Well, it's finally here. 2 years ago, Gerry Sullivan took me along to meet Stevie Lawrence, thinking about recording a collection of songs that we could give away to our family and friends as Christmas presents.

Stevie and I became great friends, he came and heard us play at Celtic Connections 2007, then he took us down to meet Tommy Roseburgh at Big Sky Studios and now, rather than having a Christmas Album for 2006, I have 1000 copies of a professionally recorded and produced Album for 2008. :)

I hope that those of you who buy the album will enjoy it. It's a collection of songs that I wrote during the past 3 years, plus two from some years before, a few covers and two arrangements of traditional songs.

Feel free to leave comments and to let me know what you think.

Best wishes

Jayne x

Stevie and I headed down to the Borders this morning to record the main vocals for the album. Things are moving along well these days. It was hard work, but there were some great moments today. Steve and I sat down to record my new song Beyond These Walls, which is accompanied by Piano and Guitar. We worked out the parts an hour before, then recorded it live and got the track down in one take... If only they were all that simple!

Here are some photos taken in the studio...

Just a little message to thank everyone who listened to us on the radio when we played the Danny Kyle Open Stage last week in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, and also thanks to those of you who came along to listen. It meant a lot to have friendly faces in the audience!

We all really enjoyed playing. We performed four songs - Natalie Merchant's 'Motherland' and two of my songs - 'Truth' and the debut performance of '68'. I also took the piano along and performed my arrangement of 'Water is Wide'

It all went ok, except that I shook the entire way through - although apparently that added a 'tremolo' to my voice that added to the effect... (Thanks, Duncan!)

The most important thing is that we all enjoyed playing and I made the audience laugh a few times... who could ask for more?! We even made a few friends in the process....

The album is getting there. Stevie and I spent last weekend in the studio, working away with Tommy Roseburgh - and we're off there again this Saturday too, accompanied by fabulous Cellist, Bethany Porter. I can't wait!

Take care 
Jayne x

...Then.... that weekend...

Tommy and I - concentrating on Beth's studio performance...

Not this performance - her cello performance... although her baby guitar tricks are rather good! ;)