This release is a Tale of Two Sessions and two colourful labels, Greentrax in the U.K. and Europe and Red House in North America.  The first element is “Windward Away” started back in 1998 when he met up with the late Bob Feldman of the American label Red House Records in St. Paul’s Minnesota while touring with John Renbourn.  Red House had also leased the “Sunsets” album and Bob then signed Archie for a new recording.  This session of songs had a protracted birth and never seemed complete and it took a piece of musical archaeology from Neil Ross at REL Records in Edinburgh to complete the picture.

While moving studio he came across a safety copy of an album that Archie had recorded while he was working with the revived pairing of Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy in the 1970s.  This had never seen the light of day and Archie had recorded several of the tracks on his later albums.  The accompanying note from Neil Ross asked “Is this the missing master?” and so it was christened.  Consequently this recording - which includes  8 of the tracks - spans twenty eight years of Archie’s writing and singing career, another lifetime, a second debut.