I can't really describe my style - not even sure if I have an identifiable one -  but if pressed, I'd say I sound like me, and probably more like me than anyone else does. 

 My voice has been described, not unfairly, as being "able to bend the needle on a record player". (It was Ian Davison that said that). Guitar style? Hmm .. "a bit crap" describes it, I think. I play mandolin "a bit".

So, yeah, I have won the Girvan Folk Festival Songwriting Competition twice, but on the other hand, one of those years there was just me and a tone-deaf dog - and the dog's entry was called "My Pretty Budgie".

I've performed as a floor artist at the Star Folk Club, and at Stirling and Houston Folk Clubs (not as floor singer, because Houston don't have floor spots) , and I'm regularly to be heard at the Wednesday Singers Session (Unsaintly Singers) at Morrison's Bar on Clyde Street in Glasgow.

I can't say for certain what my influences have been, but here's some people whose songs and music I really like: Loudon Wainwright, Richard Thompson, Dick Gaughan, Michael Marra, Ry Cooder, Steve Earle, Robert Burns, J.Scott Skinner, Michael Marra, Randy Newman, amongst others. And, yes, I know Michael Marra is in the list twice and so should Randy Newman be, and if you ask me next week, I'll give you a different list.

 My own songs range over many different subjects - all the way from the philosophical insights afforded by a pigeon, or the restorative properties of Our Other National Drink, to fury over the Iraq conflict and other lunacies of our time