I had a great wee time to myself last week presenting a programme on Political Song for BBC Radio Scotland’s The Celtic Zone, which you can listen to online for the next 5 days. It was my second time doing the show and I had a ball!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c13jm

This week I was also delighted to be named Associate Gaelic Artist with the National Theatre Scotland. It’s a 12 month contract and I’m excited to be working with NTS again as well as helping to further Gaelic Arts through this role.

Maryhill Burgh Halls Launch…

On Saturday 28th April Maryhill Burgh Halls has its official opening. As part of the launch day, I have teamed up with 2 fantastic local schools and assembled a community choir for the occasion. “Songs of The Trades”; a song project based on the fantastic stain glass panels that appear in the Halls, is a FREE event on Saturday 28th April at 2pm. We would be delighted to see as many people there as possible. For further info go to: http://www.maryhillburghhalls.org.uk/updates/tag/events

New Releases…

With my new solo album due for release in November 2012, there’s a few other projects I’ve been working on in the meantime.

Sketch have released the new album Shedlife, which is available NOW for downloads. Myself and the boys will be on tour throughout Scotland in June, so check out those dates. We’re also doing some amazing festivals  in Western Canada and HebCelt festival in July so keep an eye on my gigs page for further info. There is also a brand-new website with video footage from live performances and much more: http://totalsketch.com

Infinite Scotland is a project I’ve been working on over the last few months with the fab guitarist David Allison, who is one of my co-conspirators in The Island Tapes. David has written the music for the project as well as having recorded all manner of instruments and I’ve written a few songs in Gaelic and sung into a microphone. As well as developing this project as an APP, There are plans to tour the project for the end of the year.

Fund-raising for Cancer Research…

Partly in an effort to avoid the Easter-egg belly setting in, and mainly to raise money for Cancer Research, I took the mad notion to enter the Glasgow Women’s 10k in May. I am a bit of a gym junkie, and as well as the obvious health benefits, I’ve discovered jogging is a major stress-buster. I am aiming to run the race in as close to 50mins as possible, and would be delighted to get as much sponsorship as possible:  www.justgiving.com/maeve-mackinnon
Now where’s that oxygen tank…?

Mx

Hope 2012 is a blinder for everyone! I was fortunate to have a great end to 2011 with some lovely projects and start the new year with some brand-spanking-new inspiration. Here’s a quick rundown of what has been and gone, what is currently happening and what is on the cards for this spring, along with video clips, photos and the rest…

The Exile project

My trilingual song-writing project premiered on BBC Radio Scotland’s Global Gathering show on 22nd Nov 2011. Featuring the wonderful Senegalese singer Samba Sene (who co-wrote one of the songs), a cast of 34 choral singers (The Glasgow Gaelic Choir and The Hidden Lane Choir) and a dream core band consisting of the fantastic Ross Martin, Signy Jacobsdottir and James Lindsay, we managed to triumph over the logistical odds (not to mention severe jetlag on my part) to get this show rehearsed up and broadcast as part of the Islands Suite for BBC Radio Scotland.

Video on The making of The Exile: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/showcase/clips/p00mkhm4/in/justadded/justadded

It was huge privilege for me artistically and a great learning curve writing to deadlines. This project is in talks to appear at Blàs Festival 2012 in Inverness, September, so look out for it. In the meantime check out the other 3 works that made it onto the BBC Radio Scotland “Islands Suite”… http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radioscotland/islandssuite/

Trad Awards

Scots Trad Awards 2011

I was more than delighted to be nominated for Gaelic Singer of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in December. Congratulations to Norrie MacIver of the mighty Mànran who won. I think I can speak for us all when I say it was an absolute cracker of a night and morning and what many of us refer to as “The Office Party”! Congratulations also to Simon Thoumire of Hands Up For Trad who runs the event every year.

Album mixing

Whisperings of the New Album

As proof that we have actually finished the new album, here is a picture of Producer extraordinaire Angus Lyon and Mixing/Mastering guru Iain Hutchison happily drinking coffee in the studio! It’s been five years since the last album but we suspect this one will be worth the wait! Produced by my great friend Angus Lyon, featuring a stellar cast of musicians and songs in Gaelic and English (as before), the album will be coming out this year and we can’t wait to share it with you! On hearing a sneak preview track or twa, Sue Wilson of The Scotsman described it as:

“A bold leap forward for one of Scotland’s most gifted and creative young vocalists”.

New Project: Songs of Trade

I am delighted to be involved in several exciting community song projects at the moment. I have teamed up with Maryhill Burgh Hall to run a series of song sessions on Songs of Trade, based on the phenomenal stain-glass panels depicting 10 of the old trades of Glasgow, which are about to be showcased at the grand opening of the Maryhill Burgh Halls in April this year. The singing sessions will run once a week between March and April during week-nights, to culminate in a big choral concert at the grand opening and we’re looking for anyone interested in local history and traditional music who’d like to be involved. We’d love to hear from you! For further information please contact: gbarr@maryhillburghhalls.org.uk

New Project: Folk and Roots Choir

I am also delighted to be working with the fantastic Platform venue once again. I am starting a folk-music choir at the state-of-the-art venue, studio, cafe and epi-centre in Easterhouse, Glasgow. Classes will be starting on Wednesday 22nd February 6.30-8.30 and running every Wednesday from then on. No singing experience necessary, just enthusiasm! For booking information please contact alun@platform-online.co.uk

Social Networking Made Easy (ish)

If like me you are a technophobic and you want to stay in tune with what’s going on musically, help is at hand. 

Simon Thoumire who runs Hands up for Trad has invented a nifty new social networking site for trad musicians called Scottish Culture Online, which you can link with all the other social networks. 

Hands Up For Trad: www.scottishcultureonline.com/groups/maeve-mackinnon/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Maeve-Mackinnon/208435172505841

See you in cyberspace… M x

Register your votes online til mid November… Go on… PS… if you’re stuck for other categories, please consider Innes Watson as Instrumentalist of the Year, Caithream Ciùil as Trad Music in Media, The Ben Nevis Bar as Venue of the Year… I’ll stop now!

http://www.scottishcultureonline.com/vote-now-in-the-mg-alba-scots-trad-music-awards-2011/

Sketch in Italy

Belated 2011 greetings from a Technophobe Folk Musician!

Hope everyone has been enjoying the last of the dry and over zero weather… I was lucky to enjoy some lovely gigs this summer, starting with the Island Tapes and the St Kilda Tapes gigs in Skye, Strathpeffer, Dresden and Orkney, and an unforgettable gig at Yn Cruinnaght on the Isle of Man with the brilliant Ross Martin and Angus Lyon. Following a fantastic gig with a wonderful audience we had a live onstage arm wrestle between Ross and a brave Malcolm Stitt! Still laughing about that one… We put some photos up on the Facebook page to mark the occasion:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maeve-Mackinnon/208435172505841

Studio action

The last few days I’ve been in the studio recording vocals for the mighty Sketch. I enjoyed a couple of great gigs with Sketch this summer at Tartan Heart Festival, followed by Magiaceltica in Northern Italy… Fantastic weather and great on-stage energy! We’ve got an album coming out in 2012 as well as 5 Scottish gigs at the end of October and into November so keep an eye on my gig list, or check out http://www.totalsketch.com

Also this summer I enjoyed some lovely gigs with Lauren MacColl and Ewan MacPherson as “Cula”, and hope to do some further collaboration soon.

Currently verrrrry near completion is my new solo album, which some of us are dubbing “The Never-ending Album (Part 2)”… We are all delighted with it, especially me, and hope to share it with you in early 2012. Some phenomenal work and time has gone into it, including some lovely special guests, so keep your eyes peeled for further details…

In the meantime I am getting ready to broadcast a songwriting commission for BBC Scotland’s Global Gathering, which I’m mightily excited about. “The Exile” is an exciting musical journey comprising 4 movements, 3 languages, 2 choirs, several soloists and a dream-team of backing musicians. It explores the links between 2 emigrant cultures; Gaelic Scotland and Wolof of Senegal, through “Call and Response” song, and will be broadcast in December this year.

More details to follow! Mx

Canada!

Hello to all and my apologies for not updating the site for so long! In the last few months, lots of developments have been taking place. In March the talented Ewan MacPherson accompanied me to the East coast of Canada for several weeks. We did a lot of travelling around Ontario and part of Quebec, played some fantastic venues and even got to do some sightseeing such as the spectacular Niagara Falls! Great fun and we hope to repeat it soon.

I then embarked on a tour of Argyll with the Mull singer-songwriter Iain Thomson whose album has just been launched- great craic. After this I had a few gigs with Lauren MacColl and Ewan MacPherson ahead of our September tour. A big thanks to Leith Folk Club, the Goulders in Rosehall and also to Màiri and Bill at Cromarty for having us. The Scotsman also gave us a nice review for our Leith Folk Club, (which was only our second proper gig!) noting that

“Despite their relatively tender age, each member already boasts an impressive individual track record… Both [Mackinnon's] voice’s beguiling original timbre and her rapid interpretative development were abundantly in evidence, with the overt jazzy or bluesy inflections of her previous solo work richly integrated into the restive, sensuous play of brightness and shade, lyrical sweetness and grittier sinew. There’s already a beautifully close-knit empathy apparent between Mackinnon’s singing and MacColl’s fiddle, in particular, with the latter also showing her considerable mettle in a stunning solo slow air, a clear standout among the instrumental sets that interspersed the songs.”

I’m excited to announce that I’m recording a new solo album! This will be a follow-up to 2007′s Don’t Sing Lovesongs, and I’m expecting it to be released early in 2011. We start laying down tracks in early September at the studio of my friend and accordian genius Angus Lyon, in lovely South Lanarkshire. We recorded Don’t Sing Lovesongs at Angus’s studio between 2006-2007- we were never out of there actually- and it’s a great atmosphere for creativity.

For his sins, Angus has agreed to produce the new album, and we’ll be joined by my friend and virtuoso guitarist Innes Watson, and several other exciting guest musicians. The album is to be released in early 2011 and I can’t wait to get started on it!

Oran Mòr

Also in June I signed a partnership agreement for a big Gaelic song show and recording project Oran Mòr (The Great Song). This project started as a week-long recording experiment in Ardgour in 2007 and has evolved to become a show as well as an album. The Oran Mòr is being produced by renowned world music producer Jerry Boys (engineer of The Buena Vista Social Club) and consists of four Gaelic singers;  Mary Ann Kennedy, James Graham, Maeve Mackinnon and Rachel Walker. We’re all very enthused about the project and hope to share it with you soon!

Until then I’m away off to watch more of the World Cup. If you have a spare minute, check out bodhran player extraordinaire Marty O’Neill on the link below. He played kit and bodhran on my first album and is currently on tour with none other than Stevie Wonder!!! It’s a hard life… Stevie Wonder @ Glastonbury

Slàinte mhòr dhuibh uile,

M x

Songbook (Louis De Carlo)

A (very belated) Happy New Year to everyone and hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. I had a very busy January trying to fit in rehearsals, recording the new Mackinnon/MacColl/MacPherson EP, teaching for Fèis Rois and a number of gigs at Celtic Connections. I also managed to see some fab acts at the festival this year- highlights include the astonishing improvisational blues singer Bobby McFerrin and sharing the stage with the Gospel Truth Choir at the Royal Concert Hall.

by Julie Broadfoot

The Herald gave us a 5 star review for Scottish Songbook which we were obviously delighted with (this was largely down to Karine’s vision and Brian’s amazing skills as musical director).

Also rather bizarrely my picture appeared on the front cover of both The Herald and The Scotsman papers that day… Photographer Julie Broadfoot took some amazing pictures of the gig: www.bbc.co.uk/celticconnections

In between all this I drove through to teach in Edinburgh and West Lothian almost every morning and flew to Germany for 3 days of gigs for Glasgow City Council’s Robert Burns weekend. A bizarre turn of events from that weekend include witnessing a “Sean-Nòs” dancing sheep trying to dance a jig to reel rhythm and being asked if I could formally acknowledge the head of the Masonic Lodge onstage (who incidentally, wished to sing “Doon in the Wee Room”). Then, probably as a result of the sheer volume of work I was doing, I came down with the mother of all colds.

hanging out at CC (Louis De Carlo)

On 28th January we did our first ever Mackinnon/MacColl/MacPherson broadcast on Travelling Folk (with presenter Colum Sands) alongside some brilliant guest artists, including the lovely Michelle Burke (whose solo album is a triumph!) the Portuguese band Deolinda and the Alan Kelly band. Thanks to Sean Purser and everyone at BBC Scotland for having us. On 29th January I guested with Finlay MacDonald in the Strathclyde Suite, and had the pleasure of meeting Breton legends Jackie and Patrick Molard who did a couple of fantastic sets that night. It was a great night and Fin tells me he’s planning future tours with the same lineup very soon.

Mackinnon, MacColl, MacPherson

January 31st was the busiest day with a sold out Mackinnon/MacColl/MacPherson gig on 31st January, the BBC Radio Scotland Young Trad 10th Anniversary concert and a festival club slot at 4am!! Luckily we were all still awake! All 3 gigs went very well but personally my highlight of the night was playing a kazoo duet with Anne Sofie Linge Valdal onstage at 5am. Absolutely no alcohol was consumed during this impromtu show whatsoever…

For the rest of February I’m teaching for Feis Rois in Edinburgh and West Lothian and generally welcoming a bit of quiet time! Then in March I’m on tour in Eastern Canada with Ewan MacPherson, which we’re really looking forward to (venues and dates listed on my gig page). Hope to see you at a gig! M x

Smiler team in disguise!

September was a mad busy month, mainly having been tied up with rehearsals for the Transform Glasgow show, which is now entitled “Smiler”. This has meant facilitating meetings and rehearsals trying to combine as many schools and community groups working on the project as we can, to get a makeshift Gaelic choir off the ground- which has proved really rewarding and exciting. The actual shows are from November 11th, 12th and 13th, 6pm and 8pm all three nights so please come along if you get the chance.

Rhapsody 09

October was also busy working on the Smiler project, but I also had the opportunity to work on another project in Oban and Helensburgh, entitled “Argyll Rhapsody”, which was written by Donald Shaw. This year’s Rhapsody included a fashion show for the second half of the concert, which was great fun.

Rhapsody 09

I was working with a group of 19 singers from schools all over Argyllshire, who did fantastic work learning up an incredible number of Gaelic songs, including a mammoth set of 8 puirt-a-beul for the finale, and they all sang brilliantly.

Some of the singers had actually designed some of the costumes used in the fashion show themselves, so it was a very creative and lively experience and it paid off in the shows themselves. Well done to all the participants for their hard work.

New Trio

Other projects currently in the pipeline include a new band that myself, Lauren MacColl and Ewan MacPherson have formed. We are going under the name “Mackinnon, MacColl, MacPherson” (what a shock eh!) and we have been working on existing Gaelic and English songs, and new material written by ourselves, including tune sets. We’re really looking forward to doing a gig at Celtic Connections as part of Showcase Scotland on 31st Jan 2010, so please join us for that if you can. Until then you can find information about the trio on our new Myspace page…

www.myspace.com/macmacmacmusic

Over and out! M x

Pàdraig at Piping Live

PIPING LIVE

First up this month was Fèis Lannruig a Tuath, which was held in Cumbernauld. This was my 5th year in a row teaching for them and it was a very action packed week. Thanks to Elaine Spence and the rest of the Fèis committee for having me again.

The following week I was on home turf again, at Piping Live Festival. This festival has been growing rapidly in reputation and I had 5 gigs as part of their Music of the Clans series, organised and orated by Simon McKerrell. The concerts proved popular with locals and tourists alike as we played to a packed tent every day, and interest from BBC Alba who interviewed me in Gaelic about the festival. Muggins here also had the job of promoting Pàdraig O’Neill & Simon McKerrell’s band “Rough Tides” as the band’s tshirt model and vendor!!!  But in all seriousness the band is going from strength to strength and I’d thoroughly recommend a listen. A big thanks to Simon McKerrell and Roddy MacLeod for having us.

Nordsjofestivalen

The following week I drove to Edinburgh to do some session recording on the singer- songwriter  Iain Thomson’s album, which was great fun as I got to try out lots of weird harmonies! Keep an eye out for that album coming out…

ARGYLL RHAPSODY

I also started work on several performance projects in the last fortnight. First up is a project by Donald Shaw entitled “The Argyll Rhapsody”. This is a revisit of an educational project I was involved in during 2007, and involves working with teenagers

from Lochgilphead High School over the course of the next month, using existing traditional songs and also music written by Donald himself,to culminate in 2

concerts at the end of October. The last Rhapsody show was great fun and resulted in some great press reviews so I’m looking forward to the final gigs, which are looking to be the 28th/29th Oct. Keep an eye out for these gigs on the News page…

TRANSFORM GLASGOW

Also I’m pleased to be working as part of a theatre show called “Transform Glasgow”, based in an arts centre in Easterhouse, Glasgow. It is a community based show run by The National Theatre of Scotland, and I will be tutoring a group of young singers with no previous experience in Gaelic song to result in a string of shows in November. This is a very creative and diverse community orientated project, and I’m delighted to be part of something a little closer to home turf too! Check out www.platform-online.co.uk for more details and also keep an eye on the News page for updated gig times.

NORWAY

Maeve & Jackie Oates band

Last week I had the pleasure of jetting off to Norway for a number of gigs at the fantastic North Sea Festival (Nordsjofestivalen) in Farsund. This is a fantastic festival, and is very community based, their motto being “Where People Meet Folk”, which meant a very lively and relaxed environment where bands and audience hung out together during and after the gigs. For this festival I took guitarist Mike Bryan (Treacherous Orchestra) out with me and he did a great job. We were also lucky to meet some fantastic bands out there, including the mighty Swedish band Ranarim, the lovely Jackie Oates and her band, and also got to hear some great Norwegian music such as the singer Kim Andre Rysstad, who totally blew me away. We had an eventful and adventure-filled Sunday getting to the airport at the end of the week as some of us had been enjoying ourselves so much they didn’t want to go home… but I’d like to say a huge thank you to Knut Egil, Tor, Thomas, and the other festival organisers for having us, and I’d be delighted to go back anytime. For now though, it’s back to the joys of rainy Glasgow…

]]> http://www.maevemackinnon.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=174 0 http://www.maevemackinnon.com/news/?p=149 http://www.maevemackinnon.com/news/?p=149#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:28:25 +0000 admin http://www.maevemackinnon.com/news/?p=149

Brel gig, June 09

Hello to all and hope you’re having a fantastic summer. I finally got a wee “breather” from all the various fèisean, gigs and nonsense and thought I’d update the News page!

JUNE

June was a very busy month with lots of work for Fèis Rois’s YMI project up north and in the central belt. In the midst of it all the West End Festival started in Glasgow and I was lucky to be involved in various different events. First up was a gig with James Graham, Hamish Napier, Rachel Newton and Barry Reid in Bar Brel on Ashton Lane (see pic on left). This was a gig organised by the company “My Gaelic”, and the place was so packed that some people couldn’t get in the door! We had a great time so thanks to everyone who came out for that.

Marty & Ewan dancing!

Also during the West End Festival I did a series of Gaelic singing taster workshops for beginners, which was held in Partick Library, and had great fun working on a gig entitled “Comadaidh ‘s Cràic”, which consisted of myself and Barry Reid playing sets in between brilliant comedy sketches by some of my Gaelic comedy heroes. A big thanks to Arthur Donald, Daibhi Walker and Carina MacLeod in particular for having us on the show, and to An Lòchran for putting on the event.

JULY

The weather in July was uncharacteristically stunning (for Scotland!) and I had the pleasure of doing several Fèisean in a row, the first of which was on the beautiful Isle of

Sunbathing on Barra

Barra. The ferry trip is a rough 5hr sailing from Oban, but for anyone who hasn’t been, it really is a stunning place. Myself and the other tutors had a very action packed week teaching through the day, and playing most evenings but also got a few nights off (see pic on left!).

It was also a sporty week with some of us doing a daily jog. In fact the term “extreme jogging” might be more appropriate, as some of us found out that we had in fact, chosen the most dangerous beach on Barra to jog on (the sinking sands at Baile na Crèige). Myself and Megan Henderson were completely unaware of this until one of the locals calmly pointed out to us that someone had died on that beach. I think we lost about half a stone each that week attempting to drag our feet out of the sand with every step!

Almost a winning team!

Not to be outdone however, Findlay Napier eclipsed us all by bringing his surfboard to Barra and actually went surfing every single day! And very professional he looked too. Incidentally I did take a picture of Fin wearing his wetsuit and a rubber helmet (apparently it keeps his ears warm!!), but I seem to have lost it… damn!

ARRAN

The next island we managed to assault was lovely Arran, where we again had a busy but fun week. I managed to catch up with my former RSAMD tutor Màiri MacInnes, who had written a beautiful song especially for the Arran Fèis, and everybody thoroughly enjoyed it. The cràic was mighty once again, and the sporty theme continued with daily jogs and tennis, up until the pub quiz tournament in Lamlash…

“Team Jogging” came 2nd out of about 12 teams of fully grown adults (a major achievement for folk musicians!!!) but Gary Innes’ team failed to make the finals and was relegated. There was laughter, there was tears…

Stay posted for the next installment!!! Mx

Maddens, Belfast

Myself and Innes ventured across the water on 30th April to do a gig at Madden’s Bar, Belfast. We also hijacked the lovely Fran Morton to guest for us on flute and whistle and she did a fantastic job! We had a fab night- the place was packed and the audience was very appreciative. Thanks to Màirtìn, Caoimhe and the staff at Madden’s for looking after us so well. The music continued into the wee hours, with a samba band and a great song session, including a version of “Runaway” by the Corrs in Gaeilge, leaving everyone scratching their heads going, “I’m sure I’ve heard that song before”…

The next day started with initial panic at the thought that I might have lost a bag of CDs and several items of clothing, but after a few phonecalls and a visit to Madden’s again we managed to locate them and got onto the plane without further drama! A big thank you to Feilimi O’Connor for his help.

Spirit Aid lineup

The next week was a gig on home turf, this time at the Oran Mòr in Glasgow. The event was Spirit Aid 2009, a fundraiser for a childrens’ charity run by well-known actor David Hayman. The organisation gives aid to communities in places like Malawi, Afghanistan, Gaza and other areas ravaged by war and famine. I was delighted to be involved in this and will continue to support the work of Spirit Aid. www.spiritaid.org.uk

Also this month I squeezed in a wee bit of recording for a Brazilian roots project Mike McGoldrick asked me to be involved in. There was a wee bit of composition involved (in Gaelic) so it’s probably going to be a bit different! Looking forward to hearing the end result and will post more info up when I get it…

Earlier tonight I was interviewed on Celtic Music Radio by Fergus Muirhead. The topic was Dick Gaughan songs- which was easy because I have been a big fan of Gaughan since I was a toddler! Fergus and I had a great time waxing lyrical about countless songs until we ran out of time! You can hear the programme live on Monday 18th May and again on Tuesday 19th May at 12 noon by logging onto www.celticmusicradio.net

Next on the agenda for me are rehearsals for a new music project starting on Sunday, after which I start another block of YMI tutoring for Fèis Rois in Nairn and Wester Ross. Also for anyone who might have a burning desire to learn Gaelic song I’ve started teaching another block of Saturday lunchtime Gaelic song classes for the Edinburgh Fèis (Tollcross Primary). It’s a very relaxed environment and beginners are welcome! Contact Kaela Rowan on feisdhuneideann@feisean.org for more details…

Slàinte, Maeve x