Darren Hayman is back, with a second volume of songs resulting from his Thankful Villages project. We’ve stepped a little out of order this week, as we ran Woodend, Northamptonshire – the 17th Thankful Village on the album – back in April last year, when the track was released as a single. On we journey, then, to the eighteenth village of Vol. 2: Coln Rogers, Gloucestershire.

Coln Rogers is another village on a river. The river Coln, in fact, runs into the Thames. I could build a raft and let it carry me home. I was heading home in any case.

It was early spring and Coln Rogers fluttered and glowed in the sunlight.  There were daffodils everywhere. It was late afternoon, when the sunlight changes quickly.  I set up cameras on time lapse to capture the moving shadows. I used a sample app and set up random looped lengths so the stringed instruments fluttered and collided in random ways.

I painted the tree line. I painted a telegraph pole. Volume 2 has seen me meet far more people than Volume 1, but here I was alone again. A villager walked up and down the main street and called on neighbours. She said hello and looked at my paintings, then left me alone again.

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Thankful Villages Vol.2 is out now on Rivertones. You can buy a copy here, or listen on Spotify.

Darren will be appearing on our stages at this year’s Kaleidoscope and Good Life Experience festivals.