Greetings from Foot Stompin'!
1. New at Foot Stompin': includes Karine Polwart, India Alba and Gordon MacKenzie
2. Book of the week: David Milligan's Scottish Piano Collection
3. Snippets: The Wee Spoon Festival, Song Competition deadline fast approaches!
4. Scotland's Music on Youtube
5. CD Reviews: includes Laughing Girl, The Lord Todd Piping Recital
6. Ceolas Summer Music School
7. Foot Stompin' Celtic Music Discussion Forum: includes 'Too may Festivals?'
8. Events
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1. New arrivals at Foot Stompin' Celtic Music (10% discount on all sales after first purchase.)
CD OF THE WEEK: This Earthly Spell - The bittersweet, cascading harmonies of "The Good Years" sets the tone for Karine Polwart's new album This Earthly Spell. A multi award winning writer, she follows up her recent traditional Fairest Floo'er album with a set of mostly her own songs. Wonderful stuff from a captivating storyteller. £10.80 (£11.99 for first time customers)
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/this_earthly_spell
KINDRED SPIRITS!! Reels and Ragas - India Alba: Excellent debut album from collaboration of Indian and Scottish musicians. The result of this fusion could be seen as a slightly different tone or improvisation added to Scottish traditional music, or a distinctly Scottish voice being brought to Indian music. Whichever way you see, or hear it, it works and it's good! £11.25 (£12.50for first time customers)
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/reels_and_ragas
EIGHTSOME!! Sgiobalta 2007: A group of eight excellent young musicians who met at Stirling Feis in 2005 and had such a good time that they decided to form a band so that they could keep on playing together. We are glad they did! Fiddles, whistle, clarsach, pipes and guitar. £10.35 (£11.50 for first time customers)
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/sgiobalta_2007
A TASTER!! Not Enough For An Album (EP) - Wingin' It: An award-winning guitar and mandolin duo who perform a wide range of styles, from Django-style jazz to bluegrass to pop . This 4-track EP, which features original compositions, is a fine taster for their full album which is due in 2009. £4.50 (£4.99 for first time customers)
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/not_enough_for_an_album_ep
A GLORIOUS TENOR!! Gordon MacKenzie: An extremely fine Scots tenor who was a contemporary and one time protege of the great Robert Wilson. You can see the friendship and influence from the Wilson like repertoire of this CD. This is a very rare recording. £10.35 (£11.50 for first time customers)
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/gordon_mackenzie
More 'new arrivals' at foot Stompin': http://www.footstompin.com/collections/new
2. BOOK OF THE WEEK: David Milligan's Scottish Piano Collection (book with audio CD): David is well known in piano playing circles and he is in great demand as a teacher and composer. He regularly plays in a duo with concertina player Simon Thoumire and is the joint musical director of the acclaimed Folk 'superband' The Unusual Suspects. The music in this book is influenced by David's love of jazz and his unique mix of the Scottish traditional and contemporary tunes offers a chance for pianists to explore the potential of these types of Scottish arrangements. As well as the tunes there is useful information on style and suggestions of other types of arrangements which can be developed from these settings. Complimenting the book is a delightful 15 track audio CD featuring David playing some tunes from the book.. £13.49 (£14.99 for first time customers)
http://www.footstompin.com/products/books/david_milligans_scottish_piano_collection_book_with_cd
3. Snippets
The Wee Spoon Festival
The Fife-based Lang Spoon Festival will not be going ahead this year at the Rothes Halls. Instead, there will be a "Wee Spoon" festival at the Polish Club, Kirkcaldy on 10th - 12th April. Performers, details etc are still being finalised . For more info email: me.an.ma.big.mooth@btopenworld.com
Song Competition deadline fast approaches!
Only two weeks left for minority language singers and song-writers to enter Nòs Ùr - the first song contest to be held in Inverness as part of four regional finals held across Europe. The deadline for song applications is 14 March. Meaning 'New Style' in Gaelic, the Nòs Ùr competition is seeking songs entered from languages such as Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Ulster Scots, Irish, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton. The winners of the West European competition will be entered into the final of the pan-European Liet Lavlut competition which takes place in Lulea, Sweden in October.
http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=129035
Scots Song Cataloguer - Job Opportunity
A Scots song Cataloguer is wanted for theTobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches project. This is an exciting and innovative project which aims to digitise, catalogue and disseminate Gaelic and Scots sound recordings online thus ensuring that the vast heritage of stories, poetry, music and factual information will be preserved as a unique record of Scotland's cultural and linguistic heritage. More info;
http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=129045
4. Scotland's Music on YouTube
Foot Stompin's own Simon Thoumire has started a YouTube group titled 'Scotland's Music'. This is an attempt to create a space on YouTube where folks can come and view our own folk/traditional music. In its first week there have already been 22 videos added. Come and join in! hopefully in will grow and flourish carrying Scotland's music in its many forms - fiddle, bagpipes, clarsach, Gaelic, Scots song and more out to the wider world.
http://www.youtube.com/group/scotlandsmusic
5. Reviews
DVD: The Lord Todd Piping Recital Challenge: Live Recording. Customer Review - 5 Stars
What can be said???? THE most wonderful playing from some of the very best. I look forward to a whole series of these recordings. Sound was extremely well recorded and balance of chanter/drones was perfect (not easy to do in a live setting). Visuals: surely directed/filmed by a piper? Excellent close ups of fingering etc. All in all, magnificent. 10 out of 10 chaps! Robert EKPB http://www.footstompin.com/products/dvd/the_lord_todd_piping_recital_challenge_dvd
CD: The Keil Road - Donald Black: Reviewed for Scotland on Sunday by Norman Chalmers
HARMONICA is not the first instrument that springs to mind when Scottish traditional music is mentioned, but Donald Black has been an assiduous as well as persuasive advocate...an engaging listen, and he throws in a vocal version of the Gaelic song Gleann Bhaile Chaoil for good measure. Other innovations include a first-ever pibroch on harmonica. A stellar cast of helpers includes Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, Duncan Chisholm and Allan Henderson, who also produces. Read the full review here:
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/keil_road
CD: Hubcaps and Potholes - Rachel Hair. Customer Review - 4 Stars
Suffice to say that since I received this album, it has hardly been out of my cd player. I've listened to it every day at least once for about two weeks now!...David Vivanco
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/hubcaps_and_potholes 7. FREE Ringtone
CD: Laughing Girl - Jenna Reid: Rob Adams in The Herald.
The new album from Jenna Reid, Laughing Girl, underlines her reputation as the leading fiddler of her generation in Scotland...But it's in a duo such as the one with Mackenzie that Reid really blooms and shows why she was nominated as Best Instrumentalist in the 2007 Scots Trad Music Awards. Expect sparks to fly - and a good greet when she puts her heart and soul into the sad tunes.
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/fiddle/laughing_girl
CD: Tammy Norie - Maggie Adamson & Brian Nicholson: Reviewed in The Scottish Fiddlers' Calendar.
You might think that for a 15-year old fiddler to make a CD is foolhardy, but not if it's Maggie Adamson. This lass from Shetland shows extraordinary maturity, skill and feeling for the music, and the recording is a delight.
http://www.footstompin.com/products/cds/fiddle/tammy_norie
6. Ceòlas Summer Music School
Ceòlas is a wonderful music and dance summer school featuring expert tuition in piping, fiddling, singing, Scotch reels and Quadrilles, step dancing and the Gaelic language. Under the artistic direction of Iain MacDonald, it is set within the Gaelic-speaking community of South Uist. Ceòlas explores the vital connections between Scottish traditional music, Gaelic song and dance while allowing ample opportunity for participants to enjoy all these art forms in cèilidhs and in homes, the places which fostered them.
The School takes a holistic approach to tuition and no single element is complete without the others. Pipers learn to beat the rhythms of their strathspeys in a step dancing class while fiddlers learn words to their tunes through 'mouth music' or puirt a beul. Dancers, in turn, explore the relationship between their steps and Gaelic song while pipers and singers discover the fundamental relationship between classical piping (ceòl mòr) and Gaelic song. This approach leads to a fuller appreciation of the riches of individual traditions, and how they connect and interact with each other
There is a good range of accommodation Hotels, Bed & Breakfast and self catering in reasonable range of Ceolas Summer School based in Daliburgh, South Uist.
The tutors for this year are:
Allan Henderson - Intermediate Fiddle
Anna Wendy Stevenson - Beginners Fiddle
Allan MacDonald - Ceol Mor / Piobaireachd song
Angus Grant Snr- Youth Fiddle
Tony MacDonald -Youth piping
Mats Melin - Step Dance / Reels & Quadrilles
Katie Shaw - Beginners Step-Dance
Cathy Ann MacPhee - Songs of Barra
Mairi MacInnes - Including Songs of the Uist bards
Donnie Murdo MacLeod- Humorous Songs & Songs of Lewis & Harris
Rona Lightfoot - Puirt a' beul
Angus MacDonald - Playing for Dancing
Ewen Henderson - Playing for Dancing
Fin Moore - Playing for Dancing
Sarah Hoy - Playing for Dancing
Alec 'Valtos' MacDonald - Gaelic Tutor
Catriona MacIntyre -Gaelic Tutor
Alasdair 'a Bhocsair' Campbell - Creativity with Gaelic Tutor
Further information : http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=129113
7. Foot Stompin' Celtic Music Discussion Forum:
Here are some of the topics under discussion at the moment on our Foot Stompin' Celtic Music Forum. Feel free to join in! http://www.footstompin.com/forum?forumid=3
Too many festivals?
"Festival organisers yesterday claimed the market for large-scale music events outside the Central Belt had become "over-heated".
http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=129110
Crofters' Indigenous Status Report To Be Launched
I'm not sure I really know what to think about this. I can see what they're trying to do, but I can't help feel that it's too late to be meaningful.
http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=128793
8. Events
6th - 14th March: Box Club on tour: BoxClub are accordionists Gary Innes, John Sommerville, Mairearad Green and Angus Lyon. They are on tour in Scotland over the next few days Check out where you can see the here;
http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=129098
6th March: Shooglenifty - Scotland's funkiest band at Comrie White Church in Comrie. 8pm. Further info;
http://www.comrie.org.uk/organisations/coma.html
8th March 3, 2008: Club "Galore"! Opening gig for the new late-night club. The Caves(South Niddry St. Edinburgh). Ross Ainslie & Ali Hutton, vibrona and more 10:30 - 3.00.
http://www.footstompin.com/public/forum?threadid=118537
10th March: at 8pm. Folk duo Gaberlunzie at Stirling Folk club. The club meets Stirling County Rugby Footbal Club, Bridgehaugh Park
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