Well, where to begin, we were together as Brushwood for over ten years, turning professional in October ‘04.

 Initially it was a hobby. A way of indulging our mutual musical interests and earning some extra wages but because we had 'proper jobs', we couldn't travel very far out of the North East for fear of not getting back in time for work. When we started out we were really naive. We never realised that there was a minor political system operating in the Country Music scene. We soon became aware that there were quite a few different and sometimes opposing opinions of what Country music is all about.

Though we tried, we felt that because we were a duo, we were never really accepted as a pure Country outfit. Although the guitars and vocals were 'live' and the tracks we played along to i.e. drums and keyboards were constructed by us, the 'not having a drummer' issue would not go away. So after a few years of feeling like 'Outsiders', not quite being part of the scene (hence the title of our first original album) we realised that the venues and audiences that we were having the better and more enjoyable nights with were the dance nights. The decision to move over to concentrate on that element of the Country scene was therefore an obvious one. We still maintain the opinion that if there is a good country song to a modern dance then we would rather choose to play that instead of an ‘out and out’ pop track.

We were very lucky, the opportunities of work started to roll in, songs I wrote which became the Outsiders and Under Any Moon albums were charting in Europe and were being played extensively around the world, minor radio and television interviews were offered to us and suddenly we were in a position that, because we had 'day jobs' we were starting to turn down work that was becoming fantastically enjoyable just to be available for our 'normal jobs'.

So we decided to take a gamble. At the end of 2004 we signed for NAM who took a bit of the workload and book keeping from us so we could concentrate on our 'new business'. My luck continued, John 'Growwler' Rowell choreographed a dance to 'Whenever I'm Lonely' and continued further with the involvement of Kate Sala and Robbie McGowan Hickie in one of my songs. They choreographed 'A Lusty Appetite' to I Feel Lucky, a song I wrote that is on our second originals album called 'Under Any Moon'. Robert Lindsay then followed up with a superb dance called 'Love's Whisper' to my Tell Me, which stayed at the top of the Linedancer teaching survey for what seemed, liked months. Gaye Teather kindly wrote ‘Lila Flamenco’ to our track Margaritas and Senoritas and that dance gave us access to an international audience. We are bowled over whenever we see people dancing to any of them.

Then the cream of our success for 2006 was to appear on the front cover of the Linedancer magazine, coinciding with the release of my album 'Closing Time in Cheatingville. Further involvement of choreographers like Gaye Teather, Alan Haywood, Robert Lindsay, Jacquie Winchester and Alison Biggs helped elevate our standing on the circuit.

We met a guitarist when we played a gig at which his band  were also playing at and later that same year, when our guitarist broke his elbow, he kindly stood in and helped us out, enabling us to continue with our touring commitments and our latest album project. He joined us on another album I wrote called Helter Skelter. We decided that the quality of guitar playing that he brought to our show was too good an opportunity to miss and invited him to join us as a 3 piece when his own band stopped touring.

Now to answer the many people who have contacted me asking why I left here is the reason…

For many years I had wanted to apply to the Police force and eventually contacted them. I am now an Enforcement Officer and find it incredibly rewarding and fulfilling and I am looking forward to bumping into some of my old friends when in uniform. I am still writing material and meeting folk though by doing the occasional gig.

Touring and sleeping in the back of a van night after night had become tiring for me: the actual time spent on stage was becoming over-shadowed by the amount of increasing time taken to get to venues and move onto the next one sometimes 100’s of miles away, driving when we should have been sleeping. Musical directions and attitudes were changing and the overall show and team contribution, in my opinion, was becoming stale.

Best to go, I thought, when we were at the top of our game…..