Summer 2008

December 19th, 2008

July was a busy month with a trip out to the West coast of Canada to do festivals on Vancouver Island, Vancouver city, the Sunshine Coast. The fantastic guitarist/singer/songwriter Ewan MacPherson accompanied me out there, bringing with him 2 guitars, 2 effects pedals and great company.

Ewan hanging oot

Ewan hanging oot

First up was Vancouver Island Musicfest, run by the fantastic dobro player Doug Cox. As well as our own gigs we spent 3 days doing intensive rehearsals with a bunch of extraordinarily talented musicians and dancers from across the globe to put together a concert called “Roots of Rhythm”. Artists included the fab April Verch band, brilliant Maori roots band Pacific Curls, great flamenco guitarist Jorge Miguel and dancer Ilse Gudino, fabulous Indian singer Cassius Khan and his dancer wife Amika and the fantastic musical director and all-rounder Sal Ferreras. Cassius and I had a ball interweaving Indian songs with Gaelic songs and Sal sang Spanish songs that meshed with Ora Barlow’s Maori songs. Being onstage really brought home to us all that we’re on a very small planet and our music and cultures are really so similar.

"Roots of Rhythm"

Roots of Rhythm

Besides a mad schedule of gigs, we also got to chill out and hear some fantastic bands. Highlights include Jerry Douglas (for whom we were lucky to be supporting), the Wailers (minus Bob Marley RIP) and a great West-Indies band called Kobo Town.

Many thanks to Doug Cox and Marcy Jaster for putting on a fantastic festival!

We then spent a day north of the festival visiting Yves and Barb Vachon in Campbell River. Many thanks to the Vachon family for their hospitality! After this Ewan and I had an eventful gear-carrying marathon (including 200 cds!) onto 2 ferries which eventually took us to The Sunshine Coast, where we were staying with the wonderful John and Ann Law (originally from Fort William and Morar).

Cathy Woods, Ann Law & Maeve

Cathy Woods, Ann Law & Maeve

The Laws run the Sunshine Coast fiddle camp and you’d think after having had over 20 guests the previous week, they’d be sick of musicians! But they’d managed to organise a house concert for us while we were passing through. During our day off I found the nearest beach while Ewan fulfilled a lifetime ambition of whale watching in the Pacific! (See whale pic below). We then set up the gear on John and Ann’s porch decking and did our first house concert to a lovely crowd. We were supported by their son James’s talented young folk band. James is a great fiddler and budding soundman and it was great to hear his band playing loads of new compositions they’d just learned from Scottish friends of ours at the fiddle camp!

Ewan's whale

Ewan's whale

From the Sunshine Coast we all piled into a car and headed for Jericho Beach, home to Vancouver Folk Festival. I had 3 gigs that day and 2 radio interviews, so had to hotfoot it between stages. We found time to catch up with April Verch’s band again, the fab Kobo Town and also our friends Lau (see pic) who were over for a tour of their own. The first gig Ewan and I were involved in was a collaboration with the fantastic Portugese/African singer Eneida Marta from Guinea Bassau and another brilliant Indian singer, Kiran Aluwalia. For this Kiran and I interwined Indian and Gaelic songs and once again were knocked out by how well different types of indigenous music can mesh together. Another collaboration was the ”Scotland: Past and Present” gig with Enoch Kent (originally from Glasgow). Enoch’s first words to me were “So you’re one of Brian’s girls?”. I eventually figured out he meant Brian McNeill (former head of Scottish Music at RSAMD!) and we had a good laugh and sang some songs together.
Aidan's dinner

Aidan's dinner

Next was a gig entitled “Women’s Voices Rising”, hosted by the charismatic broadcaster, feminist and singer Faith Nolan. It was an eventful concert with a “no men allowed onstage” rule, later amended to “we’ll allow one on as a mascot”. Ewan, who had been considering coming onstage, fled to the bar. I was given a shaker and instructed to play it, and then was asked on the spot to translate “The Circle Will Not Be Broken” into Gaelic…!I bluffed my way through it, and brought my new shaker out at a session that night but not everybody appreciated my playing. This now adds to my kazoo playing from last year’s stint with the Island Tapes… But I think I’ll leave the “multi-instrumentalist” tag to my wee pal (son of Drew Gonzales from Kobo Town).
the world's most talented 4 year old

the world's most talented 4 year old

Vancouver Festival

Vancouver Festival

After some mighty music and craic catching up with folk, Ewan and I headed for LA, where we were staying with his pals Thomas and Tiara in Hollywood. LA driving is mental and the 2 days we were there I refused to drive our hirecar. Motorway lanes merge without warning and everybody skips red lights when turning right…! Thomas plays in a duo called “Chris and Thomas”, now based in LA and Ewan was at uni with both of them in Liverpool. We had a great time in LA, loads of sunshine, good food and I spotted an actor from my favourite show in a supermarket! Chris was going, “That’s nothing. Vince Vaughan is my next-door neighbour”…

Thomas, Tiara, Ewan

Thomas, Tiara, Ewan

After 2 days in LA Ewan and I headed for LAX, he flew to London for a Womad gig and I flew to San Francisco to visit friends. A week later, we met up for a BBC gig. I’d just come off a 12 hour flight from San Francisco (via Vancouver and Calgary), but it had been delayed for 4 hours due to a “security alert” (never what you want to hear when you’re on a plane!) so jetlag was the order of the day. The very next day, Lauren MacColl, Spad Reid, Michael Bryan and myself all piled into my car to drive to Southampton (Stokes Bay Festival) then the Isle of Wight along with Rachel Hair and Paul Tracey.

Laureno and Spad

Laureno and Spad

Maeve and Ed Boyd

Maeve and Ed Boyd

We arrived just in time to hear Capercaillie, and were able to catch up with them and our friends The Shee that night. The following day was tight for time as we had one gig in Stokes Bay at 2pm and the other on the Isle of Wight at 7pm! The timing combined with a broken thermostat in the arts centre made for a sweaty gig! Good craic all in all however and we were able to get the ferry the next morning and head back up the road for more insane travels! :)