Credits: 

Gerry Farrow Vocals and Acoustic Guitar

Rob Bullock,  lead guitar (Tracks 2, 3,5,7,8,9)
Kelly Halloran,  Violin and backing vocals (Tracks 1,6)
Rory Moran - backing vocals (Track 3)
Morven Harrison - backing vocals (Tracks 2,5,7,8,9)
Dave Partridge - Bass  (Tracks 2,3,7,8,9)
Sara Priegue - Vocals, bass and ukulele (Track 4)
Stuart Wood - Percussion ((Tracks 2,3,7,8,9)
Ted Ragg - Piano (Tracks 2,7)
Brian Rodwell - Drums and moral support

Clive Pigott - cover photography 

The album is now available on all major streaming sources and all proceeds go to Motor Neurone Research so stream away - links below 😎

Take me with you 

A friend of mine had split up with his wife and moved out of their house and I had this idea for a song about a man who leaves his wife but  realises too late that he has made a big mistake and it’s too late to go back (it’s not at all based on my friend).   I played this song for the first time at an acoustic open mic (no microphones!) at the Waterside pub in Richmond on February 1st 2016.  A week later I payed the song to my violinist friend Kelly Halloran who was visiting the UK from the US and we performed it together at the George VI Chiswick and recorded it a few days later at my house. Kelly did 4 takes of the violin solo and I knew immediately that take 3 was absolutely perfect!   The song got to the regional final of the uk songwriting competition and I went to  Birmingham to perform it.  During the covid lockdown, Kelly and I made a video for it here https://youtu.be/AqCz4RmNu6I 

9 things on my mind 

I wrote this song shortly after ‘take me with you’ while my guitar was tuned to DADGAD.   I was playing a lot of open mics in London and I had noticed that the lower tuning gave a much bigger sound making more impact.  My kids Emmie and Eva helped out with the counting backing vocals.  Rob Bullock added a spectacular guitar solo and Ted Ragg contributed some great bluesy piano. 

Until we fly 

This song is all about science and the scientific method and more specifically about falsification and the ideas of Austrian/British philosopher of science Karl Popper.  I was lucky to have my friend Rory Moran to do the backing vocal which we recorded at Fairlight Studios in London.  Rob Bullock’s fantastic guitar solo really transformed the track in the middle section.   

One of my Monochrome Days 

This was the last track to be written and recorded for the album and was done towards the end of the Covid lockdown period.  It’s really a lockdown mental health song with the subject imagining that everyone else is coping much better than him.  It was great to get my friend Sara Priegue to do the joint vocal and to add ukulele.  During lockdown Sarah and I had made a couple of cover song videos but this was our first original.  We did a homemade video for this song https://youtu.be/bUvGrmGxfbk 

You don’t want to be alone 

This song took quite a lot of writing and I changed the lyrics and the melody several times before I was happy with it.   It’s really a sequel to a song I wrote in the band Northern Quarter called ‘it’s only me’ with the subject looking for love but never being completely happy with what is on offer and hence has been alone for many years.  The song is sung from the perspective of an interested party who can’t get close.  Morven Harrison adds some great layered backing vocals.  

Mountains 

This is another song in the DADGAD tuning which I wrote specifically with the intention of playing at open mic evenings in London.  The song is about how we often convince ourselves that we can’t do something or we won’t be good enough.  We put mountains in our way when in fact they don’t exist.   

You won’t fall 

This is a remix/part re-recorded version of a song I wrote for the band Monochrome Days and appeared on the album ‘seeing it all monochrome’.   I wasn’t entirely happy with the original version.  This new version has a much better guitar solo played by Rob Bullock  ( I played the original version) and a more dramatic ‘choir’ section added at the end of the song.  It’s a song to comfort a friend going through a particularly difficult time.  This song also made the regional final of the uk songwriting competition.   

Break my day 

This song would have ended up on a second Monochrome Days album but that never came to pass.  It’s another DADGAD tuning piece written around the same time as ‘9 things’ and ‘tear it up…’ Rob Bullock added an epic guitar solo to close out the song.  The song is about friends letting you down.   

Tear it up and start again. 

Another DADGAD song that would have appeared on a second Monochrome Days album with great backing vocals from Morven Harrison. Morven was a dream to work with in the studio,  note perfect and amazing harmonies at the drop of a hat.  In retrospect the lyrics seem to hint at the end of the band and the possibility of starting something new which I eventually did with GFb.  I read that babies who don’t get eye contact in the few days/weeks after birth find it difficult later in life to make eye contact with others which is where some of the lyrics come from.