Podcast-FeedShona McMillan Interview on the Saturday Sequence 6th Feb 2010
Shona is a fiddle-playing photo journalist who learnt to play the fiddle by ear with Edinburgh’s Shetland Fiddlers Association before receiving a scholarship from Alasdair Fraser to learn in America with Willie Hunter from Shetland and Buddy MacMaster from Cape Breton. In Canada, Shona guested with the Waterboys before journeying to Ireland with Martin Hayes and continuing to learn from fiddlers John Sheahan Dubliners, Steve Wickham Waterboys and Gerry O’Connor La Lugh.
Shona was born in Edinburgh into a family descended from Fisherrow’s fishing community in East Lothian where her then grandparents, Billy and Crissie Thorburn, still lived. Growing up in a musical home, (“someone was always singing”) Shona learnt many of her first songs from her granny who was in Fisherrow Fishwives Choir and her mother Jean Ritchie Thorburn who was also a singer of traditional Scottish and Irish songs.
Her People & Songs Of The Sea project of photographic exhibitions & a compilation CD of great fishing tunes is attracting attention from all over the world!
Listen now! (73:04min / 25MB)
The Fiona Black Trio on the Danny Kyle Open Stage Saturday 30th January 2010
Piano Accordion player from Evanton in the Highlands of Scotland, currently studying a BA in Irish and Dance music in Limerick. Playing in band The Outside Track. www.theoutsidetrack.com
Listen now! (14:43min / 7MB)
Ewan McLennan on the Danny Kyle Open Stage Saturday January 30th 2010
Ewan’s singing and playing covers the broad range folk music has to offer; from traditional ballads sung unaccompanied, to dance tunes or melancholic airs arranged for the guitar, and, as importantly, his own contemporary songwriting that follows firmly in the folk tradition. Having grown up in Scotland, Scottish songs and tunes naturally form a large part of his repertoire. However, his singing and playing around Yorkshire where he has lived for the last four years, his study of the songs of the working class movement in Britain and America, and his love of Irish traditional singing all ensure that the origins and focus of his songs are varied. Ewan’s accomplished guitar work and unique vocal style convey his passion for the music he sings and writes.
Listen now! (18:35min / 9MB)
Naomi Chapman on the Danny Kyle Open Stage Saturday 30th January
Listen now! (15:28min / 7MB)
Venue i on the Danny Kyle Open Stage Saturday 30th January 2010
Venue I is an up and coming traditional band based in Belfast. The band comprises of four talented musicians who came together in June of 2007 with a shared passion for traditional Irish music. The unique partnership of melody between Joe Murray (fiddle) and Austin Donnelly (tin whistle) and with the backing of Stephen Rooney(guitar) and Niall Quinn (Bodhran) who both are All Ireland champions created a driving pace to band that created a concoction of music that is euphoric to the ear. Over the last year the band has begun to get to its feet and is progressively growing into a well known and enjoyed act. Venue I have played all over Ireland and have awed audiences with there energy, skill and enthusiasm for music and are an act not to be missed.
Listen now! (21:12min / 10MB)