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“Everything I’ve ever done has revolved around words,” says Kidd, “… teaching high school English, writing advertising copy, newspaper editing, poetry writing, publishing a novel, composing lyrics.”
He wrote the popular Ballad of the Pilgrim, the Lady and the Sailor when he was 18 and editor of his high school yearbook. He studied English at the University of Stirling, Scotland, and Education at Queen’s University, Canada. His novel Sacrificing Sticks was written in his adopted Nova Scotia.
“Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits was the first album I ever bought. I was at high school and I played it until the vinyl wore down. At the time, I was reading Dylan Thomas, Rod McKuen, Ian Fleming; listening to James Taylor, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and more. Music and words found me – the music got me; the words kept me.”
His songs fall into four genres: “Mostly light rock such as Franklin D. Zodiac and Glooscap, as well as hard rock like Cancer in the Universe and Poor Men Bleed, but also some country like Six Ways From Sunday and Driving to Gainesville, as well as traditional pieces that include Walls Weep in Donegal and Cairneagle Glen.”
And his favorite lyrics: “I’d say, My Old Guitar. The beat, words and story came together as one.”
A song gets built
much like bricks in a wall
Progress the chords
words fall where they fall
Comes like a fever
in the dead of the night
Drags you from sleep
and begs you to write
Rhythm and words
the raw steel of life
Iron and carbon
make a powerful knife
