Keep The Wolves Away. Blues Club + Background...

Today’s blog is about a new Coustics Blues Club song, but it’s also about the power of honest songwriting, and how sometimes positive things can happen as a result of tragedy.

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This week I’ve been writing blogs about the new songs I’ve been preparing for our various guitar and ukulele groups, and I’ll be honest, today I was going to do exactly the same thing for the last group I owe new music to, our ‘Blues & Folk’ group.

But I got distracted. I think in a good way. So, I am going to do that blog, I’m just going to do this first, because it’s actually a very interesting, if shocking, story, with a happy(ish) ending. It’s a story that resonates slightly with recent news, and has actually developed since I was first introduced to the song it concerns several years ago. The song is ‘Keep The Wolves Away’ by the band, 'Uncle Lucius'.

It’s a song I was asked to learn years ago by an open miker, that always struck me as being incredibly earnest and powerful. You know how some songs sound a bit generic, and some songs just sound, "REAL"??? Spoilers : it’s not a happy song, but we are talking about an inclusion in the Blues Club repertoire, not the 'Shiny Happy People Club' repertoire, so I think that’s ok. Have a listen to it now.

In re-watching the video and listening to the track, I was drawn in by one of those little video previews you get on YouTube down the right hand side entitled, “The True Story Behind Keep The Wolves Away”... so I watched it (parts one and two).

I’m kind of a bit torn. I want to encourage you to watch the following videos, but I don’t want to give it all away. The song is a true story, and the band had a good run for many years and then split up. Bands do that sometimes. But then bands sometimes get back together when the stars align. Let’s leave it at that. 

There’s some good lessons in there for all you songwriters about authenticity too, and how the music industry isn’t terribly fair sometimes. Interesting stuff on a few levels, I hope you find the same.

Let me know what you think.