Songs about Woodstock and Mussoorie.

Circle's second album, hand produced at Woodstock School.

Circle's first album, folk-blues-sitar.

Pete's Music

Making music

Woostock is an ideal location for home recording. It's fairly peaceful (although the birds can be pretty noisy), there's not a lot of distractions, and there are very talented colleagues around who can help out with various instruments and voices. Here's what I've been up to over the last few years.

City on a hill - the Woodstock album

My 2009 project was a series of songs about Woodstock School and Mussoorie, written and recorded to mark the first Worldwide Woodstock Day, October 24th, 2009. Click here for the "City on a hill" page.

Nobody's Fault But Ours

I've produced two albums with fellow Woodstock musicians under the title of "Circle". The first album was a folk/blues/Indian fusion with an English folk fiddle player (Louise) and an Indian sitarist (Sanjeeb). It was recorded more or less live in a studio in Dehradun, now sadly defunct. Click here to hear or download the complete album from box.net. Click here for the sleeve notes. There's a picture below of the three of us playing at the Woodstock Easter service in 2005.

A Million Seeds

The second Circle album, released in April 2009, was recorded in a bedroom in our house and in the Woodstock archives room (noise-free and very live!).Louise and I were joined by Amy Seefeldt, who sings most of the songs and plays flute and whistle, so this was a more straightforward folk/country/blues album. With two English musicians and an American singer, there's a nice balance of styles. Two of the music teachers at Woodstock also contributed to a couple of tracks - Ravi Arthur on 'cello and Amitavo Roy on viola. "A Million Seeds" has fifteen tracks, nine written by me and six little-known old hymns, blues and gospel songs. Click here for a complete song list and more information about the album, including free downloads.

Celtic Prayer Songs

Another part of my interest in music has been in writing worship songs, a few of which are now used in the school. Some are based on prayers written by David Adam, formerly minister of Holy Island (Lindisfarne) in Northumbria, England, and are in a Celtic style. Download and use them, if they appeal to you.

Heart-Spoken Lines

This is an album written and performed by a Woodstock friend, Joie Burchell, which I recorded and on which I played some additional instruments. Click here for Joie's blog and download page

Hand on the plough

When I first acquired my laptop recording equipment in 2007, I got enthused with writing and recording, learning how to use the software and trying different styles of music. Half of them turned out a bit prog rock, because I liked the string synth sounds in the program. Anyway, here they are for those who might be interested. Click here for more information and free downloads. There's a few reasonable songs trying to fight their way past the shortfalls in performance and production. I'll keep this as my working album for new songs, I think.

Personal notes

I have played guitar almost incessantly since the age of 15. As a teenager in Liverpool in the 60s it was compulsory. Police operated a "stop and search" policy, and if you didn't have a guitar you were liable to summary execution. Having played in many amateur bands (from Christian rock, blues and folk to barn dance bands and 60s covers) it was inevitable that I kept going in India. Here's some of the music activities I've been involved in, including jazz concerts and the Woodstock covers band.

From Autumn 2007 I began writing and recording using a laptop and a Line 6 USB guitar/microphone input device. Hours of harmless fun. This issued has out in a variety of projects, solo and with colleagues and friends from Woodstock. In 2008 I recorded an album of Christian country/folk/blues music with Amy Seefeldt and Louise Bamber under the title "A Million Seeds", using the band name "Circle". Read about it here. This is a follow-up to a studio recording which Louise and I made, together with sitar player Sanjeeb Sircar, in 2007. During Fall 2009 I recorded an album of Woodstock-themed songs City on a hill. In Spring 2010 I worked with colleague Joie Burchell on her album Heart-spoken lines, then began some instrumental recordings featuring mostly acoustic instruments, including an 'oud I acquired in Damascus in Winter 2009/10. This album (still being added to in June 2010) is entitled "Voiceless". More when it is finished - download the songs as they appear from box.net, or follow progress on Posterous or Facebook.