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I am sometimes lucky enough to be joined onstage in the UK by my good friend, the very talented guitarist Malcolm Darwen and in Nashville by another very talented guitarist and friend, Jake McKeague.

Mal and I have written a couple of songs together and played loads of fantastic shows over the years and you can hear Jake's gorgeous guitar playing on a lot of my acoustic recordings.

My influences are many and I would say that most of the music that I have is made up of demos and live CDs by friends and artists that I've picked up over the years. The rest is made up of records by artists such as Bob Dylan, Van the Man, Nanci Griffith, Ray Charles, Etta James, Shawn Colvin, Patti Griffin, James Taylor, John Martyn, Martin Simpson, Joni Mitchell, Kate Rusby, Cat Stevens, Richard Thompson, John Denver, Neil Young, Carole King, Janis Ian and Simon & Garfunkel to name but a few!

At the moment I listen to music mostly in my car as Im on the road a lot, and to give you an example of what I like, I have several mixture tapes that I couldn't get through the week without which include songs by: Carissa Lee Broadwater, Mindy Smith, Gillian Welch, Ron Davies, Jon Byrd, Susan Enan, Alison Krauss, Ivor Game, Kate York, Rowland Stebbins, Bob Dylan, Ruth Moody, Gram Parsons, Richard Thompson, Astrid Brook, Pat Alger, Alastair Artingstall, Kacey Jones, Patti Griffin and Van Morrison.

Im listening to a lot of Gram Parsons recordings lately, including the 'Return of the Grievous Angel' tribute album which is awesome. I can't get enough of the Whiskeytown version of 'A Song For You' (which has just come on as I type ooo!). He's in my car, my house, my head, amazing, amazing, amazing. Im really enjoying Lyle Lovett too and think I may actually be in love with his voice! His singing on the Live in Texas version of 'Nobody Knows Me Like My Baby' makes me go all funny inside and I love the way he sings the line 'Oh my god what's your name my name's Lyle' in 'Give Back My Heart'. After hearing his music Im not surprised Julia Roberts married him, Im just amazed that she let him go!

One record that I play loads and never get tired of is '1000 Kisses' by Patty Griffin and a couple of songs that Im really enjoying lately are 'Holiday Inn' by the lovely 70's Elton, Joan Armatrading's 'The Weakness In Me', Richard & Teddy Thompson's version of 'Persuasion', 'Simple Kind of Man' by Lynnard Skynnard, 'All In The Game' by Van (oh so gorgeous!) and some of Bob Dylan's early recordings. Also talking about Bob I just found an old mixture tape that's currently my car fave! It's got 'Do Right to Me Baby', 'Desolation Row', 'Corrina Corrina' and Bob doing 'Froggy Went a Courting' on it among others and its driving Bob heaven!

Recently I dug out a CD that was given to me almost 6 years ago by Luke Templeton from New Mexico. I had stopped in at a coffeehouse called Irysh Macs in Albuquerque on my way to the Grand Canyon, and ended up playing there for a few hours before the artist arrived to play at 9pm. This turned out to be Luke and I have never forgotten how amazing he was to listen to. Right after his set I had to get back on the I 40 and carry on driving West through the night but luckily he gave me a CD before I left and I've really been enjoying re-discovering this lovely singer/songwriter, in particular his songs 'First Sight' and 'The Girl Across The Way'

I've always loved a good film and some of my favourites are:
Ishtar, Tootsie, Spinal Tap, The Wedding Singer, The Shawshank Redemption, 10 Things I Hate About You, Almost Famous, The Thing Called Love, Amadeus, Waiting For Guffman, The Color Purple, Nine to Five, Stepping Out, Pat & Margaret, The Three Amigos, The Princess Bride, Peter's Friends, The Pianist, Convoy, Groundhog Day, Don't Look Back, Sense & Sensibility, Dirty Dancing, Educating Rita, The Bridges of Madison County, Footloose, Reality Bites, Dazed & Confused, The Godfather, Highlander, Four Weddings & A Funeral, Pretty In Pink, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, All The Presidents Men, Cayote Ugly, The Doors, Private Benjamen, How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Songwriter, Calamity Jane, The Last Waltz, A Star Is Born (with Kris Krisofferson) and also I really enjoyed Walk The Line and Ray.

When I was little my favourite programs were ones like The Two Ronnies, Basil Brush, Mork and Mindy, The Dukes of Hazard, Fame, The Fall Guy and Top of the Pops and the first record I ever got was the BBC theme tune to Monkey which was my favourite programme for ages!
I used to love Jim'll Fix It too (I wrote to him once to ask if he would fix it for me to meet Shakin Stevens) and on Wednesdays I was allowed to stay up past my bedtime to watch Dallas.
In those days my Mum used to play records by Cat Stevens, Ray Charles, Kris Kristofferson, Gerry Rafferty, Simon & Garfunkel, Jean Michel Jarre, Rita Coolidge, Dolly Parton, ELO, Demis Rousoss (!) and that one by Barbara Streisand and Barry Gibb.

My favourite programme ever is Dallas and other programmes that I love are Seinfeld, Frasier, House MD, Knots Landing, anything with Victoria Wood in it, Pheonix Nights, Sex & The City, Time Team, The Apprentice, Lark Rise To Candleford, Shameless, Friends and Green Wing. I love stand up and among my faves are Bill Hicks, Victoria Wood, Eddie Izzard, Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, Jack Dee and Peter Kay.

Other influences of mine are Nashville, my lovely friends, my family and all the little moments and things that make life feel good!