Music and stories from Scotland: In Our Day

Songs arise from day to day living, from the stories we tell ourselves and each other as we make our way through the day, the seasons, the year. They might be, at times, wildly abstract, and at other times down to earth and quite concrete. Music, certainly the sort of music we talk about here along the music road, continues the conversations of daily life and, if it is doing its job well, turns a new light on the events, emotions, connections, and memories of the day. That is something Margaret Bennett and Doris Rougvie know well, and it is an aspect of music and of history that comes through clearly in their book'In Our Day...': Reminiscences and Songs from Rural Perthshire. Bennett is a folklorist and musician; Rougvie is a musician and artist. Both traveled their home ground of rural Perthshire in central Scotland, gathering memories and stories from farmers, shepherds, crofters, trades people, professionals, gardeners, housewives -- all sorts of people, really. The memories they gathered are for the most part those which are beginning to be at the edge of forgotten time: day to day stories of how people lived their lives and made their days in the 1920s, and thirties, and forties, and what they remember now, what stories they’ve told their own children. It is clear that Bennett and Rougvie went at the task of seeking out and speaking with these folk with great care and concern, and respect for their stories. They have chosen excerpts of the transcripts of the stories to make up this book, and what is more, the two of them, along with several friends and some students from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, have recorded fifteen songs that come in for mention in the book, and a CD of these is included with it. It is not a song for every story, story for every song sort of thing, but rather a fine interweaving of song and story. There are fifteen tracks on the CD altogether, including the Loch Tay Boat Song, Queen Among the Heather, and The Lass of Glenshee. The book’s text is also enhanced by the occasional engaging illustration drawn by Rougvie. You do not need to be acquainted with rural Perthshire to appreciate what Bennett and Rougvie offer here. It is a fine tribute to the interconnection of music, memory and day to day life, whatever the location. You may follow the link to Amazon, above, or alternatively write to gonzalo at gracenotereading dot co dot uk for further information about where to purchase In Our Day you may also wish to see Music Road: season of change: music for autumn Music Road: Music for St Andrew's Day: music of Scotland Music Road: Julie Fowlis: Live at Perthsire Amber

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Saturday Sessions: Dougie MacLean

The Perthshire Amber festival in the Scottish Highlands is coming up. Songwriter Dougie MacLean is the founder and moving spirit behind the fest, which this year will include gigs from Grada, Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, and others you’ve met here along the music road. There is more about Perthshire Amber at Perceptive Travel and here along the music road. While I was researching those stories, I looked up videos of several of my favorites of Dougie's songs to accompany me whilst reading the facts. Take a look and a listen, they’ll show you why this insightful songwriter has had his work recorded by Kathy Mattea, Cathie Ryan, Mary Black, and many others. Turning Away with Kathy Mattea Caledonia Ready for the Storm Kathy Mattea with Dougie MacLean I’m thinking, as Julie Fowlis is appearing at this year's fest, perhaps she’ll put one of Dougie’s songs over in to Gaelic, which’d be interesting to hear. Julie, should you be reading this... you may also wish to see Music for St.Andrew’s Day Music Road: Julie Fowlis:Uam

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Perthshire Amber

A castle, a cathedral, an ancient crannog: these, and a range of equally interesting venues, will host music during the Perthshire Amber Festival, which is coming up 29 October through 7 November. It’s not so much about the venue, though, inviting as those may be, as it is about the music and the connections formed between musicians and those who come to hear them. Dougie MacLean, who is a native of Perthshire, is host of the festival. One of his reasons for starting the event several years back was that he wanted to play his music in a situation connect with audiences over time, to revisit old favorites and lesser often played material from his musical history without having to stop at the end of a two hours concert.. At first this was a weekend event, as Dougie drew from his decades long catalogue of wide ranging songs. As friends came to listen and to sit in, and as Dougie met more musical friends in his touring, a longer festival came to bel. Perthshire Amber always includes a number of musicians you’ve met here along the music road, and this year that is true as well. Irish band Grada will bring their lively band of boundary crossing trad along, while old friends guitarist Kris Drever and banjo player Eamonn Coyne will offer what's sure to be energetic and creative collaboration, Crooked Still, the US based progressive bluegrass band who has been delighting audiences worldwide, will be on hand, and top notch singer Julie Fowlis will bring her engaging style with Gaelic song. Songs in Scottish Gaelic will likely be part of Karen Matheson’s set, as well, and Michael McGoldrick will be on hand with flutes and whistles, Aly Bain, Ale Moller, and Bruce Molsky will form an international fiddler’s trio, and Fred Morrison will bring along his pipes. There will be other international and Scottish artists, as well. Artists and visitors to Perthshire Amber will be giving back, too. While touring in the United States, Dougie was asked to play a benefit for a food bank, with audience members bringing along non perishable goods to be passed along to organizations which help those in need. He was struck by the idea, and now people coming to the festival in Perthshire are able to do the same by participating in Amber Harvest, with goods going to Cyrenians FareShare Project, who help feed Scotland’s homeless. There’s also The Big Knit, a program spearheaded by Dougie’s mother Dolly. All during the year, knitters from near and far make squares which are made into warm blankets and other items. These are then auctioned off at the festival, with proceeds going to benefit Shelter Scotland. Some of those knitters might be catching a ride on one of the song bus excursions offered, as visitors travel to highlights of Perthshire along with musicians who bring the scenes alive for them. They might be talking workshops and talks and sessions as well, as the festival unfolds. Autumn is a lovely time to be in highland Perthshire, and the music and craic on offer during Perthshire Amber are sure to be grand. There is more information about all this at the festival’s web site.. Can’t make it to the festival? Last year you could buy a ticket to watch some of the concerts live online, and word is that may be a possibility this year as well. Check out Perthshireamber.com for developments Photographs courtesy of the festival and the artists. the photograph of Dougie MacLean was taken by Calum MacIntosh you may also wish to see more on Dougie MacLean photographing music: Celtic Colours Music Road: Grada: Natural Angle

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Scotland on the harp: Corrina Hewat

Corrina Hewat is an artist whose vision encompasses both solo performance and composing for large ensembles, who believes in the interconnectedness of jazz and folk music, and who relishes the collaborative nature of working with other artists and the solitary time needed to create on her own. She also an artist with a full schedule: she’s appeared on more than thirty albums in the last dozen years in addition to composing several major commissions and keeping up her own practice in performing and teaching.

Hewat is from Scotland, and her chosen instrument for her own playing is the harp, both the small harp and the big pedal kind. On her solo album Harp I Do she offers tunes that are at once melodic and percussive, and, if you need categories, would fit into both jazz and folk. “You know, I think the jazz thing is really folk music too. I don’t see them as merging folk and jazz, I actually think it’s just one big music. I don’t distinguish between them,” she says.

Hewat grew up in the Scottish Highlands, in the Black Isle north of Inverness. Her family moved there from Edinburgh when Hewat was eight, “and it was a really good thing for me. There was a real community there, a sense of sharing our lives, and of sharing music, in the Highlands,” she recalled. She was led to the harp “because I saw this woman sitting and playing one. I said to her ‘I like that, can I have a go?’ and she let me try, and it was like I could do this. I was twelve, and knew some piano and some fiddle, but the harp immediately made total sense. it just made total sense to me.”

The harp player, Christine Martin, offered the young Corrina lessons, “and so once a week for a year, we did that. My mum would drive me over, and Christine lent me a harp, and later on her husband built me a harp -- which exploded six months later! But if it wasn’t for their kindness, I don’t think I’d be playing the harp, ‘cause it’s kind of an expensive instrument,” Hewat pointed out. To own her own harp, she recalled, “it took eight years -- my family and I, and my granny too, we all saved up for the harp.” She followed traditional music through Feis Rois weekend workshops and a time at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. Her love of jazz took her to the University of Leeds, where she received an honors degree in jazz and contemporary music on the harp and studied with respected Irish harp player Maire Ni Chathasaigh.















She and her husband David Milligan, who plays piano, formed a duo which became a quartet as a trumpet player and a drummer joined in. The group, called Bachue, was about to add another aspect to Hewat’s musicianship, as well.

”We were booked for a gig at the Celtic Connections festival, and we were playing all instrumental music, involved, complex stuff. The festival director suggested that we add some songs. People relate to songs, he said, they'll connect to you if you do some songs. So we did. I was the singer. That was that!” says Hewat of her early experience singing from the stage. “My mum and dad played a lot of music around the house, Neil Young, Bob Dylan -- that’s where I learnt my first harmony singing really, singing along and finding different harmony parts to those recordings,” Hewat said. It hadn't been something she’d done in public much until that gig at Celtic Connections, though. These days she’s known as much for her singing as for her playing, and is in demand as a teacher of lively and engaging harmony singing workshops. You can also catch her singing as part of the trio Grace, Hewat, and Polwart, in which she joins fellow Scots Annie Grace and Karine Polwart for evenings of music that are very musical and often also very funny.

Singing songs has another benefit for Hewat. “It’s one of the times when the music going on inside my head stops and I focus on that song,” she says. “It’s like I have this constant flow of music, like an orchestra going in inside my head all the time -- which is grand!” It’s also sometimes hard to keep up with the flow of ideas. “I use my mobile phone a lot, sing myself messages, and I have a little half size manuscript paper that I carry around to make notes, too. They might just be phrases or lines. Then, when I have a moment, I’ll start looking a t batches of them and seeing what works and what doesn’t, and six pieces might all go together to make one big grand piece of music -- or they might end up being six different things!” she says, laughing.

One place her musical ideas go is to the band she and Milligan started, The Unusual Suspects. It’s a folk orchestra of sorts. “There’re twenty two of us, each coming form different regional traditions.-- I love hearing how which one is from the Borders, who’s from Aberdeen, who’s from Inverness or Shetland, all comes out in their music,” she says.

A commission to compose and play at L 'Orient Celtique festival in France gave the group time to play and rehearse together, something they don’t often have, or have the budget for. “As a composer, and musical director, it’s hard. We don’t get to rehearse much, and then when we do something has to work right away or drop it because the time’s so short. But this is a passion David and I have, to work on this band,” Hewat says. With the quality of their music and performance, they are igniting that passion in others, too. Audiences and music writers alike call The Unusual Suspects one of the most exciting bands working today.

Hewat conitnues to perform with Grace, Hewat and Polwart, as well as teach workshops. The Unusual Suspects are just launching a new recording, and Hewat and Milligan are working on a new project called The Gordon Duncan Experience, a youth big band based in the Perth and Kinross area. Hewat will also conitnue composing, and listening to the music. “Just walking down the street, I can hear rhythm and music in the sounds around me, and it’s grand,” Corrina Hewat says.


you may also wish to see
Music Road: Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
Music Road: Catriona McKay: Starfish

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.