All the songs on 'This has been me since yesterday' were written by Alex Weir, a Glaswegian who in his spare time, accumulated a significant body of work over the years.
Original versions of his songs were recorded at home on an old 'reel-to-reel' tape recorder at various points from the mid-60s to the early 90s, but were never designed for public consumption. The decision to re-create them in a modern studio setting was taken after a conversation between Alex and his sons in the autumn of 2016.
The subsequent recording sessions took place over the next nine months whenever time, health and finance allowed. The Weir boys called in a number of musical contacts to flesh out the material and bring the professional sheen which is evident throughout the album. These re-recorded versions take the songs to a new level. Standout tracks include 'Aberfan' (written in the immediate aftermath of the Welsh mining disaster in 1966), 'My Ship Is Sailing Tomorrow' (a powerful ballad about a man wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit), 'Going Back To Georgia' (a beautifully melancholic piece featuring some stunning mandolin and pedal steel from Danny Mitchell – who wrote a Midge Ure hit) and 'Ah Wis Like That' (a Glaswegian phrase and a humorous song which explores the comical antics of a chancer in search of sexual adventure). The standout track, though, could be 'Thoughts From a Trench' (narrated by a young soldier waiting to go into battle and meet his almost certain doom).
The most amazing aspect of this outstanding album is, however, the fact that Alex is 77 years of age - an incredible age to make a debut album. Certainly a first for Greentrax Records!
