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| With fellow songwriters including Mick Hanly, Jane Cassidy and Kate Purcell at the Belltable Arts Centre - Limerick 1993 |
3. Exploring the Guitar
Since the early
90's Austin has concentrated on composing instrumental music mainly for guitar.
Although he would pay less attention to songwriting, one new song entitled
The Dream (which he has
yet to record himself) was covered by Northern Ireland singer/guitarist Maurice
Dickson and Limerick singer Tom Canty (formerly of The Farran
Folk).
In 1994, after
walking The Camino De Santiago in Northern Spain, he took part in a musical
project called On The Road To
Santiago. It was released on CD by a group of singers and
musicians who walked the ancient pilgrim route with him under the name Camino.
All proceeds from this project went to MS Ireland. Camino featured his song
La Luna De Pamplona,
which is the theme song for groups of pilgrims who walk the
Camino raising funds for MS each May/June. Several of Austin's instrumentals
also featured.
Although Austin played in many countries throughout the 90's, including France, Spain, Holland, South Africa and China, his only solo album in this decade was What's Another Continent (1996). It featured a mixture of guitar instrumentals and songs with guest musicians Mairtin O Conner (De Dannan), Declan Masterson (Moving Hearts, Riverdance) and top Irish traditional fiddler Martin Hayes. The opening track There's A Wall, a song composed while in China in 1995, was published in China Tourism News and the lyrics in Chinese featured on the CD cover.