In 2013, Oz Hardwick came into possession of a small folder of notes and poems written by his maternal grandfather, George Lowden (1896-1978). During his life, George was a shepherd, a farmer and an estate manager, with a love of the countryside, Robert Burns, and the Romantic poets. A self-taught musician, poet and artist, he and his wife Jane spent their later years living in the small terraced house in which Oz and his sister Ruth had the privilege of growing up in a close family unit that spanned three generations. In response to the documents, Oz wrote a sequence of poems drawing on his grandfather’s writing, as well as memories of the stories he would tell, which were so influential in Oz’s development. Collaborating with composer Peter Byrom-Smith (whose record “Heading For The Hills” was released on Debt last year), the poems have now been set to music, as a song cycle for Baritone and Piano, entitled “The House Of Memory” (available to buy/stream here).
