As we write, she’s finishing mixing 28 songs for her next project Shipwreck’d.

About this album she says “It’s taken me about 3 years because we recorded in many different places, Berlin, London and Boston, using all kinds of hand built instruments. The stories in the songs are all inspired by the names of real Shipwrecked boats that actually occurred off of the Atlantic coast near the town I grew up in, in Massachusetts.
I can still hear my grandma, saying, “You look like the Wreck of The Hesperus!” catching me trying to sneak back in after a late night down on the beach as a teen. Having crossed the pond to London many years ago now, I thought it was time to record something with blues and the ocean, my two great loves.
So it’s an underwater blues journey!”

Robert ‘Larry’ Love, Alabama 3′s lead singer is back in to do some deep voice of the sea. Also on the album are the lovely young female duo Smoke Fairies, who act as Dillon’s “sireenies” singing out to the sea with their enchanting vocals. On sax and saw you’ll find Jules Lawrence from Mudlow. Michael J Sheehy is on production and right hand slide man Ray Majors is naturally on all sorts of guitars and banjos.

Sandy was the first to answer The Good Music Fox Questionnaire…

A song that has saved your life?

‘Hurt’ by Trent Reznor as sung by Johnny Cash. I stopped a lot of my own self destructive behavior after hearing that: it’s simple, powerful, and to the point. I had been trying to clean up my act for a long time, and that seemed to hit the spot with me.

You’re an instrument. What are you and who’s playing you?

I view myself as a percussion instrument, shaking and rattling along, or maybe like a Kalimba, odd in its tunings, and I am being played somewhere in Africa, a place I have yet to visit. I am crazy for African instruments. I have a couple that were given to me that I don’t know what they are, so I learned how to bow one of them and the sound is amazing. And I am sure my hubby Ray is always playing me!

You make music because…

It’s the only thing I could ever do, for me making music is as vital as breathing. Plus, you really would not want me operating on you! Or being your bank manager either!

Which song is stuck in your head right now?

This morning it happens to be Ave Maria, as late last night during the opening credits of a film called The Hitman they played it. Beautiful. I also love the Aaron Neville version of that song.

What makes you mad, what calms you down?

People with “closed” ears or ideas about what music should be like, there is room on the planet for everyone.

I find all opera soothing. It’s great to come home and put on Madame Butterfly and just sit quietly. Bliss. And I marvel at the discipline.

The most beautiful sound to your ears?

That’s easy: the day my husband Ray Majors played blues harp again after having a large part of his throat and tongue removed for throat cancer. They told him he would not be able to do that anymore, and he proved the doctors wrong! The sound of that lone blues harp wailing was a miracle.

And the ugliest one?

The sound of music critics tearing apart artists on radio and TV, the horrid sound of their words, which they use like sharp weapons, especially when rude to female artists. I also do not particularly like to listen to politicians spout the drivel they do during election times. Use the voice to speak the truth, man! I also used to hate the sound of construction like pile drivers outside my window here in London but I changed my attitude to it and now it’s fine, just the sounds of machines… You can even make great little recordings of these sounds and then use them in your music!

You can ask anyone one question. What is it?

I’m new in town, can you please direct me to the nearest blues club?

Your best live memory?

There have been so many, it’s a difficult question. The last time on stage with Steve Bywater in Belgium comes to mind, and also playing Paris with Hector Zazou, or London’s Ronnie Scotts with Mick Ronson: all those guys have passed now but I remember the gigs vividly, I also have funny memories of playing in New York way back in the early eighties as a duo with Jaco Pastorius on bass. He was hilarious, and although some people thought him too eccentric, I loved him for it.

The best advice you could give anyone?

My advice is not to give advice, because it will come back to haunt you! Only kidding, seriously though, stay clean and hang in there, because sometimes it takes a long time for you to develop your work into your own style and then even longer to have an audience understand it. Sincerity is absolutely Key.

More on The Good Music Fox about Shipwreck’d soon.