April Verch duo and Maeve
A very belated Happy 2009 and apologies to those reading this for the lack of site updates!!
January was a busy month, kickstarted with weekly drives to Inverness and Ross-shire for Fèis Rois’ YMI project, Glasgow gigs at Celtic Connections and a trip to Germany…
Celtic Connections was good craic again this year; The Ceòl ’s Craic headliner gig with Innes went really well. Then the arrival of the fab April Verch and her bassist Cody Walters gave Ewan MacPherson and I the chance to reunite with them onstage (this time in a different continent), alongside Ruairi Sutherland from Edinburgh whose “human beatbox” went down a storm! We hope to have another collaboration before too long. (See pic- left)
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Celtic Connections
A trip to Nuremberg for a Burns weekend followed, gigging and staying at the famous Grand Hotel Nuremberg (the balcony from which Hitler addressed the Nazi rallies). This was a Glasgow City Council trip along with Caulburn Ceilidh Band, Mairearad Green, Iain (Neilston) MacDonald, Rachel Hair, dancers and pipers. Nuremberg is a stunning city and myself and the other musicians involved were looked after really well.
February was a continuation of more hard graft, interspersed with a lovely break in County Kerry at the fab Padraig O’Neill’s house, followed by a great gig at Leith Folk Club with Innes and Duncan. It was my first time gigging there and we had a great reception. Amusingly and rather confusingly we had a turn out of 5 journalists to review the gig, but we had a nice couple of reviews from The Herald and MyGaelic. Check them out…
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Mike and the Uggs!
March was particularly hectic with no days off, wall-to-wall workshops for the Fèis Rois YMI scheme, Fèis Ghallaibh, Fèis Dhun Eideann, RSAMD Youthworks, Gillespies High School, North Ayrshire council, and a new recording project of Ewan MacPherson’s. Then it was straight to Ullapool to do a week of teaching at Fèis Rois nan Oigridh, the residential week long music course. It was a tiring but great week and we had a good laugh along the way (see fiddler Mike Vass modelling a pair of Ugg boots opposite…!)
The next gig this month is Madden’s Bar, Belfast, 30th April, with Innes Watson. We’re looking forward to this one and hope to see as many folk there as possible. Madden’s.
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Fèis tutors skiving
May will be a bit less manic, and I’ve been asked to perform at a fundraiser for Spirit Aid, which is a humanitarian charity run by the actor David Hayman. The gig is 7th May and the charity has been doing some fantastic work in the likes of Afghanistan, Kosovo and other war torn countries, so please come out for that one as it’s for a great cause.
Finally if anybody is at a loose end in June, the West End Festival is on in Glasgow and “MyGaelic” are hosting a few events this year that myself and various other musicians are involved in. “MyGaelic” is a fantastic new company promoting Gaelic language for learners. They have a fab website where you can create your own Gaelic profile and page, à la Facebook. See MyGaelic for details…