Good news to share: I received a research grant to go to Scotland this summer. I’ll be there for about 7 weeks (May 22 - July 12), living in Aberdeen but traveling around. The project is to study the music scene, so basically I just get to hang out at sessions, festivals, and concerts, play lots of music, and do a few interviews. It’ll definitely be a tough 7 weeks
Anyways… I know I’ve seen a few of you that live in Scotland. I’d love to hear from you and meet up this summer. Just a couple questions for now: when/where are good sessions or other such musical things around Aberdeen? Or festivals going on during the time I’ll be there? (right now the only thing I have planned is a trip up to the Orkney Folk Festival.) any recommendations are more than welcome.
The outcome of the project will hopefully be a multimedia website, so no one should feel too left out
Well, if I were in your position — and I wish I were — I would jump on Kenny’s offer. Beyond that, however, you might want to take a look at Nigel Gatherer’s site, if you haven’t seen it already:
for anyone who’s interested, I’m putting pictures of my travels up on my website and along with those are links to videos I’ve put on YouTube. all of that is here and I hope to update it at least once a week…
I’m sure Kenney is a better man to tell you about the trad stuff anyway but if you’re interested in any local contemporary music (rock, indie, pop, alternative folk and metal) then I help run a site called Aberdeen Music (http://www.aberdeen-music.com) which should let you know what’s going on during the time you’re here. In fact I’ll even point you straight to the events calendar: http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/calendar.php?
If you’ve got the time at the end of your stay the Stonehaven Folk festival takes place from the 10th to the 13th July. You should try and head down if you can (http://www.stonehavenfolkfestival.co.uk/) not least of all because Stonehaven on a sunny day is amazing and Aunt Betty’s on the beachfront sells some of the best ice cream you’re going to get over here
Enjoyed the tunes on Monday , Sara. So nice to have another flute player along. I’ll be down a bit earlier on Monday, around 8pm. 3 of my flute students are coming down too, to get a few tunes in before it gets too busy. Bring the camera ! We can have a “name that flute” competition
busking in Pitlochry! didn’t make much money, but the two fiddle players who were there let me join them and it was good fun. and this fulfills the request for a picture of me playing in Scotland.
Thanks, Kenny. playing at the session last week was fun (although I’ve never seen so many mandolin players in one place in my life). see you on monday around 8
