released October 6, 2020

LINER NOTE

My first album shouldn’t have been It Happened One Night. It should have been It Never Happened At All.

There was a whole different record I was making in 1988/89 with great musicians, many of whom would go on to play on Here Comes The Groom. It Never Happened At All – which, given my Capra fetish, would almost certainly have been called You Can’t Take It With You – was forgotten, lost, dispersed all over the place, and is now presented here. I loved reconstructing it. It’s a better general picture of me at the time than the live album, trying to write a song in any style that took my fancy: that Bo Diddley rhythm I’d just heard, a little rockabilly, country and western, a folk ballad, a synthy cinematic epic, a very heavy metal version of “Scared of Guns,” even (Lord have mercy!) a blues – just looking for something I liked. And then Sire came along, and they wanted to start from scratch and I made Here Comes The Groom, forsaking whatever this album was going to be for the wonders that lay ahead.

To me, It Never Happened At All is my alternative first record from a parallel world where you can have two debut albums. At the time, unfortunately, it never happened at all, but now, thirty-two years on, it gets to happen after all.

The sources for all these songs were a variety of different tapes in various states of disrepair: two inch 24 track masters, quarter inch 2 track mixes, half inch 16 track (a particularly hard machine to find in America today), cassettes… you name it. Some we remixed, some we couldn’t (so we did what we could).

LOVE’S SACRIFICE
Guitar, Vocals, Percussion: JWH
Electric Guitar: Mike Leahy
Drums: Pete Thomas
Bass: Bruce Thomas
Backing Vocals: Brian Lohmann
Originally recorded at Turbot Studios, Hammersmith (4/14/89)
Engineered by Barry Farmer
Extra recording done at Shelter Island Sound, NYC (5/5/04)
Engineered and Mixed by David Seitz
Assisted by Andrew Solin

ROY ORBISON KNOWS
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
National Guitar: Roger Hubbard
Keyboards: Kenny Craddock
Bass: Colin Gibson
Originally recorded at Invisible Studios, Crowhurst (early 1989)
Engineered by Kenny Craddock and Colin Gibson
Mixed by David Seitz at Shelter Island Sound, NYC
Assisted by Andrew Solin

THE DEVIL IN ME
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
Electric Guitar: Steve Donnelly
Bass: Paul Bass
Drums: Pete Thomas
Originally recorded by Barry Farmer at The Strong Room, Shoreditch (1/21/89)
Overdubs recorded at Turbot Studios, Hammersmith
Mixed by David Seitz at Shelter Island Sound, NYC
Assisted by Andrew Solin

SAME THING TWICE
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
Drums: Pete Thomas
Bass: Paul Bass
Guitar: Steve Donnelly
Backing Vocals: David Lewis
Banjo, Harmonica: Julian Dawson
Originally recorded by Barry Farmer at Turbot Studios, Hammersmith (4/14/89)
Mixed by David Seitz at Shelter Island Sound, NYC
Assisted by Andrew Solin

BROWNING ROAD
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
Electric Guitar: Mike Leahy
Electric Guitar solo: Steve Donnelly
Piano: Geraint Watkins
Bass: Paul Bass
Drums: Pete Thomas
Originally recorded by Barry Farmer at The Strong Room, Shoreditch (1/21/89)
Extra Recording done at Shelter Island Sound, NYC (5/6/04)
Engineered and Mixed by David Seitz
Assisted by Andrew Solin

LOVER’S SOCIETY
Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals: JWH
Electric Guitar: Steve Donnelly
Piano: Geraint Watkins
Bass: Paul Bass
Drums: Pete Thomas
Originally recorded by Barry Farmer at The Strong Room, Shoreditch (1/21/89)
Extra Recording done at Shelter Island Sound, NYC (5/6/04)
Engineered and Mixed by David Seitz
Assisted by Andrew Solin

SCARED OF GUNS
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
Electric Guitar: Steve Donnelly
Piano: Geraint Watkins
Bass: Paul Bass
Drums: Pete Thomas
Originally recorded by Barry Farmer at The Strong Room, Shoreditch (1/21/89)
Mixed by David Seitz at Shelter Island Sound, NYC
Assisted by Andrew Solin

WHO YOU REALLY ARE
BAD FRUIT
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
Recorded by Barry Farmer at Turbot Studios, Hammersmith (6/19/88)
Digitally enhanced by Andrew Solin

POUND POUND POUND
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
Recorded by Roger Chatterton at Kite Studios, Cambridge (5/11/88)
Digitally enhanced by Andrew Solin and Dave Seitz

ONE NIGHT ONLY
Vocals: JWH
All Instruments: Steve Nieve
Produced and recorded by Steve Nieve, London (1988)
Digitally enhanced by Andrew Solin and Dave Seitz

THE NIGHT HE TOOK HER TO THE FAIRGROUND
Vocals, Guitar: JWH
Electric Guitar: Adam Barker
Bass: Andy Thurston
Drums: Greg Salter
[Collectively known as The Accelerators]
Recorded by Roger Chatterton at Kite Studios, Cambridge (1/12/86)

SAVE A LITTLE ROOM FOR ME
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
National Guitar: Roger Hubbard
Keyboards: Kenny Craddock
Bass: Colin Gibson
Originally recorded at Invisible Studios, Crowhurst (early 1989)
Engineered by Kenny Craddock and Colin Gibson

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
Guitar, Vocals: JWH
Harmonica, Backing Vocals: Julian Dawson
Electric Guitar: Steve Donnelly
Piano: Geraint Watkins
Bass: Paul Bass
Drums: Pete Thomas
Originally recorded by Barry Farmer at The Strong Room, Shoreditch (1/21/89)
Overdubs recorded at Turbot Studios, Hammersmith
Mixed by David Seitz at Shelter Island Sound, NYC
Assisted by Andrew Solin

All songs written by John Wesley Harding and published by TOWNSONGS/ASCAP