{"id":150,"date":"2007-08-16T06:38:54","date_gmt":"2007-08-16T13:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?page_id=150"},"modified":"2016-06-09T07:45:50","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T14:45:50","slug":"song","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?page_id=150","title":{"rendered":"Songwriting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"full\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am: Shaun Belcher (alter ego Trailer Star)
\nI am based: Nottingham, England
\nI started: Too long ago!
\nI am influenced by: John Fahey, \u00c2\u00a0Howlin Wolf, Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart, Charlie Rich, Peter Case, Lucinda Williams, Vic Chesnutt, Bobbie Gentry, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\nI can be heard: \u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/www.trailerstar.bandcamp.com<\/a><\/p>\n

I aim: To raise funds for charity and to maybe be late and great too\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6but not too soon!<\/p>\n

Born in a thunderstorm somewhere in the middle of the Thames Valley sometime before the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s ended and the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc60s started swinging \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTrailer Star\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 also known as the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLegendary Thames Valley Cowboy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is a fictional character created by myself, Shaun Belcher, artist, poet and sometime musician.
\nFrom the mid-80s, when I painted record sleeves for Creation records and started obsessing over American songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Peter Case and Bluesmen like Mississippi John Hurt and Lightning Hopkins, I have written songs\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6literally thousands of them\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.
\nThese ended up on a series of cassette only releases with titles like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLast Farmer of Rattledown Row\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlack River\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 from the mid-80s through to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc90s. Finally a limited edition \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFloodplain Demos\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 CD was released in 2001, which is where the Trailer Star character first appeared. From 1999 until 2004 I edited and designed the online songwriting webzine \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFlyin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Shoes Review\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 named after the Townes Van Zandt album of the same name which concentrated on solo artists in the folk, Blues and Americana vein.
\nAfter a few years playing live in the early 1990s with The High Priests (a messy three piece garage Blues band like an early White Stripes) I realised that others would sing some of these songs better than me and after showing some artistes my archive of songs the charity CD \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMoon Over The Downs<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dc resulted. Fifteen Americana (US and UK) acts created a tribute to the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcstar that never was\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. These included Deanna Varagona of Lambchop, Jim Roll, Bob Cheevers, Terry Clarke and Ronny Elliott with interpretations that ranged across folk, Blues and country.
\nI had cut my fictional \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTrailer Star\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 career abruptly short when his pick-up truck left a blind bend one frosty night on the downs near his trailer but I could not let the story end there and his ghost continues to play\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\nTrailer Star lives in his \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclate great\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 form and I continue to release his collected works on the internet through the official Trailer Star archives at various sites..<\/p>\n

Since 2001 I have been a late great country star Trailer Star<\/p>\n

which all documented at http:\/\/www.trailerstar.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Trailer also edited and produced an Americana Webzine\u00c2\u00a0called\u00c2\u00a0FLYINSHOES REVIEW<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0from 1999-2004 which now in the more than capable hands of Rob Ellen \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcOop North\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00f0\u0178\u2122\u201a<\/p>\n

http:\/\/flyinshoes.ning.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Trailer Star was\u00c2\u00a0also the fictional host from the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTrailer Star Lounge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of an Americana podcast \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFlyinshoes Radio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which came\u00c2\u00a0out roughly every two weeks and can still be downloaded from itunes etc. Again like the webzine I concentrated on songwriting. Visit\u00c2\u00a0the ARCHIVE<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and listen to programmes archived at Archive.Org here<\/p>\n

https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/flyinshoes\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe one day Trailer will feature in his own novel\/film but for now thanks for listening and please consider purchasing the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMoon Over The Downs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tribute as all proceeds go to Cancer Research UK.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Shaun Belcher a.k.a. Trailer Star<\/em><\/p>\n

SONGWRITING ARCHIVE<\/p>\n

https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/archive\/river<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I am: Shaun Belcher (alter ego Trailer Star) I am based: Nottingham, England I started: Too long ago! I am influenced by: John Fahey, \u00c2\u00a0Howlin Wolf, Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart, Charlie Rich, Peter Case, Lucinda Williams, Vic Chesnutt, Bobbie Gentry, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I can be heard: \u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/www.trailerstar.bandcamp.com I aim: To…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-150","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6nhh-2q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1293,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}