Al Ponting

Al Ponting (14/5/1948 – 1/9/2007) was married to singer Heather Innes. Al wrote a number of his own songs and recorded these during his life along with other covers. Heather writes:” I met Al at a folk event in Hereford, England in March 1996. At the time he had recorded a full cassette tape of songs but couldn’t afford to have the recording printed off as cassettes. That was until I found him a gig at a hotel on Holy Island, Northumberland. The gig was on a Sunday evening and Al and I went straight from a church service at St Mary’s on the island to his gig. At the service I noticed that Al put his very last pennies in the collection plate. In the break at Al’s gig a young couple approached Al for a copy of his song “Bluebell Time”. When they learnt that Al didn’t have a recording and why, the man, a solicitor from the south of England, wrote Al a cheque on the spot to fund the recording of 500 cassettes with the one proviso Al send him and his fiancé one of the cassettes.”
Later Al joined folk band “Firefrost” for a while then formed a duo “Freeloaders” for a number of years with singer/guitarist Davey Shaw. During his career as a singer/songwriter Al penned a number of peace songs which he put together as several peace concerts with a variety of musicians in Scotland and Florida, USA. Being a builder and blacksmith by trade, Al had a desire to provide decent, affordable housing for folk in need and contacted the Habitat for Humanity organisation to donate the proceeds of his peace concerts and to help with the building of one of their houses on a trip to Florida.
Heather’s duo “Caim” was invited to record at the studio of Right Real Records in Rotherham, Yorkshire and thought Chris of Right Real Records should hear Al’s music. Chris liked what he heard and Al visited Right Real Records in July 2007 to record 4 of his songs – including his song “Valley of Love”. During this time Chris and Al became firm friends.
Al had a sudden stroke resulting in renal failure at the end of August 2007 and died on 1 September 2007. Al’s song “Valley of Love” was quickly mastered by Chris and made ready to play at Al’s funeral and Chris sang his own song “Goodnight” for Al at the service. Both songs are on this album of Al’s which Chris and Heather put together after Al’s death as a tribute to him. Al had wanted to have a CD called “Full Vision” – Chris and Heather completed it for him.