Scottish Culture Online

This is a CD I put together in 2005. It’s a free impro CD and is made up of recordings of the world around me and musicians improvising. The idea is that the recordings are life and the musicians are the people living life. It all happened around the time of Radiohead releasing Kid A  - an album I [...]

Fergus and I got together in 1995 (I think) to consider making an electronic dance CD. This was all the rage in Edinburgh at the time with Martyn Bennett just about to release his debut CD and everyone was trying the ‘electronica thing’. We got in touch with Iona Records to see if they would be [...]

Here’s a wee ditty that I put together a few years back called Give Me Peace. It’s part of my Self Portrait YouTube album. At the time I was juggling work with toddlers. In the video I tried to capture the sense of fun of it all. It also features my love of drum n bass. [...]

Teaching at Tinto 16 is Wick fiddler Gordon Gunn . Gordon’s an amazing fiddler with a different style to most other Scottish fiddlers I think. He has a very fluid style combined with fantastic technique. When his debut recording from the  Gordon Gunn Band – “Shoreside” ( Greentrax Recordings CDTRAX 204 (2000)) . I remember Ian Green of Greentrax telling everyone how Gordon [...]

I’m looking forward to travelling to Paris on the 1st June with Ian Carr to play Trad&Sons festival. Will be a blast and good to see some old musical friends

Back in 1997 David Francis and the Edinburgh Folk Festival scheduled the very first Flowers of Edinburgh Concert. We all gathered at Teviot House (the home of the Folk Festival) and had a photo taken of all the performers – well the ones that turned up… Then everyone got together to perform in different groups from [...]

Here is a great article written by Scottish fiddler Ed Pearlman on the possibilities to listen to Scottish music online including my popular Foot Stompin’ free Scottish music podcast. Read the article here (pdf)
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?rajxh1rmyuhr1xv

This was the CD we made in 1993 as the follow up to Hootz! with Ian Carr. It was a really interesting time in Edinburgh where everyone in the Tron Pub was experimenting with different genres of music. The trio consists of Simon Thoumire, Kevin MacKenzie (guitar) and Brian Sheils (bass). We originally got together for [...]

Myself and David Milligan have been very lucky to be have invited to perform at the St Magnus International Festival in Orkney on Thursday 27th June. I haven’t been up to Orkney for years so it’s really exciting. I’m also going to finally see the Wrigley Sisters’ The Reel venue which I’ve heard so much about. Orkney is [...]

I recorded this set in Stereo last year in May (2012). This band really rock especially Brian Finnegan’s whistle playing. Is there anyone better?

I made this video back in 2009 when I put together my first video album. The thinking in this video is trying to work and make music within a family environment when everyone KEEPS INTERRUPTING YOU ALL TIME. I think I’ve nearly moved on from these feelings now…

This is a CD I made a few years ago when I was going for it experimenting with improvising and what the English concertina can do. I just sat down in front of the microphone in our dining room and waited to see what happened. This is the result…

Great trip to Berlin City last night. Loved this slogan.

It’s not often I spend time being a musician nowadays! I’m sitting here at the Seminarhof Proitzer Mühl e 3 hours out of Berlin (to the west) with 35 concertina players! What a fantastic place. It reminds me of Wiston Lodge in South Lanarkshire but deep in snow. We had a lovely session last night with 10 concertina [...]

I first went to Tinto Summer School 7 years ago and have been back every year since (apart from one year when I got too old, but they’ve fixed that now. Yay!). You’ll gather from that I’m rather keen on it. I’d been learning classical violin for a few years before that, and had tried playing [...]

23/03/2013 – 24/03/2013 – All Day Cromarty Arts Trust Ardyne, Bank Street Cromarty