2009 |
|||
September 2009 |
|||
| Sunday, 13 September 2009 08:00PM |
Jim Malcolm |
Location tba |
|
|
Jim Malcolm was brought up in Perthshire and Angus and was steeped in the traditional music of Scotland from an early age. He learned to play guitar while at school and by his early twenties was winning songwriting competitions and playing in folk clubs all over Scotland. His career began to take off when he hosted the open stage at Edinburgh Folk Festival, and through his own playing there secured a contract with Greentrax for his first solo album. This brought in bookings at folk clubs and festivals in Britain and abroad, and established Jim as one of the leading songwriters in the traditional idiom in Scotland. He was dubbed: "The new male voice of Scotland." Jim has given songwriting and song accompaniment masterclasses at many festivals, including Scotland's foremost festival, Celtic Connections in Glasgow. STV broadcast a documentary on Jim and Angus singer Jim Reid for its Artery series, and their singing was featured in the "best of" programme which rounded off the series. He was one of twelve leading Scottish singers who performed Andy Thorburn's epic work Tuath gu Deas, and has featured on volumes four, five and six of Linn Records Complete Songs of Robert Burns, produced by Dr Fred Freeman. Jim also sang in the Northern Nights series on Grampian TV and STV. In January 1999 Jim joined one of Scotland's most popular international folk acts, the "Old Blind Dogs" from North East Scotland, and has since worked with them all over the UK, in France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany, USA, Canada and Bulgaria. To date career highlights also include solo tours in USA, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Ireland and England, solo studio spots on Travelling Folk, an appearance on STV's Hogmanay show and a tour in Uganda. His song Neptune featured on an award-winning documentary about a North Sea oil spill. A busy year of touring on both sides of the Atlantic, 2004 finished on a high when Jim won Songwriter of the Year, and Old Blind Dogs won Scottish Folk Band of the Year, at a glittering awards ceremony in Edinburgh in December, all organised by the Scots Trad Music Society. |
|||
November 2009 |
|||
| Thursday, 05 November 2009 08:00PM |
Paddy Keenan |
Location tba |
|
|
Paddy Keenan was born into a traveller family steeped in traditional music. His open-fingered style of playing can be traced directly from the style of such great Travelling pipers as Johnny Doran, as well as that of his own father and grandfather. In the 1970s Paddy was a founding member of the legendary Bothy Band, and his virtuosity on the pipes, combined with the ferocity of his playing, made him, its driving force. Since the break-up of The Bothy Band, Paddy has pursued a solo career, playing festivals and concerts all over the world. He has composed and arranged music for several film projects; most recently, he’s been working on a documentary film in Mali. In 2002 Paddy was awarded the TG4 (Irish language television) Traditional Music Award (Gradam Cheoil) as Traditional Musician of the Year. This is the most prestigious award given in the genre of Irish traditional music. Generally acknowledged as the most accomplished uilleann piper performing today, Paddy is certainly one of the most brilliant musicians of his generation. Songwriter Patsy O'Brien has a penchant for seamless genre-hopping, as well as showing off his critically acclaimed songwriting skills. Patsy's most obvious influences are blues, traditional Irish music, jazz and country, with obvious nods to such masters as Hank Williams, Rory Gallagher, Son House and a host of others, Patsy's cross cultural explorartions within songwriting and composition genres have lead him on an interesting path. He has played with Punk Rock bands, country bands, big-band swing and Jazz ensembles, Irish folk groups, tradiional Irish music groups and most recently and most successfully, as a solo guitarist and singer. He has been known to supply the driving guitar rhythms on Irish/World Music diva Eileen Ivers' European tours, and regularly treads the boards with Piping legend Paddy Keenan, who also sprinkles some of his own magic onto a few tracks on Patsy's last album. On Patsy's solo recordings, his interest in contemporary songwriting as well as his jazz influences are also apparent - this being most evident in a jazz/blues version of "Star of The County Down" with Paddy Keenan on low whistle, an arrangement of the old Irish ballad that inspired Irish music critic Paul Dromey to declare Patsy "Ireland's best - kept musical secret.", and has recently been featured on NPR's "All Songs Considered" |
|||
|
