Robyn Hitchcock has recorded an album which may be called The Man Upstairs, with the great record producer Joe Boyd (Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Pink Floyd, and many more), to be released in 2014 on YepRoc Records. Charlie Francis (better known as a producer and engineer) plays piano on four tracks.

In his newsletter Boyd writes: “I am occasionally approached by managers or artists wondering if I’m still up for producing records. I say yes, in theory. Then I set forth the way I’d like to do it: live in the studio (mostly, anyway, a few overdubs allowed…), no more than 6 days recording, maximum 6 days for mixing. For singer-songwriters, I say we’d have to include other people’s songs mixed in with theirs. Not covers of well-known songs, just good songs that fit in. Most respond with, ‘we’ll think about that and get back to you’ and I never hear from them again.”

Ah, but when Boyd told Hitchcock the lay of the land…

“my pal and touring partner Robyn Hitchcock has agreed to all my conditions,” Boyd writes. “We recorded and mixed a cd in 7 days (with the invaluable assistance of the great engineer Jerry Boys) and we’re both delighted with it. It will emerge on YepRoc sometime in 2014 (provisional title “The Man Upstairs”) and you can judge for yourselves if the Boyd approach works or not.”