Biography

It’s over 50 years now since my parents bought me an acoustic guitar from Woolworths and I started writing songs. Songs about being a teenager and trying to understand people and the world around me. (I still have many of those). The “teenager” bit has certainly changed 🤣 but the rest still applies…

After a 40 year career in journalism and broadcasting in the UK I knew I had to get back to writing songs. I never thought I record one album – let alone three ! The first called “On Roosevelt” arrived in 2014. I was hesitant about putting on the internet as there’s always that gnawing voice “fear of failure” pulling you back …but I pushed on got terrific feedback. People applauded when I played the songs live. It’s not about age is it ? It’s about the music.

So I thought I’d do another album. “Usual Alias” was issued 2017 and some of the songs made it onto BBC tv and radio in the UK. One song about my old style family photo albums ” Always Reminders” won the Hollywood Song Contest in the USA. I won other songwriting awards and suddenly found I had fans in Brazil, Israel, Hong Kong and towns in America and Canada I’d never heard of. I had to Google them ! It was a pretty wonderful feeling.

So in the Spring of 2022 I’m finally emerging from behind a mask with my 3rd album “Somebody Said” – folk pop, modern country, off beat , social commentary – whatever labels are applied to songs – it’s all in there.I’m really proud of the music and for getting it over the line in spite of all the challenges of recent years. My late grandmother Alice Queenie Desty, a fine pianist in Southampton before , during and after WW2 , once wrote ” “Keep near the music “. I did.

A former journalist, Lee worked for BBC TV News for over 25 years.