Notes to The Parson And The Clerk were taken from the Phil Tanner CD "The Gower Nightingale" (VT145CD), which is a comprehensive, absorbing and fascinating 50-page booklet of notes and never-before-seen collection of photographs. There's even a photograph of the sheet music to G. H. MacDermott and Geoffrey Thorn's most famous piece in there.

"The Gower Nightingale" was born in the year 2000, which was 50 years since Phil's death. I had campaigned for a Phil Tanner CD - all that was left was a solitary 40-year-old EFDSS LP. I was determined that Gower's most famous traditional singer should live on in CD form, and I wrote a stage play called about Phil and the Gower culture he grew up in, called "A Gower Garland", which my duo Calennig and The Rag Foundation took to various village halls in Gower and ultimately to the National Festival. Calennig recorded a WildGoose CD called "A Gower Garland" as well, which went with the Phil's anniversary.

Not surprisingly, Welsh labels didn't want to know about the 50-year anniversary of Phil's death, so I contacted John Howson's Veteran Records. John readily agreed to publish the CD - then came my severe stroke, which disrupted my life and delayed the CD as well.

I was just recovering when John contacted me about "The Gower Nightingale", which he wanted to press ahead with the CD. I met him, with the traditional singer Roy Harris, at the Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans, Cardiff, where I had a good response and offers of help from Beth Thomas, the manager. I took John on a journey of Gower, where we met informants who talked excitedly about a new Phil Tanner CD.

Eventually "The Gower Nightingale" came out in 2003, with a 15-minute introduction by the BBC correspondent Wynford Vaughan Thomas, recorded in the 1960s. Doug Fraser, Tanner historian, has a mention, and so do the Gower Society (particularly Malcolm and Ruth Ridge), The Museum Of Welsh Life, including Beth Thomas and Emma Lyle, Sally Clayden and The Gower Centre, Roy Harris and Ralph Jordan. Thank you all so much for helping us realise it.

Mick Tems