Edward's parents Dave and Jeannie have always been big fans of Neil Young's music – but his version of Four Strong Winds is extra special. When Edward was still with us, Jeannie used to listen to 'Four Strong Winds' when she was alone in the house, and it really struck a chord with her, becoming more and more meaningful. She says, "I didn't know why I was so affected by this song but I did know it would come to mean even more at some time in the future. Four Strong Winds means many different things to lots of people, for me the song is about how all life changes and moves on - how some things do change, but also how some things don't. The physical may change but the memories remain - sometimes memories are all we have.”

                                                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                         Edward and Daddy Dave

The first that Dave knew about the song was when Jeannie asked him to sing it at the Martin House memorial service. This is a service where bereaved families gather each year, in October, to remember their children, share stories and meet each other. In the past, parents had contributed to the ceremony by reading poems or stories. Jeannie says "The idea came to me after we'd been to our first service in 2005, the year that Edward died. It seemed right. As singing had been such a big part of Dave's life when he was a boy, I asked him to sing Four Strong Winds . I thought Dave would take time to think about it, but he didn't - on the day he wasn't even nervous - he said he had Edward with him so it was easy......."

How did the recording come about?

Dave's rendition of the song was extremely moving and seemed to ring true for many of the people at the service. Jeannie adds, "Initially, we weren't really looking to carry it on but a lot of people approached us afterwards and said how the song had touched them."  Four Strong Winds is a powerful,poignant song that quietly sneaks up on you! Many people have a connection to it without necessarily realising it.  Neil Young's version is certainly the best known - so far! Looking back, we wished we'd recorded Dave's original performance, so that friends and family who weren't there could have shared in the song. However, the idea stuck with us and things snowballed from there! We thought, well why not record it? There were even jokes thrown around about it becoming the next Christmas number 1 . We started thinking about who Dave could record the track with................ and the person who stood out was Nils Lofgren.

For many years, our whole family had been fans of Nils. His solo recordings and stuff with the E-Street Band had meant a lot to us at different times. One of Nils' own best-known tracks, 'Shine Silently' had been the celebratory track at Jeannie and Dave's wedding blessing. (This blessing was for the people who missed the big day when they sneaked off to get married - both in Nils Lofgren t-shirts I might add!).

Nils Lofgren
photographer: Jan M.Lundahl

So, feeling brave - we decided to go for it we emailed him . A few days later we came home and were more than a little surprised to hear a message from Nils on our answerphone. Jeannie rang him back and had a great chat with him and he was really enthusiastic about what we were doing. He agreed there and then to lay down some guitar tracks as we'd asked, plus some vocals. Daring as ever, Jeannie asked if Nils would mind us recording Shine Silently as well. Nils said he'd be honoured! He explained that because he's so busy, he'd have to record the track in the US and send it to us digitally. We got our diaries together and booked it in for February 2008. So, fortified by this great boost, Dave set about finding a way to make his part of the recording. He contacted Sam Payne the vocal coach who'd helped him prepare for his initial performance, and she recommended a producer she knew - Skip MacDonald. Skip was happy to work this us, he was interested by the idea of a charity record, but like us - not really having any idea of how big this was going to turn out to be! After we'd recorded '4 Strong Winds' and 'Shine Silently' in Skip's studio, in August 2007, Dave emailed the first version of it Nils' engineer, Jamison Weddle of Studiocat.

Dave and Skip

The Journey Continues

At this point, things were feeling great but quite surreal - we were so excited, but couldn't believe it was happening. Especially when Dave had a phone call in February of this year...."Hi Dave, it's Nils. I'm in the studio, what would you like me to do?"... Once Dave had received the CDs with Nils' fantastic guitar and vocal tracks on, off they went to Skip for mixing. We got to hand Nils the CD with the first mix of Four Strong Winds to him in person - in May this year. He'd invited us to be his guests at the Springsteen concert in Manchester. He and Dave discussed the technical stuff, and we just had a great time meeting him and enjoying the phenomenal performance by the E-Street Band!

What a Journey!

Looking back over the whole process, Dave says, "At times it felt like it would never happen, but we kept plugging away. The whole process has taken some time ... especially when these guys have given their time for nothing...which is so good of them." This has been a massive learning curve for us, and at several points I felt like giving up. Something kept me going, and I think that was something that Edward taught me - to make the best of what you're good at and not to give up. Stay strong".

It took a lot of time and effort to get the music out there. Dave contacted all the major record companies - who were helpful and gave us advice - some we took and some we didn't! We've got our own record label - Smartie Records' if anyone fancies having a go at recording a record - why not get in touch - Smartie Records wants to hear from you!! Of course we had to have a website....which has given us a platform to tell the story - so many people have asked us for information - thanks to every one of you.

And the Journey isn't Over

We are hoping that the daveandnils.com website can not only tell the story, but become a forum for others to become involved and to contribute, be it other parents who have lost children, musicians or whoever - please join us if you'd like to......and let's see where this journey takes us.............

We now have the actual CDs to distribute and so can carry on raising funds for our two charities.  Looking forward, Dave is planning his next recording...so watch this space!