12th March 2010. The last four weeks have fair zipped by. A remarkable
young singer - Alistair Ogilvey - asked me if I would play accopaniment
for him for a couple of performances he had lined up. I know Alistair
from the Uisge Beatha seissions and I have a great admiration for his
singing. We've had two or three rehearsals now and it's coming together
nicely. It's a joy to play for him. I've stuck his performances on my
gigs page.Also, I recently put out some enquiries for gigs later in the year and within a couple of days, I've been invited to perform at a 'songs of peace show' in East Kilbride in October and the Carrying Stream Festival in Edinburgh (November). More details will follow when I have them
11th
February 2010. Just been updating the site. Some more tracks added to
the widget (go to Recordings page) with the words pasted into the
Lyrics page. I hope eventually to have all my recorded songs and lyrics
available to hear and read. There's also some changes to the biography
page as I have been told that what I had before was 'too wordy'. Well,
that's still there but it has been prefaced by a more brief overview. 7th
February 2010. Busy Christmas and the new year starts off looking fine.
Then the painful news that my friend Alistair Hulett has gone. A dark
and sad time. Like many others, I will miss Alistair sorely. 12th
December 2009. I've recently been getting to grips with some more
recording. I'll be putting down some new songs over the next few months
and the first one is now available to listen to here and to
purchase from Scotloads (MP3 downloads - see recordings), it's called Father And Son. I'll post the lyrics in here soon. 5th
December 2009. Glenfarg was a hoot. Despite a fairly last minute change
- Steven couldn't make it - the good folk at the club were
gracious enough to put up with a solo concert from me. They
enthusiastically joined in with anything that sounded remotely like a
chorus and the warmth of their welcome was unsurpassable. Many thanks
to one and all. 5th
October 2009. September was busy. Steve Clark and I had some great
shows, the benefit gig at Coatbridge was a storming success, raising
around a £1000 for Lowes Foundation and the Rotary Club. I bumbed into
some friends and met up with Adriana again who I hadn't seen for about
three years. She's producing some wonderful music now and is well worth
checking out (see my contacts page for a link). The song writing
workshop at Linlithgow was fun and seemed to be a gret success - we
both agreed we'd like to do it again. The gig at Uisge Beatha was,
sadly, poorly attended. We probably didn't do anything like enough
promotion for it, we're far too lazy for such things. Anyway, next C
& K gig is Glenfarg Folk Club at the end of November and a few
things lining up, both solo and duet stuff. I'll post more when I have
details. 12th August 2009. Well, the Glasgow Show is done and I think I've
recovered. It was the best year yet, superbly enjoyable sharing time,
space and music with a great bunch of performers. Sunday was
particularly blessed by the weather and The Acoustic Zone pulled a
sizeable crowd. Many thanks to Glasgow City Council for all their
effort and the resources to put on this sparkling event. I'm looking forward to doing it again next year. 6th July 2009. The gig at The Scotia was great fun if a little heavy
going due to the heat. It was possibly the hottest venue I've ever
performed in. Anyway the welcome was just as warm as usual and this
time, as well as the usual conversation with someone comparing me to
Roger Whittaker, I had a quite surreal chat with a guy who seemed a
little 'tired and emotional' about me singing and playing like Justin
Haywood. So there's a first.
30th June 2009. Not had too much time recently, but I thought I'd
mention that the Lobey Dosser day was brilliant. Everyone seemed to be
having such a good time and enjoying the fun, it was so infectious.
Jimmie McGregor and Dave Anderson were on top form, taking neither
themselves or anything else very seriously. The other performers I
hadn't known before; Grace the poet - well worth looking out for,
witty, sharp and shrewdly observant; and Kosmic Colin, a surreal singer
songwriter who had penned a piece just for the event and also gave us
his unique version of Pinball Wizard. 28th May 2009.
Oran Mor was fun. Nothing goes to plan of course and as far as I
could see, the presenters, their background tech support and most of
the performers were pretty much taking things as they came. The
schedule as presented on the station's website seemed to disagree with
the the expectations of some of the perfomers but it didn't seem to
matter. Everyone appeared to enjoy themselves, even the bemused Whiskey
Bar customers who wondered what on earth was going on. The
Glasgow Show is coming round again. I've been fronting the
Folk/Acoustic Zone for the last three years. It's a great weekend,
particularly if the weather's good. I am always pleased to be involved
with this event, it's one of the things I think Glasgow does very well
and, despite some daft technical gliches, it has been a great success
for acoustic music. This year the line up is The Easy Orchestra (well
known for their resident spot on Radio Scotland's Fred MacAuley Show)
with their infectious blend of acoustically brilliant Swing and Pop,
with support from Clova and Steven Clark & Co. Check out the website for The Glasgow Show 21st May 2009. Another booking at The Scotia - I must be doing something right. 20th May 2009. Invited to Oran Mor on Saturday
(23rd May) to join in the live broadcast for Celtic Music Radio. I
believe Steve Clark will be there and some other friends. I'm not sure
what the format will be but I expect we'll chat a bit and I'll sing a
couple of songs. With luck I'll get to sing a couple with Steve too.
They braodcast on 1530 MW in the Glasgow area or you can listen on
internet radio - click here to link to their website Celtic Music Radio online
10th May 2009, getting ready for Wednesday at The Scotia, deciding on
the set list and practising. I have some new songs but not sure if
they're performance ready yet. 26th April 2009. The launch was brilliant
fun. Steve and I kicked off about 8:30 and sang for about half an hour.
I think we did seven tracks from the album and one from our usual full
set. By about 9:15, th furniture was moved around and the party began.
The evening turned into one of the best and biggest sessions I've ever
attended! Many thanks to all you great folks who came along and joined
in. And thanks too for buying the CD. It's unlikely to contribute
much to our pensions but every little helps. 18th
April 2009, went up to Genfarg with Steve for the festival today. What a
great bunch of people! Great hospitality, good sessions with a real
diverse range of performers. I discovered there was a song competition
(I didn't read the programme well enough) with proceeds going to a good
cause. I entered a fairly new song and got mentioned in dispatches -
well chuffed considering the quality of the other entries. 7th April 2009, on Celtic Music Radio, joining Liz Clark for a chat at 8:00 pm.Steven Clark and Jim talking about their new CD - Tougher Than Suet - and previewing a few tracks.