📷 Photos by Jannica Honey

How did someone’s painful arm become a four year music project exploring the many moments of a woman’s life that are usually experienced in silence?

It was mid-COVID times. My partner, an incredibly strong woman who I was used to seeing endure trials and tribulations way beyond any I could stand, lost it. She was experiencing frequent, excruciating pain in her arm that stopped her in her tracks and made her cry out with the intensity. The doctor and the physio declared she had a ‘frozen shoulder’, and gave her some exercises she did with great dedication. No explanation for why this dreadful thing had suddenly arisen.

No-one mentioned the menopause.

If there ever was a time that women of all ages gathered and passed the wisdom of their experience from one generation to another, that time is not now. Instead of hearing from people who’ve been there before, my partner and I and most women around us grew up talking to our peers about issues – and they were no more clued up than us. That is if we talked about the issues at all. There seemed to be so many things that none of us did talk about: periods, sex, the menopause, all the many life changing experiences so many of us went through around the childbearing cycle, like abortion, miscarriages, not having children, not wanting to be a mother. Somehow, without anyone saying anything, we all knew not to speak openly about our experiences of such matters.

That’s how taboos work.

When I found out through a friend that frozen shoulders are strongly linked to the menopause, I was stunned. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned that? When I really thought about the matter, I saw two things: that relevant and vitally important information about all manner of female experience doesn’t get passed down from one generation to another. And two, that something that pervaded these subjects was shame.

And shame, I saw, brought silence, and silence brought isolation.

So we’d ended up with this insane situation: many many women all experiencing similar things, in need of support and community, and no-one feeling able to say anything.

I asked myself what, if anything, could I do? There seemed one very simple action: get people together to talk. Women of all ages, across the generations. I put a call out on social media inviting women to an online discussion about the menopause. This was before Davina McColl and her Channel 4 documentary, when menopause wasn’t as out in the open as it is now. I was amazed by how many women wanted to come. Too many – we had to have 2 different sessions.

I learned more about the menopause that day than in all my years. This gathering women of all ages together thing seemed to work. What else did we need to talk about?

I thought about my own life. What might help me to discuss with other women? Perhaps the fact that I don’t have children? I put another post online: would any women like to come together and talk about not having children?

Again, massive interest. Again, massive learning. I seemed to be onto something here.

What has any of this to do with music? As someone who lives, breathes and thinks song, I started to wonder whether there were any folk songs written about not having kids. I knew plenty about mothering (think of all the lullabies), songs about the plight of single mothers, but what about childless women? Online research brought nothing. I reached out to that stalwart of female folk song knowledge, Peggy Seeger, and asked if her she knew of any. She said absolutely, categorically no. There weren’t any.

So of course I had to write one.

And so began a process that has now resulted in an album and a ‘live gig experience’, The Elephant In The Womb.

Twelve songs and a two-hour show followed by a discussion. The show was developed in conjunction with survivors of various traumatic experiences and aims to use the unifying power of communal singing to bring connection and community to aspects of our lives previously experienced alone. Think gig-meets-folk-club singalong plus.

It features three genres: traditional song (or songs in a traditional style), ‘medicine music’ – gentle songs to soothe and comfort – and my own genre, ‘mad trad’, which sees me using a loop pedal to layer up multiple vocal harmonies and rhythms, still grounded in the folk song tradition. And I get somewhat creative with percussion too.

All are welcome to the show. The most common word people have used to describe their experience of the project so far is ‘inspired.’ People laugh and cry, which I personally think is a great combination. It gets people thinking, and talking, and singing. And, crucially, for any woman who wants to continue exploring these issues and experiencing community around them, there are ways to stay in touch beyond the gig.

The album is released mid-March, and is followed by a tour.
www.joaniebones.com/the-elephant-in-the-womb

📷 Photo by Alleksana Photography

For any artist, the creation of an album is a journey – one that often takes unexpected turns and reveals itself gradually. Fable, my latest album, was no exception. What began as a collection of songs I felt deeply connected to evolved into a cohesive exploration of Scottish folklore, history, and identity. The theme wasn’t apparent at the start, but as the songs came together, a narrative unfolded – one woven from the myths, landscapes, and voices of Scotland.

The Stories Behind Fable

Scotland has always been a land of storytellers, where history is passed down through song, poetry, and oral tradition. I wanted Fable to reflect this, drawing from both traditional and original material to create something that feels timeless yet personal. The songs largely stem from Gaelic and Scots folklore, while others capture contemporary experiences through a folkloric lens. I also wanted the album to encapsulate my love for Scottish Gaelic, Scots, and writing my own songs – something I’ve done since my days with Barluath. My gigs have always been eclectic, representing the living and breathing tradition of songs and stories, and I think this album captures that spirit – eclectic, unafraid to explore, and a true reflection of my personality through music and performance.

One song that exemplifies this is Machir Bay, inspired by Islay’s rugged beauty and adventure, but it is a big sing – probably the biggest sing I have recorded on a solo record, which is exciting, I’m very proud of this track. Another track that exemplifies the eclecticness of the record is The Angels’ Share, that explores Scotland’s connection to whisky. Like quite a lot of Scotland’s legends and traditions (we’re thinking Nessy here), it’s often dismissed as a shortbread tin cliché, but for me, it is far from that. Nearly all my family has worked in the whisky industry across different sectors – it is part of the lifeblood of Scottish tradition, something I have grown up with. The album also incorporates old legends and songs such as The Cailleach and Cumha an Eich-Uisge, further weaving folklore into the music. Some of the songs come from the Tolmie Collection, which I co-edit alongside my longtime friend and teacher, Kenna Campbell.

I also decided to take a completely different turn and include a Gaelic translation of Nina Simone’s Sinnerman. Arranging this was incredibly challenging – it had to retain the epic energy of the original while becoming something new and uniquely ours. My incredible band played a huge role in bringing it to life: Alistair Iain Paterson, Sam Kelly, Toby Shaer, Signy Jakobsdottir, Euan Burton (on the recorded version), and Manny Clarke (live). Some might say it leans into jazz, others might call it a bit pop—but that’s the beauty of music, right? It makes each of us feel something different, whether that’s excitement, nostalgia, or something else entirely. Sinnerman fits into the overarching theme of Fable as a tale of reckoning and consequence, much like the Scottish ballads and myths woven throughout the album. Though originally an African American spiritual, its themes of fate and desperation felt familiar to me within Gaelic storytelling. Translating it into Gaelic and reimagining the arrangement made it feel like part of my own tradition—honouring the past while making it something new and personal.

Additionally, I included What Can a Young Lassie, a Burns song, and Leave Her Johnny, a sea shanty – both of which I learned during my time at RCS and performed with Barluath in live gigs 15 years ago when we first started out. These are songs that have been a part of me for so long, deeply influencing me at the time, yet I had never recorded them until now. This album spans a huge period in my life, capturing songs that have been in my ether for many years, making their way into this collection at last.

Choosing the Right Musicians

An album’s sound is as much about the musicians as it is about the songs. For Fable, I knew I wanted to work with people who not only understood traditional music but could bring something fresh to the arrangements. Sam Kelly, who produced the album, was a natural choice – his musical sensitivity and storytelling instincts aligned perfectly with the vision for the record. Toby Shaer’s ability to weave flute and guitar seamlessly into the arrangements added depth, while Alistair Iain Paterson’s piano and harmonium grounded the album in a rich, evocative soundscape. And with Signy Jakobsdottir’s percussive textures, the heartbeat of the album truly came to life.

Thematic Evolution

At the outset, I didn’t set out to create a concept album, but as the songs took shape, a theme became clear – one of Scotland’s stories, its people, and their connection to place. Each track, whether rooted in tradition or my own writing, ties into this overarching idea. Fable isn’t just a collection of songs; it’s a sonic tapestry of the past and present, a celebration of the voices that continue to shape Scottish music and identity.

The Physical Album and Trends

This is the first time I’ve produced vinyl, and I feel terribly trendy for it – hahaha! But in all seriousness, it’s exciting and new for me. It’s important to look at what is selling in different audience demographics, and with a younger audience and standing gigs, vinyl is much more popular. CDs, on the other hand, tend to do better at sitting gigs. While this isn’t always the case, I’m so pleased that physical sales are being encouraged. The physical product is really important to me – I put so much thought and effort into the artwork, working with Silverlace Creative, as well as the blurbs, lyrics, and English translations of the Gaelic songs. I absolutely love a sing-along when I get a new album, and I wanted to ensure listeners could properly learn the songs. The notes are also a valuable reference for those studying Gaelic and those wanting to dive deeper into the inspiration behind the music.

The Reality of Funding an Album

This album has been mostly self-funded, and I won’t sugarcoat it – it can be quite the burden. I’ve had to take things slowly, methodically, and allow myself time to think and rest when needed. It’s taken me a year to release this album from when I first started recording. The only funding I was able to secure was from Urras, a Gaelic fund that covered the PR campaign after the release, which was incredibly helpful. It’s something worth discussing openly – making albums independently is a huge undertaking, and it’s important for artists to share their realities without discouraging others from pursuing their own projects.

Looking Ahead

Celtic Connections has now come and gone, and Fable is out in the world. I’m excited to be heading on tour across England to promote the album in February and March – Scotland later in the year. You can check out my tour dates here. If you enjoy the album, I’d love for you to follow me on Spotify, and if you’d like to support my music further, the physical CD and vinyl are available to buy now: www.ainsleyhamill.com

Supporting your favourite artists makes a huge difference, and while I used to shy away from saying it, I now realise how important it is to let people know the best ways to help. Folk music is a community, and people genuinely want to support artists – they just sometimes don’t know how. Whether it’s buying a physical copy, streaming, or coming to a gig, every bit of support matters.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me. Fable is an album I’m incredibly proud of, and I hope it resonates with you as much as it does with me. Let’s keep the stories, songs, and tradition alive – after all, that’s what folk music is all about.

“You’re so lucky to play music”

The poignant song ‘Everything is free’ by Gillian Welsh skilfully captures a dynamic where we as musicians can be damned when faint praise replaces a full appreciation of worth. It can feel that the glistening tip of the iceberg is sometimes the only aspect appreciated by even loyal fans.

Anyone involved in music though will surely recognise that it takes conviction, passion, a sense of vocation and a dose of bravery to achieve the recognition and commercial success that many of us require for our practice to be sustainable to us.

These are themes that recur in discussion with my MA Music and the Environment students. These students tend to be established practicing musicians from a variety of genres and distributed across many time zones in different countries. This imperative to convey the full ‘iceberg’ of value that our music truly represents is not confined to just the UK.

The recent Scottish ratification of the UNESCO Convention for the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and numerous reports detailing the benefits of music at the societal and economic realms do not seem to protect the sector from funding cuts and demoralising news of valued institutions falling by the wayside. Yet, Scottish traditional groups have sold out large venues from the OVO Hydro in Glasgow to Carnegie Hall in New York.

So, to embark on any musical journey without a visible destination there needs to be a sense of conviction and bravery to invest our cherished time and energy in developing and honing our practice despite the difficulties.

“Walk on air against your better judgement” as the poet Seamus Heaney implored of us as his epitaph.

My University of the Highlands and Islands colleague Professor Roxanne Permar introduced me to the work of Martinican poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant and his work on Archipelagic Thinking. Rhizomatic, without centre, shared identity and values can bond and facilitate collaboration between disparate though connected islands.

This metaphor resonated with the reality of my MA students who successfully collaborate and create music online though often without meeting in person. Bonds and common cause can be found as a basis for group creativity demonstrating adaptability, resilience and shared appreciation for the value of music in and of itself.

To celebrate the wonderful outputs of this cohort we will meet in person in a public event on Wednesday 15^th January to showcase this and other work in The Bungalow in Paisley.

Feel free to join us to explore these themes and find out more about what this course can offer, and you can also watch the event on the venues Facebook page either at the time or afterwards.

https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/courses/ma-music-and-the-environment/

Folk duo Rachel Walker and Aaron Jones celebrate their roots with a stunning new album of traditional Gaelic, Scottish, English and Irish songs.

Amongst The Wild Rowans, is our second full album. It’s a celebration of our roots and an attempt to make an honest record that reflects where we came from, our influences and the songs that moved us at different times in our lives, whether through happiness, sadness or that sense of longing that great folk songs portray so well.

We first met back in 2007 when Rachel was producing the album Greisean Grèine by the gorgeous Gaelic singer James Graham. Producing an album is akin to herding cats and involves incredible feats of appeasing musical egos and remaining objective in the middle of subjectivity that can be poles apart amongst the musicians involved. You need to have a vision despite the peripheral noise associated with making the album and most importantly, you need to understand what the most important element of a traditional song album is. The songs themselves. You’re telling stories and, like all great novels, to do that effectively you need to grab the listener. You need them to invest in your characters. You need a beginning, a middle and an end and perhaps most critically, you need to make the listener feel something…anything.

That’s what we learned from singers around us. Whether it was delivered through the crackle of an LP on a parents record player, late night songs at family parties or through the voice of the singer who, entirely unaccompanied, hushed a noisy pub to breathless silence with tales of love lost, love found, despair and happiness.

Whatever the method of delivery to our ears, it was clear to me back then that Rachel and I shared that same profound love for good songs. We both felt the extraordinary power of a song, simply told, to move you, to change you to your very core, to teach you, and to help you understand.

We recorded our first album together as a result of a musical partnership that started when I recorded on Rachel's fabulous album Gaol and grew through lockdown. We both needed silver linings, everyone did, and we found ours in a shared passion for song. I had always wanted to write more. I had dabbled but Rachel had some previous experience with a gorgeous back catalogue of heartfelt songs in both Gaelic and English.

📷 Photo by Andrew King

At the start of 2022 we worked together to research and record Despite The Wind and Rain, an entirely self penned album which celebrated inspirational Scottish women. Through our research we tried to understand the women we sang about. We worked to find musical and lyrical ways to tell their stories and bring them to life. As we toured the album through Scotland, Ireland and Canada we sang their songs and, we hope, entered the stories of their lives into folklore. They became part of our traditional culture.

When we sat down to plan a new recording we decided that it was important to ‘dig where we stand’ and we began searching through songs we had collected over the years which held deep personal significance. Songs we had heard and learned at the beginning of our musical journeys, songs that were important at different times in our lives and the songs that inspired us, broke our hearts, raised a smile – made us feel something.

Amongst The Wild Rowans is an intimate collection of twelve of those traditional songs.

Our opening track Jimmy Mo Mhìle Stòr comes from the Irish tradition. I first heard the Delores Keane version in Irish Gaelic way back in the day. Years later and I heard the English version recorded by the brilliant Christy O’Leary. Beautiful and moving in either Gaelic or English we set about our own macaronic version and shared the lead vocal. Originally translated from Irish Gaelic to Scottish Gaelic by Gaelic broadcaster Seonag Monk, the song tells of a girl who is waiting for Jimmy to return from the sea. To escape her parents attempts to marry her off to someone else she goes to the woods to wait ‘amongst the wild rowans’ for her sweetheart to return.

In well-known folk ballad, Annan Water, the narrative was again shared between our two voices to try to create a more powerful sense of storytelling. I heard this version from wonderful English folk singer/songwriter, Kate Rusby. We both shared a love for Nic Jones who originally adapted the song and on the occasions that I got to perform it with Kate and the band, it never ever failed to moved me.

In I Am A Youth, I wanted to pay homage to Andy Irvine and Paul Brady, both of whom had a huge impact on the Irish folk scene and inspired me as a young singer and musician. A great song from Sam Henry’s incredible Songs of the People collection, I first heard this song performed by Paul Brady. I’ve been lucky enough to travel regularly to ‘seek my fortune’ in America since 1997 and, since I spend so much time on the road away from loved ones, the lyrics always struck a chord with me.

It was so satisfying to make an album of the songs we love. I was brought up in a family that always sang and since those early days I’ve always looked for new songs to sing. Whether learned from the music that surrounded me in my youth, from family sessions or from the many great singers I’ve had the good fortune to hear or work with over the years, these songs feel like the story of my life. We’ve tried to capture an honesty and sincerity in the arrangements which do justice to what these songs mean to us both.

——————–

Amongst The Wild Rowans is now available from Bandcamp and on all platforms. Rachel Walker and Aaron Jones will take to the road in the UK and Germany in 2025 to promote the album.

Website: www.rachelwalkerandaaronjones.com
Instagram: @Rachel_Walker_And_Aaron_Jones

📷 Jenny by Amanda Jackson Photography
Kirkwall Harbour by Alan Guthrie Photography

NEW RELEASE ALBUM AND TUNEBOOK

As I sit here looking out across Orkney’s lush fertile fields, watching the birds flying effortlessly around the breaking sunlight I think about how lucky I am to be at home following many years travelling the world as a touring professional musician.

For over three decades, I performed as one half of the duo ‘The Wrigley Sisters’ with my twin, Hazel, recording over a dozen albums, undertaking three world tours, visiting 47 countries (including 15 trans-Atlantic trips) and appearing in countless television and radio productions. Together, we also ran Kirkwall’s iconic Reel – a music school, café/bar, music shop, concert venue and exhibition space – for 16 years until Covid forced its closure.

📷 The Reel, Kirkwall by Tom O’Brien Photography

Orkney, my creative centre, is located approximately 15 miles off the north coast of Scotland.  It is an archipelago of more than 70 islands and has, throughout history, been a cultural throughfare, especially for sea travellers; the recent discovery of the 5500-year-old Ness of Brodgar complex, used for ceremonies and rituals; the natural harbour of Scapa Flow, home to the Vikings and subsequently the British Grand Fleet during two world wars.  During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the nearby harbour town of Stromness, birthplace of influential twentieth century Orcadian poet, George Mackay Brown, served as the last port of call before the long trip across the Atlantic for seafarers including Captain James Cook and Sir John Franklin.  Now an integral part in the development of diverse and successful renewable energy sources, being home to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd – the world’s first and leading facility for demonstrating and testing wave and tidal energy converters, Orkney, with the sea and the wind, coupled with ancient history and roots is a beautiful place for artists, creativity, and worldwide cultural cross-stitching melodies.

I feel honoured and delighted to be asked by the Traditional Music Forum to share my latest musical adventure with you; the creation of my brand-new release ‘Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride’ album and music book.

It has been quite a journey, one that began three and half years ago.  I was extremely fortunate to be chosen in 2021 by music charity Sound and Music, London as one of six NEW VOICES artists selected out of over 400 UK wide applicants.  They offered support across 18 months for me to create a new compositional piece work.  I could compose whatever I wanted, and they would support me.  “Think big”, said my Creative Advisor Nicole – that is a dangerous thing to say to someone creatively minded.  I thought about going down the ‘Techno fiddle’ route but decided that writing something centred on fiddle music would be more for me!

My plan was to create a composition based on the traditional music of Orkney, highlighting the importance of the rhythm in the music not only in the playing styles but also in the local dialect and mannerisms of Orkney.

Sound and Music encouraged me to think about my inspirations and ultimately it involved exploring a brand-new medium, using local audio samples to inspire percussive ideas within the composition. There are stories of people dancing to anything in Orkney! I began looking for recordings of any ordinary Orkney sounds and voices e.g., cackling women, the auction mart, the buzz of the pre-concert audience, the bustle of the pier as the boat comes in, sport being played, children playing, gossips and laughing. Despite there being a large archive of this audio material in existence I really struggled to locate these sounds online. What I was looking for is seemingly difficult to find or has not yet been digitised. This got me thinking; could a special digital sound library, specific to a place and a time, created by artists be useful for others – I cannot be the first to search for these sounds?

📷 Jennifer Wrigley by Sean Purser Photography

The IDENTITY INSPIRATION MEMORIES AUDIO PLATFORM or iiMap, supported by an additional Sound and Music Dimensions Award, is a collaboration with photographer Keith Allardyce (RIP), Orkney Museums, National Library of Scotland, Orkney Library and Archives and Orkney Voices, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and many others. It aims to collect memories and ordinary familiar sounds specific to people and place, highlighting dialects and mannerisms that characterise roots and converting those creative influences into something digital that can be shared with others. You can learn more by visiting www.iiMap.co.uk

📷 iiMap photo of Children in Stromness by Keith Allardyce Photography

📷 Keith Allardyce by Keith Allardyce Photography

I think the traditional music of the fiddle (aka violin) is like your accent.  When you grow up sitting next to your forefathers and playing music there is a certain rhythm and manner in their voice.  Natives of Orkney tend to speak quite quietly and softly with their fun staccato accent bearing a recognisably Scandinavian style lilt.  Their fiddling style similarly uses a short, light, distinctive bowing technique which gives the music an understated simple lift and assured dance.  The focus being always on the simplicity of the melody which traditionally is what people danced to.  A traditional tune was one you could hum, was memorable and catchy and passed on aurally.  Perhaps less to do with the notes and more to do with the rhythmic voice and personality of the player, unique to different traditions of the world.

As I grew up being inspired by my musical pals, I too wanted to inspire others, irrespective of the cleanliness of the production and quality of the playing, making it real and rooted, to understand and appreciate the old voices and make them new again. These are stories without words.

As an artist I continue to strive to broaden my musical horizons, explore making music with new people whilst retaining Orkney’s real culture, the people, their generosity, their softly spoken stories, their sense of humour, their tunes, their pride, and self-sufficiency. This is something that cannot be learnt from a book or from the internet but only by connecting socially with older players and is something that I fear may be happening less and less in the modern world.  To me traditional music is all about rhythm, voices and having faith in the melody/words.  I feel so very lucky to have been steeped in the aural tradition from a young age.

In recent years traditional music has become more fashionable again, but often the focus is given to providing a groove under the melody which can be so overpowering that the melody is largely lost.  Traditionally, the actual tune and its dance intrinsically connected the listener to react to the rhythmic push and pull of the notes and not the groove underneath.  This is something I feel is incredibly important not to lose.  Providing a sympathetic accompaniment to these beautiful simple melodies is much harder than one might expect.

So, after 18 months of creativity and preparation the result was a live performance staged at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in March 2023.  Combining my Associate Artist role at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) with the New Voices award from Sound and Music.

Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride – my first solo venture – tells a progressive story based on a journey to Orkney.  I wanted the four movements to represent our modern-day struggle in life for material goods over and above a safe home/place for us all to live.  This simpler way of life, and the sense of community that traditional music encapsulates, has been the foundation of our race for thousands of years.  Current world affairs remind us daily how lucky we are to have the solidity of the land around us.

📷 Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride performers and crew. Taken at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Chandler Studio in March 2023. By Sean Purser Photography.

In addition to fourteen RCS music students, the live performance captured on the new album featured singer Alyth McCormack, multi-BBC award winning guitarist and accordionist Tim Edey, former BBC Folk on Two winner and past Riverdance band member, accordionist Luke Daniels, Scottish Borders pianist Harris Playfair, and Orcadian pianist Laurence Wilson.

📷 From left to right: Tim Edey, Eleanor Dunsdon, Calum MacKinnon, Gregor Black, Jessica Fraser, Luke Daniels, Jennifer Wrigley, Rachel Henderson and Kristina Leesik. Photo by Sean Purser Photography.

The performance also included internationally acclaimed championship dancer, teacher and choreographer, Jane Douglas, along with the Fèis Lochabair Scottish Step Dancers, who brought an exciting rhythmic and energetic element to the new composition. Third-year RCS student and lighting designer, Pippa Reilly, led the partnering tech team and brought her own special creative magic to the show.

📷 Fèis Lochabair Scottish Step Dancers by Sean Purser Photography

Firstly, we travel across the Gaelic speaking Highlands, strathspeys, mountains and on to the moorlands of Caithness with the air ‘’The Four Bridges Crossing’ (The Forth, Kessock, Cromarty and Dornoch Bridges) followed by the march ‘The Jellico Express’, (during the war Admiral Jellico’s train carried troops from the south of England to Orkney) a strathspey ‘The Berridale Crawl’ (a notorious cliff top climb on the A9) and reel ‘The Risky Picnic’ (a sandy soft escape bed designed for trucks looks like a nice place for a cuppa!) Finally, we ride ‘The Pentland Firth Swing’ (hold on, the boat across the Firth might get a bit rough) which highlights the swing jazz Harlem style piano and guitar playing which was famously carried to the Northern Isles via the short-wave radio in the 1920’s.  We journey through the powerful tidal waters of the notorious Pentland Firth which was once described in renewable energy terms as the ‘Saudi Arabia of the North’ and on past the ‘Merry Men of Mey’ tidal race.  As we round the Old Man of Hoy cliff stack, the two lighthouses of Hoy High and Hoy Low on the island of Graemsay will guide us safely into harbour.

📷 Harris Playfair by Sean Purser Photography

📷 From left to right: Rachel Henderson, Rory Carter, Kristina Leesik, Ruby Whitaker, Oisin McCann and Josiah Duhlstine. Photo by Sean Purser Photography.

The second movement ‘Reach for the Slip’ is composed for our arrival in Orkney, we survived the boat journey and are grateful for the solid ground in which to stand.  Greeted by welcoming islanders, helping hands are offered/reach out to help us climb ashore. We look around in relief and in awe at the beauty of this ancient new place with its green, lush, fertile, uninterrupted expanse of blue skies and sea. The piece highlights the melodic influence of the Norse fiddle style melodies.

📷 Tim Edey by Sean Purser Photography

📷 Alyth McCormack by Sean Purser Photography

The third track is a folk song encompassing the message of the whole piece and a bringing together of cultures based on respect, friendship and sharing.  ‘Beyond the Merry Men of Mey’ is a song that includes the pipe melody ‘Air for Arne’ which I composed for the late Orcadian piper Arne Flett who was full of stories and ‘March for Magnus’ for my son.  This cultural convergence is represented by the alignment of the two lighthouses “Hoy High and Hoy Low” and featured in the show a luminous bioluminescence phenomenon seen on the water known as Milky Seas or Mareel.  Even after dark when there is no power, the music and dancing will continue.

📷 Laurence Wilson by Sean Purser Photography

The final track celebrates the hall/dance.  The community, young and old come together to dance. The first tune in the set ‘The Laughing Barn Dance’ (you should hear laughter) highlights the influence in Orkney of the accordion music of William Hannah, from Blackburn, who was one of Jimmy Shand’s biggest influences.   It features a special old accordion, similar in design to William Hannah’s early 1920’s box, which went on to revolutionise the accordion in Scotland. Hannah and Shand had close connections with Orkney and Shand even lived in Orkney for a short time.  Featuring the driving and rhythmic traditional Orkney piano accompaniment this tune pays homage to the unique Orkney Barn Dances and showcased a special newly commissioned piece of choreography by Jane Douglas which in true Orkney style brings together dancing influences from all around the world. The second tune in the set celebrates the east coast Scottish fiddle influence of Scott Skinner; a Scottish champion fiddler, dancer and showman, well known for his virtuosic variations.  ‘The Midgie Minuet’ is an agitated high-brow dance usually performed when the ‘Midgees’ are biting!  Finally, everyone is brought together for a “dance and tune off” the reel ‘Tackity Boots’ (an Orcadian dancer whose metal stud boots caused sparks to fly on the flag floor).  Two specially made dancing ‘Limberjack Dolls’ represented Scott Skinner and Jimmy Shand.

📷 Alex Wotherspoon with the specially commissioned Limberjack dolls of Jimmy Shand and Noah Scott with Scott Skinner Scott. Photo by Sean Purser Photography.

The performance and ultimately the album is a hugely important project for me in so many ways. Not only is it my first solo venture, but it also comes at a time when the world is experiencing so much discord and conflict, with attitudes towards migration a particular concern to me. Orkney has, for thousands of years, been a place where folk have travelled to, and transitioned through, so I wanted to create a work that told the story of a hopeful journey, with a suite reflecting the welcoming and optimistic nature of our island’s community, and a simpler, kinder way of life.

📷 by Sean Purser Photography

I’m very grateful to everyone who contributed their talents, time and energy to make this project possible. I want to especially thank all the musicians who took part in the original performance in Glasgow and made it such an unforgettable event. I’m really excited to be sharing Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride with the world and I hope everyone enjoys travelling to Orkney with me!

An accompanying Catch the Rhythmic Orkney Tide and Ride music book, available to buy, has arrangements for fiddle, with harmonies, bowings, ornaments and chords, plus live photos from the RCS show.  Available to purchase now by mail order from my website and on all major streaming platforms.

ON SALE HERE

📷 by Somhairle MacDonald

Mairearad and I are cousins and grew up playing music together in informal settings as well as performing as part of Fèis Rois. Mairearad is from Achnahaird in the North West Highlands. I’m from Edinburgh and spent my school holidays up in Achnahaird at our Grandparents’, just up the road from Mairearad’s house. In fact, several of the houses in Achnahaird are inhabited by members of our family and it was always a lot of fun spending time with a big group of cousins growing up. The next generation of kids are around now and it’s nice to see them all heading off to the beach in a gang like we did when we were younger.

Achnahaird, a few miles from Achiltibuie, is part of a peninsula called Coigach, around 20 miles north west of Ullapool. I might be biased, but I think it’s one of the most scenic parts of Scotland, with a dramatic backdrop of mountains overlooking a long sandy beach. Our Grandfather was from Achnahaird and our Grandmother was from Polbain, just on the other side of the Coigach peninsula. They were native Gaelic speakers and their house was always a hub of activity. My mum Jessie was the eldest of 6 children, Mairearad’s mum Sheila being the second.

We’ve always known about the Coigach Resistance and that our family played some part in it, but it wasn’t until recently that we really looked into it. The Coigach Resistance was a series of events that took place in 1852/3 over a period of 18 months where local people managed to successfully resist the serving of summons to remove from their land. It was one of the few successful resistances during the Highland Clearances in the lead up to the Napier Commission and the Crofting Act of 1866. What really struck us about these events is that they were often led by women. Four young women in particular are named in various accounts and one of those women is our Great Great Grandmother Anna Bhàn.

Recently there have been plans by the organisation Coigach Heritage to commission a sculpture by Will Maclean RSA and Marian Leven RSA to commemorate those who led the resistance. The landmark monument is to be set on the hillside above Acheninver. Central standing stones will be encircled by walls sourced from local ruins with pathways and seating. Granite, slate and bronze highlight other elements of the story. Every stone will symbolise the women and men who made a stand against injustice. This really galvanised us to set about on our own path of commemorating and celebrating this story and our personal connection to it.

We spent a week last summer up in Achnahaird writing the music and doing research. We then went on to record the music at Gran’s House studio near Biggar with engineer and producer Andy Bell. Andy really helped us combine our individual styles and make something that we felt represented us both while at the same time creating a new sound.

Mairearad is also a visual artist and wherever possible, enjoys combining her two passions – art and music. Her impressionistic painting style is very much a visceral response to the land she grew up in and for this album, she created a unique series of ten mixed media artworks to accompany each track. The originals are available from her website and the artwork features in our C.D. and Vinyl booklet.

It was really special and very emotional to return to Coigach last week for our album launch show. We were very touched that so many turned out for the gig and showed us so much support. We’re currently having a great time on tour around Scotland bringing our music to live audiences and sharing the story of the Coigach Resistance.

annabhan.bandcamp.com/album/anna-bh-n

www.coigach-heritage.org/lorg-na-coigich

James Macintosh (1846-1937)
Image: The Chapter House Museum Trust

Flute player and musical researcher Munro Gauld outlines his involvement in a community music project in the heart of Scotland.

Back in the spring of 2022 when rummaging around in the Dunkeld Community Archive, I came across a folder containing old handwritten music manuscripts, some printed song sheets and a wee booklet of tunes.  …… all written over 90 years ago by Dunkeld postie and fiddler, James Macintosh (1846-1837). It was the first glimpse into the lives of an extraordinary local family, leading me down a wonderfully rich rabbit-hole of music, stories and artifacts. And the creation of a collaborative community project which will culminate this September at the Birnam Arts Centre with a celebration of the MacIntosh family’s work and music through a new one-act play, concerts of their music, a book of their songs and tunes, and an exhibition.

Dunkeld, its Musical Heritage and the MacIntosh Fiddlers of Inver

Although Dunkeld is little more than a village, it has an incredibly rich musical heritage dating back to the mid-1700s when it was at the heart of Scotland’s “golden age” of fiddling. Inver, just over the river Tay, was the home of the famous fiddler, Niel Gow (1727-1807) and his musical sons William, Andrew, Nathaniel and John. But during the same period the area was also home to other notable musicians such as Malcolm MacDonald, “Red Rob” MacIntosh from Tulliemet and John Crerar, the Duke of Atholl’s head forester.

Into this picture comes the MacIntosh family of Inver. Their story begins in 1783 with the 22-year-old Charles MacIntosh arriving in Inver dressed as a woman! The Duke of Atholl was clearing Glen Tilt of its tenants to enable him to create a deer forest for shooting, and had reputedly allowed the East India Company army to press-gang the glen for its young men. Charles therefore fled in disguise making his way down river until he reached Inver where he leased a cottage next to Niel Gow’s house. Charles married a local girl and together they had eight children – four of whom became fiddlers including May, who is perhaps the first documented woman to play the fiddle. The eldest, James, was Niel Gow’s last pupil and showed such promise that Niel got his son Nathaniel to buy him a good quality fiddle in Edinburgh. After a short spell as a joiner, James moved to Edinburgh to join Nathaniel’s band and to become a professional fiddler, playing throughout Britain as part of “The Reel Players”. He played for King George IV when he visited Edinburgh in 1824 and was reported as having been a neat powerful player with several of his compositions being published by Joseph Lowe.

Lowe’s Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Jigs, Book 4 (1844–1845)

Another of Charles’s sons, confusingly also called Charles, stayed in Inver and firstly followed his father’s weaving profession before teaching and playing fiddle. In 1843 the publisher Robert Chambers (of Chambers dictionary fame) spent a week fishing and shooting in the area and wrote of how Charles provided entertainment with his fiddle:

‘‘Apropos of the high spirits of the party we had a regale of that lively music for which Athole is celebrated. My host had engaged the attendance of a clever violinist, Charles MacIntosh of Inver, and of Peter Murray, a worthy old violincellist from the same place, that reels and strathspeys might not be wanting to cheer himself and his people after the fatigues of the day. Favoured by these two performers, we had a rustic dance with these two performers upon the raft-like boat ….. where a party of villagers the locals gladly exhibited their skill in that ultra-merry salutation peculiar to grave Scotland. Such electric movements of hob-nailed feet, such frantic gesticulations and intertwistings, such wildly joyous exclamations!”

Charles MacIntosh (1797-1867)
Image: Perth Art Gallery and Museum

Charles composed some lovely tunes – including the slow strathspey, Dr Robertson’s and the wonderfully driving The Auld Boat o’ Logierait – a strathspey named after the very same ferry boat described by Robert Chambers.

Charles married and had 4 children – two of whom, Charlie and Jimmie, remained in Inver, becoming post-runners and part-time musicians. Although they had limited schooling, they both were highly intelligent with enquiring minds, being interested in natural sciences, astronomy, geology and Indian religions. Charlie lost the fingers of his left hand in a sawmill accident which ended his fiddle playing – but he taught himself to play the cello using only the stumps and he joined his father’s dance, playing throughout Perthshire. James had a similar love of traditional music and was to spend 70 years in his father’s, and then his own dance band. In 1930, aged 84, he published a small booklet of 15 of his own tunes. They are cracking tunes, are imbedded into the repertoires of local musicians, and have been recorded by the likes of Silly Wizard, Dougie MacLean and Phil Cunningham.

James Macintosh’s collection of his own compositions, published in 1930.
Image: The Chapter House Museum Trust

MacIntosh Manuscripts

I was therefore very excited to come across manuscripts in Dunkeld Community Archive with an additional twenty of James’s unpublished tunes. After some more digging in the Archive, in Perth Library and at Blair Castle, I found other manuscripts with 20 more tunes composed by James’s father and his uncle – half of which had never been published before. It seemed to me that these tunes were an important part of our local musical heritage and deserved to be played and heard!

I therefore started the process of transcribing the tunes – not always easy given the ink splodges, pencil marks and crossings out … they were definitely works in progress!

James Macintosh manuscript
Image: The Chapter House Museum Trust

I also began to research the family and their lives, considerably helped by two excellent books which provided a lot of detail that otherwise would have been lost: a 1920s biography of James’s brother Charles, the celebrated, amateur “Perthshire Naturalist” and friend of Beatrix Potter, and: Niel Gow’s Inver by local historian Helen Jackson. Along with snippets of information garnered from photographs, documents and letters in the Archive, a picture began to form of a family that was tightly woven into the social, religious and musical life of the community. Three generations of the family were precentors at Little Dunkeld Church, James was secretary of the Dunkeld Highland Games for 40 years, both James and Charles were converts to the Temperance movement and looked to encourage others to abstain through setting up a Templar Society, a flute band and a nature rambling club.

Although the family contributed so much to the area over a 200-year period, unfortunately they have been largely forgotten locally, with only a few people aware of the contribution that they made, the music that they wrote and played, or the fascinating stories of their lives. This project aims to change this through a community-wide celebration of the MacIntosh family, their lives and their work. It involves numerous local organisations and individuals, coming together in a diverse range of activities and events based at Birnam Arts Centre in September.

MacIntosh Play – “A Place fu o Fiddlers” – 28^th and 29^th September

The weekend of MacIntosh celebrations starts with the performance of a newly written one-act play by award-winning Perthshire playwright Lesley Wilson. This exciting and innovative play tells the Macintosh family story combining acting, live music and projected images, and spans the period from the 1780s right up to 1988 when Elizabeth, the last of the Inver MacIntosh family, passed away. With local semi-professional actors Bob Davidson and Anna Hepburn playing multiple parts, it promises to be poignant, humorous and foot-stompingly good fun. James’s fiddle will play its part, as will a First World War brass artillery shell case brought home by James Macintosh’s son Cameron whilst serving in the Machine Gun Corp at Ypres.

MacIntosh Concerts – 28^th and 29^th September

Immediately following the play (after a short intermission) there will be a concert where the tunes and songs composed and collected the MacIntosh family will be played. With their family being such an integral part of the community, and the Dunkeld area having so many talented musicians, it is important that the concert reflects this through the involvement local people and organisations, and tapping into local professional and amateur musicians.  First amongst these is the Dunkeld & District Strathspey and Reel Society, which was established in 1932 by James Macintosh and local school teacher Davina Begg. Ninety years later it is still going strong, ably led by local fiddle maestro Pete Clark. The Society carries Dunkeld’s fiddling tradition, and due to the MacIntosh family, has a direct and unbroken connection from today’s players right back to Niel Gow.

James Macintosh and Davina Begg, founders of Dunkeld & District Strathspey and Reel Society
Image: The Chapter House Museum Trust

The next obvious participant for the concerts is Dunkeld’s Just Singin’ Community Choir.  Charles and James Macintosh, as well as being instrumentalists, were both also hugely interested in folk song and singing. Throughout their lives they collected traditional airs and ballads, but they also composed new ones. After they retired from their jobs as post-runners, they would spend weeks at a time in the surrounding villages teaching singing to local communities, culminating in them holding mini concerts. Fortunately, some of the songs collected and composed by the Macintoshes were written down and thus at the concert they will be sung – some I suspect for the first time in more than 100 years.

Finally, the area is blessed with a brilliant youth music organisation – The Dunkeld and Birnam Traditional Youth Music Group. This wonderfully popular and successful initiative set up by Karys Watt and Gill Hunter gives free traditional music tuition to local children at their weekly classes. Established in 2022, they now number around keen 30 students – and they are already seasoned performers, appearing in local concerts and shows. As the next generation of traditional musicians, they are the perfect embodiment of the legacy of the MacIntosh family and the area’s strong and continuing musical heritage.

There will also be solo performances by Pete Clark and local fiddler Martin MacLeod, as well as addition music provided by other local amateur musicians. It will be a feast of traditional music – all of which will have been written or collected by the MacIntosh family.

An important additional part of the concerts is James Macintosh’s own fiddle which will be played throughout by each of the performers in turn. Sitting in its fiddle case unopened and un-played since James’s death in 1937 and looked after by a local family, the fiddle has now been serviced and repaired by Norrie Holton of Bankfoot. It will take its rightful place centre-stage, re-uniting it with the tunes that were composed and once played on it.

James Macintosh’s fiddle being repaired in Norrie Holton’s workshop
Image: Norrie Holton

MacIntosh Exhibition – 13^th September to 14^th October

The MacIntosh celebrations will also include a month-long exhibition exploring the lives and work of the MacIntosh family. Held at Birnam Arts in their first-floor exhibition area and curated by The Chapter House Museum Trust (the parent body to the Dunkeld Community Archive), the exhibition will contain material sourced from the Archive, other organisations and local private individuals. It will be made up of artifacts, documents, photographs and manuscripts connected with the MacIntosh family, and will include:

• Music manuscripts written by James Macintosh
• James Macintosh’s fiddle
• A length of tartan ribbon given on his death bed to James’s mother in 1854 by Count Roehenstart, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s last remaining descendant.
• First edition music collections once owned by the MacIntosh family, including Niel Gow’s 1784 Collection of Strathspeys and Reels
• Photographs taken by James Macintosh. James built his own camera and took photographs of the area, local characters and notable events. We are fortunate that prints from the glass plate negatives of 50 of these photographs have survived, giving a fascinating insight into life in Dunkeld around 1900. Copies of these prints will be available to purchase from Birnam Arts.

Washerwoman at the Tay next to Dunkeld Bridge, taken by James Macintosh (1846-1937)
Image: The Chapter House Museum Trust

The MacIntosh Fiddlers of Inver Music Collection

This culmination of the research into the MacIntosh family is a compilation of the tunes and songs written and collected by the MacIntosh family. The book will be published in late 2024 and will also contain brief biographies of the family members as well as background information on the individual tunes. As an interesting aside, each generation of the MacIntosh family spelled their surname differently, with even siblings using different variations!

The MacIntosh Fiddlers of Inver promises to be an interesting, informative and hugely enjoyable exploration of a local family, their music and their lives. It will provide both a glimpse into C18th and C19th Dunkeld when it was at the epicentre of Scottish fiddling, as well as the story of how that tradition developed, and indeed, has continued to flourish in the local community to the present day. We would love if you were able to come and join in our celebration!

For further information and tickets for The MacIntosh Fiddlers of Inver concerts and play, see the Birnam Arts website:

https://birnamarts.com/festival-The-MacIntosh-Fiddlers-of-Inver-id449

📷 by Adam Bulley

I’ve been playing with the idea of guitar with string quartet since I was at university – I loved the potential. The idea, on paper, was relatively simple – take compositions of mine for solo guitar and weave the strings around them – getting the guitar to sit amongst the ensemble. The execution, however, was anything but simple. I could get the dots on the page, it sounded good, but it lacked the magic of someone who really knew how to get the most out of the strings, to find the magic moments and to get the instruments to really soar.

Fast forward a few years and I happened upon that very person in Ullapool in the Highlands, at the annual guitar festival up there. Innes Watson – the man I had been looking for to bring that magic that I’d been missing! I shared my thoughts and ideas with him, and we agreed after a few pints that it was worth exploring. And explore it we did!

Not only that, but Innes got together a super-group of Scotland’s finest to bring the parts to life. Violin I – Seonaid Aitken, Violin II – Innes himself, Viola – Patsy Reid and Cello – Alice Allen. What a bunch – all exceptional and an absolute dream come true to work with them. The string quartet was named Innotet, after its founder.

We set about working on our first single in 2017 – a tune steeped in my own Scottish heritage called Emma. I can still remember my feeling of elation, waiting for the flight home and listening to a rough mix. Innes had spun magic, Seonaid, Patsy and Alice had brought it all to life. An album had to be the next step.

So, in 2019 we set about recording our debut album, Volume One, where we took 10 of my solo guitar compositions, Innes did his magical thing with the string arrangements, we collaborated, rehearsed and recorded at GloWorm Studios in Glasgow. It was the most enjoyable recording session I’d been a part of for years – hearing everything come to life so beautifully.

But I’d called the debut album Volume One for a reason. You can’t just release a Volume One and not follow it up – that would be silly. I knew we had more to give, and after all the proof of our recordings and performances previous, I knew it could only get better. So, five years later I had a list of 12 new pieces ready for the Innotet magic. We knew the drill, and we knew what we wanted to achieve and how to get even better off the back of the first album.

After months of collaborating on the arrangements, we headed back to GloWorm in December last year to record Volume Two. Somehow, it was even more enjoyable than the first time around. There was a confidence about it all now, as we knew the process, and had such a clear idea of our intentions. Seonaid, Innes, Patsy and Alice played their hearts out, and the energy from them fed back to me in the guitar booth. I’ll remember our time together for the rest of my life, that’s for sure.

And now I find myself writing this, on the cusp of the new album’s release on 30th August 2024, feeling immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to make my musical dreams a reality with some of the finest musicians and people around. It’s a true celebration of what can happen when we get together to collaborate.

I do hope you enjoy listening to the album as much as we enjoyed making it!

📷 by Archie MacFarlane

Thanks very much to the Traditional Music Forum for this invite to explain a little about my new album release, Second Sight. It’s a collection of 9 original tunes, recorded with guitarist Graeme Stephen and bassist Elie Afif over a day in May this year.

Graeme is probably the musician I’ve worked with most over many years, while Elie I met for the first time making this music. I think overall the music sounds a little freer, more spontaneous, than other recordings I’ve made, so I’m pleased for that.

Second Sight is the third of three trio albums I’ve made over the past year and a half thanks to Creative’s Scotland’s support. Each album has the low D whistle playing a leading role, stretching my playing (and writing) while retaining a musical ethos I can describe as authentic. Each album was recorded in just a day, which in itself helps create some sense of unity across the collection.

Disclaimer – a paragraph of musician talk follows. I should perhaps mention that in 2009 I asked Colin Goldie, a whistle maker based in Germany, to drill an extra tone hole to be covered by the lower hand thumb, on the back on my 4 low whistles. This gives a minor third to the natural scale, i.e. an F natural on a D whistle – I found it improves the G#/Ab on the second octave too. There are fingered positions for all notes of the chromatic scale except the minor second (Eb on a D whistle) – but that turns out to be not a big deal – you don’t have to move much to half-open the lowest tone-hole and you just get used to the position, like if there was a key there to slide on to. I’ve found using cross-fingering instead of half-holing makes the playing of faster passages much more achievable. There may be one or two players interested in all this but I’m thinking as I write, would my younger self have listened?! Perhaps not I’ll have to admit. I’ve come to realise that, perhaps obviously, you’ve got to really want to make the sounds to put the required work in. For many years I was happy enough in my existing furrow. It took a relatively long while to find beauty in what had previously only sounded complicated…the journey continues!

Trio recording 9 May 2024 – photo by Fraser Fifield

The motivation behind the project, I could say, comes out of years of having to (genuinely wanting to came later) find ways to successfully play low whistle in musical situations you might say it has no business being in! If it weren’t for a knowledge of the saxophone, I probably wouldn’t have got far trying to play more chromatic music on low whistle. Over time the similarity between the two instruments, whistle/sax, became apparent  – one has a lot of extra metal work around the sides and closes/opens the tone holes with pads/keys while the other has just six or seven open tone holes which you cover with your fingers, both are metal tubes essentially. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I got to the point where I thought it’d be nice to document some low whistle playing in contrasting settings… drums/electric piano, violin/harp and guitar/bass setting the respective scenes. And despite all the technical talk I’ve just put you through, my guiding principle is always, I can reassure, does it sound/feel good?

Encore for One Great Circle at St Cecilia’s Hall – photo by Thalia Blacking

The second album of this series of trios, One Great Circle, was released in March this year. Chris Stout and Catriona McKay, the acclaimed fiddle/harp duo, joined me. We, Chris, Catriona and I, were all at music college together toward the end of the last century, going on to make a couple of quintet albums under Chris’s leadership in the early 000s… meaning I could maybe lean on them a little to get involved! The resulting music is, if I had to apply a label, a kind chamber-folk – moving harmonically but has a recognisable Scottish folk/trad sound throughout, partly through the instrumentation and our approach to playing. We have performances scheduled for this autumn in NE Scotland and NE England – come and see us! The theme and titles come via a new found appreciation of a true Scottish legend, the late Stanley Robertson. I would recommend searching out his storytelling on Tobar an Dualchais, especially if like me, you’ve a fondness for the Doric culture of North East Scotland.

Fraser Fifield SECRET PATH trio – photo by Archie MacFarlane

Continuing with this anti-chronological approach, the first of this series is ‘Secret Path’, released in June 2023. Paul Harrison and Tom Bancroft joined me, playing Wurlitzer piano and drums respectively. We’ve gone on to play some lovely gigs as the Secret Path Trio, Edinburgh Jazz Festival was our most recent. Promoters, by the way, should definitely get in touch if interested in these new trios.

It’s been a most prolific 18 months or so and I’ve learned a good deal in the process. I’ll close by taking this opportunity to sincerely thank again all who have contributed,

Musicians: Paul Harrison, Tom Bancroft, Catriona McKay, Chris Stout, Elie Afif and Graeme Stephen.

Recording Mixing and Mastering: Kevin Burleigh, Keir Long, Daniel Denholm, Mattie Foulds and Chris Waite.

Design: Archie MacFarlane

Fraser Fifield with Paul Harrison & Tom Bancroft – SECRET PATH
Released 30 July 2023

Fraser Fifield with Chris Stout & Catriona McKay – ONE GREAT CIRCLE
Released 8 March 2024

Fraser Fifield with Graeme Stephen & Elie Afif – SECOND SIGHT
Released 2 Aug 2024

www.fraserfifield.com
www.fraserfifield.bandcamp.com

📷 by Ray Kelly Photography

I love living and working in Glasgow as a fiddle player. The sessions are some of the best in the world and I’ve always loved, and still love playing music in pubs with others whenever I can.
There was though, a moment around 2019 that I started to feel like there was a bit of a ‘glut’ of a certain sound or style of traditional music in the city and at music festivals I’d been to or played at.
The music was all brilliant, full of virtuosity and high energy.
I began to feel a bit disconnected emotionally from playing and hearing that so often.

I sought new sounds and material (accidentally) by going along to a gorgeous song session run by the wonderful and wonderfully versatile musician and singer Josie Duncan.

I brought my fiddle along and really enjoyed the way everyone was listening to one another. It was a very ‘responsive’ session and was loads of fun. From Bob Dylan, to the Beatles, to Dick Gaughan and then a good half hour of Gaelic songs and puirt a beul songs.
I had found connection to music and trad tunes in the city again!

Now, though my grandmother and her cousins had Gaelic, they were discouraged from speaking it or teaching it to the younger generation. Alas it never made its way to me.

Why did I feel such a strong connections to these songs when I a) didn’t have the language b) wasn’t a ‘singer’?

I began a search for more songs on the archive website ‘Tobar an Dualchais’ where I was really drawn to the contributions of Kate MacDonald of South Uist. Lots of her contributions were waulking songs. Such strong melodies and good stories when I read into them.

My friend and Gaelic singer Eilidh Cormack advised that though this contributor had passed away, her daughter lived in Inverness and was none other than the one-woman ceilidh, tradition bearer, piper, singer Rona Lightfoot.

After about a year of studying the tunes and having various conversations with my Gaelic speaking friends and musicians about whether I should pursue the idea:
To adapt these melodies as instrumentals in a bid to create something that felt new to me and would hopefully encourage other instrumentalists to engage with the wonderful music too!

With the help of Fiona Dalgetty (CEO of Feis Rois) I was put in touch with Rona and began studying the songs with her – trying my best to play things as closely to the way she or her mother had sung them.

Visiting Rona at her home in Inverness was my favourite part of the process. I was very nervous to get in touch. I thought she might wonder what on earth I was doing or think it was a daft idea.
However, she was extremely generous and over time I think she understood what I was trying to achieve and helped me hugely.
Her knowledge and passion (and humour) is amazing. She was 84 when we started hanging out. I feel so lucky to have spent time with her on these tunes and am proud to call her a friend. I visit whenever I’m in the area – sometimes I play the fiddle and she sings or we just sit and have a Gow’s roll (IYKYK) and a cup of tea.

With Rona’s approval I took the tunes to begin arranging – the tunes themselves were irregular in phrasing compared to the 16 bar forms I’d been playing for years.

Some of the songs are hundreds of years old. They were sung by women at work round a table ‘waulking’ tweed to render it useful for tailoring.

Waulking was a long arduous process – the workers sang and would change the words and make up new verses to allow them to tell the stories or gossip of the moment. Sometimes they would sing of grievances in their lives or aspirations. In this process none of their landlords/husbands/fathers or abusers were there to hear. It was a safe space to vent / process what was on their minds and feel support, release and often share humour with their peers.

I feel this really comes across in the melodies- even when you don’t speak the language. They’re looking for connection and are made to be shared.

I brought the arrangements to some of my most favourite musicians. Open minded, creative and brilliant at their instruments.

Each brought so much to the tracks – particularly Ian Carr. There is no guitarist like him on this earth and he is a wonderfully imaginative and skilled musician. I felt he and the others would approach the tunes in a way that would allow them to become pieces that would convey the emotions and the need for connection and community in a unique way.

The recording process was not without its difficulties! Travel and illness were both issues that got in the way a bit. But we got there.

As my first ‘solo’ record I found the process very challenging but gradually more and more rewarding.

I found myself able to let go of many insecurities and get on with the job a lot better than I ever had in my time as a musician. I wasn’t able to over think too much.
Really, what I wanted was the music to FEEL good and I knew that it would only feel good if everyone else involved was happy and comfortable.
The funding I got from Creative Scotland really helped me make that possible and cater to everyone’s needs as much as I could.

I had to change producer during the process and having Jane Ann Purdey helping me with the project was amazing. (I’d recommend anyone applying to make an album budget for a project manager to help oversee and problem solve! It’s invaluable!)

In the end, I co-produced the album with Sarah Hayes (Birdvox/Admiral Fallow/Wildings/Roaming Roots Review) it was a really fun part of the process and we had excellent mixing skills and experience of Andy Bell at Hudson Records helping us achieve the sounds we wanted.

Overall I learned a lot about: the music of the women in this country, the history of the women in the generations of Gaels, that in some ways not so much has changed(!)

I loved making friends with people embroiled in these traditions and listening hard to the music and information they shared.

I learned more about how individual all musicians are. Even the ones I’d worked with before. There is not one correct way to communicate musical ideas! It’s a bit of a journey, you need to trust each other and as a band ‘leader’ I really had to step up and adapt in order to get the most out of playing/recording/mixing and releasing this work.

I really hope that people who listen to it feel some sense of feeling, community and some humour too. Even more, I hope it might encourage other players to look into the archive themselves and interpret the material in their own unique ways!

Artwork by Louise Bichan