To hear Alan singing the song, from his band website, click on this and then scroll down the song list to As far as my feet will carry me

A really powerful song - and it's beautifully written. Precise and economic, with phrases that just fall into place.

On the blog alan linked to he writes "For me, folk singers need to record the lives of those "ordinary people", who achieve such extraordinary things." I think he's spot on. And I think that's especially so for people who live in our own time - too often people writing songs about real lives seem to feel it necessary to concentrate on events long ago and far away, researched from books maybe. But they don't write about the people they know or could know.

There's something in common between the idea of a song collector going round and harvesting songs from old people and a song maker who does the same for the stories of the lives people whom they meet have lived. Starting maybe with our own families.

Here's one I wrote a few years ago about my own parents (I'd give a link but something has gone wrong with the website where I keep the words):

Well I stood there on a chilly day and thought about the past;
and the falling leaves came drifting from the trees.
And I thought about the tangled times in which theirlives were cast
- well now for them the time of trouble's ceased.
And I thought of all the questions that I never thought to ask,
and I wondered at the journey they had come -
through war and peace and exile, till a time of rest at last.
Now they lie together, by the hills of home.
And I thought of all the times they'd known, and the troubles that they faced.
Of the wars that tore across their lives - it tore the human race.
Living through a time of troubles, as the world was laid to waste.
And now here we are together, in this strange familiar place.

Well it must have seemed the world itself was crashing round your ears,
as he marched off, in that uniform of brown.
But there wasn't any time at all to spare for foolish tears,
as you waited till the bombs came craasjing down.
With two young boys to care for, and a world to hold at bay, ......
and a search for somewhere safe where we could grow,
and ration books to queue for, just living day to day -
and you did it on your own, and brought us through.
...... And I thought about the times you'd known...

Well he came back on a sudden, after being away for years
with a bag of gifts he'd brought from far away.
And I met him as a stranger, on the landing by the stairs -
and the thought of that comes flooding back today.
He said "We landed back at Dover, now I'm finished with the war.
It's been a hard old time, I must confess.
But now the worst is over. We can start to live again.
We can start to try to clear up all that mess."
..... And I thought about the times you'd known...

Well at last the war was ended, this had to be the peace,
like some fairy story out of Mother Goose.
But now it's more than fifty years, and the fighting's never ceased.
and every time ther'e been some fine excuse.
But the bottom line is money, and take what you can take,
and the promises and dreams were turned around.
And the fixing turned to botching, and the botching turned to fake -
and now the century we shared, it's winding down.
And I think about the times we've known, and the troubles that we've faced.
Of the wars that tore across our lives - they tore the human race.
Living through a time of troubles, as the world was laid to waste.
And now here we are together, in this strange familiar place.