I return again at 5:30 AM the next day to be there for the break of dawn.

I only see Bigby in the half-light. I only see Bigby when my eyes are heavy with tiredness.

I wrote a tune in between my two visits in a nearby bed and breakfast. I think of light snow and black night.

I record Bigby with the oldest and newest technology. I leave an iPad in the graveyard taking time-lapse photos of the sun rising behind the church whilst I fumble with 120 film in an old plastic Diana camera. The film pops out and I lose photographs.

Bigby is old and new too with trim new-builds hidden behind the old houses. My photos are muted and ghostly when developed.

*

Thankful Villages Vols. 1 & 2 are out now on Rivertones. You can buy physical copies here, or listen on Spotify.

Thankful Villages Vol.3 will be available in November 2018 from www.hefnet.com.

Darren plays our stages at Kaleidoscope Festival and The Good Life Experience this summer.