July 1 2008 - Moondog studio and flight home.
1st July 2008 I have been recording tracks for my new album Careless in Nashville (due to be released in October) with top producer and musican Thomm Jutz, who is touring with Nancy Griffith, the line up of musicians on the album includes: Billy Block on drums who has worked with Emmy Lou Harris and Willie Nelson, Mark Fain on bass of the Ricky Skaggs band whose credits also include Bonnie Raitt, Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss and the Dixie Chicks. Mike Webb on keyboards whose credits include John Waite, Stacey Earle, Alison Moorer and Gary Allan, and Pat McInerney on pecussion whose credits inclue Dolly Parton, Jerry Lee Lewis and Tom Paxton. Richard Bailey of the Steeldrivers is also featured on banjo on the track Memphis Crawl. Today we finished off the mixing at Moondog with Tim Coates. We did Memphis Crawl first, followed by Seven Days of Wonder. Jim Lauderdale came down to say hello. Well not literally say it as he's still on vocal rest, but it was great to see him. He had a listen to the finished version of our co-write Memphis Crawl, and I was so pleased he liked it. I would love to record it as a duet with him when he is better. We then did Strange Love, then I had to leave for my flight home, so Thomm and Tim continued on to finish Ain't Convincing Me. The tracks are getting mastered on Monday and Thomm is going to send them over. Its been a great experience working in Nashville, and I'm looking forward to my next trip over in September.

June 29 2008 - Moondog / Shooting video.
30th June 2008 Everything now recorded and time to start mixing! We were working today with producer Thomm Jutz and engineer Tim Coats at Moondog. Tim set up the sound for the drums and bass first then we mixed the first track Careless, followed by Green Eyes then Hail Caledonia. At 5.30 we started shooting the video for Careless and Seven Days. We did some shots in the studio, then headed downtown to do more shots there. We recorded at the Ryeman, and on Broadway, as well as the lane outside the famous bar Tootsies. It was great fun, we had a few onlookers from time to time, but I think a lot of people shoot videos in the streets of Nashville so its not that unusual. We finished about 9pm.

June 28 2008 - Recording Fiddle
28th June 2008 Today we recorded my fiddle parts in the morning and the backing singer Peter came down at 2.30pm. He was great. We only needed harmony vocals on 4 of the songs. I enjoyed doing my fiddle parts despite being restricted movement wise, as you always are when recording. I had a few of the parts worked out and improvised some. It was good fun. We actually ended up a day ahead of schedule so we had the following day off.

June 27 2008 - Recording Vocals
Recording vocals 27th June 2008 Today Thomm recorded my vocals. I thought I might have needed at least two separate days on the vocals as 6 hours is a lot of singing in one day. But I managed to do all 7 songs. We liked the vibe from one of the live trax from Moondog so we used that take. Its really coming together now, just the fiddle and backing vocals next then mixing. Yeah!

June 26 2008 - Recording new album.
26th June 2008 I was recording a Thomm's studio today. We are doing everything else there and taking it back to Moondog to mix. One of the tracks I am recording is a co-write with Jim Lauderdale called Memphis Crawl. We did it live a the Celtic Connections earlier this year. I am very excited about recording it. At the moment Jim is on vocal rest but I am hoping once he is better he will record it as a duet with me. That would be ace! Anyway the new tracks are called: Careless, Seven Days of Wonder, Strange Love, Ain't Convincing Me, Memphis Crawl, and new arrangements of Green Eyes and Hail Caledonia. Today we recorded the percussion player, and Thomm's mandolin and electric guitar parts. Great progress made today!

June 24 2008 - Studio / Moondog.
24th June 2008 Exciting day today as its the first day of recording in Bruce Sprinstein's bass player Gary Tallent's studio Moondog in Nashville, TN. Its my favourite bit as I get to sing with the band live. The studio there has different live rooms so we were able to record the drums, bass, acoustic gutiar, piano and accordion all at the same time. The guys worked extremely fast. We put down all 7 tracks today.We even got a banjo player for the song Memphis Crawl. He was in and out in 20 minutes. They all read off the Nashville chart system so it makes it much quicker I reckon. All we have left to do now is my vocals & fiddle, electric guitar, mandolin, and backing vocals. Very pleased with the first day's work in the studio.

June 22 2008 - pre-production
pre-production 22nd June 2008 We arrived in Nashville safe and sound. We are working with producer/musician Thomm Jutz. Today we had pre-production over at his place to finalize the arrangements and settle on keys. We are recording 7 songs on this trip and plan to come back in Sep/Oct to record the rest of the tracks for album release in October.

June 20 2008 - St Peter’s Church charity gig
20th June 2008 Tonight I did a benefit gig at St Peter's church in Partick for the children's orphanage in Equador. I had friends on as guest's. Folk singer Mick West who was fantastic and hilarious! The funny and talented Drew Phillip's who also got the crowd going and laughing at his jokes. He did his own spot and also played keyboards with me. And the brilliant Johnny Cameron, who sang some Matt McGinn numbers and played guitar for me. Fantastic musicians Stevie Lawrence of Rallion and Gerrardo courtesty of MacCumba also played with me. It was a great night, and an excellent line up of players. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

June 18 2008 - Refugee week at the Scottish Parliament
18th June 2008 Today I performed at the Scottish Parliament as part of Refugee Week. There had been events going on all over Scotland for the annual event, and I was happy to support it. I performed my multi-cultural anthem "One Scotland" with the children from Glasgow schools: St Paul's primary in Whiteinch and Dalmarnock Primary, Bridgeton. These were the same kids that I did the project with back in Oct/Nov last year. It was great performing with them again, and they gave it their all to the audience!

June 2 2008 - Pre-production - Scotland
Pre-production 2nd June I have spent the past couple of months purely dedicated to writing and co-writing material for my next album. Tonight we had a pre-production session with the musicians over here in Scotland at Riverside Studios, and I am due to record in Nashville later this month.

April 6 2008 - Arbroath Suite premiere - Oran Mor
Arbroath Suite - Oran Mor 6th April Tonight, the 2nd performance of the 2-day premiere in Glasgow West End's top venue the Oran Mor. The atmosphere was in full swing from the off. The audience responded with great enthusiasm throught the up-tempo numbers, and I enjoyed the criac and rapport with the crowd. Again the musicians were all on top form: Gary Innes, Wendy Weatherby, Stevie Lawrence, Johnny Cameron, Rachel Newton ansd Simon McKerrel. A fab bunch, and a big thank you them and to Derek Chalmers and Chow productions for doing the sound and recording the show. I was also very priviledged to have two special guests on stage tonight, fantastic actor from Billy Elliot and Gangs of New York, Gary Lewis, plus brilliant folk singer from Dundee Sheena Wellington. I've worked with both of them on several occasions and it was a pleasure to share the stage with them yet again and have their support and participation in the project. Roll on more performances of this show as it was great fun, and I'm sure the hard work to put it all together has paid off. I need a holiday now!

April 5 2008 - Arbroath suite Premiere - Webster Theatre
Arbroath Suite Premiere. 5th April Tonight was the 1st ever performance of my Arbroath Suite, in Arbroath itself at the Webster Theatre. A nail-biting experience which was well worth it in the end. After a really bad sound check - one of the worst I've ever had in my life - no kidding. (my fiddle mic wasn't working, my radio pack wouldn't work, I dropped my mic, it took till 7.15pm to get everything working and I only had 15 mins to get ready aaaaah!) the show finally got off to a kicking start. The opening scene of fiery Bannockburn was a great way for me personally to start the show. The voice of Scotland winner "Alan Mowet" provided a poinant recital of the Declaration of Arbroath, fitting the bill perfectly! and the musicians were on top form. All in all a great start to the Arbroath Suite journey!

April 4 2008 - playing with Macumba
Macumba and Angus 4th April I had the great priviledge tonight to play with a group of musicians whom I have long admired, one who recorded percussion on my 1st album Green Eyes. Gerardo,and the band Macumba, an ethnic roots band of Brazil meets the bagpipes. A fusion of celtic with Brazilian rhythms, lots of percussion, and dancers too. I ended the night with my anti-racist anthem One Scotland, with Macumba accompanying me! It was ace. I also performed a sneak preview of the Arbroath Suite in anticiaption of tomorrow night's 1st performance!

April 3 2008 - Radio Tay and Scottish TV
Radio Tay and Scottish TV 3rd April Today I made a trip through to my hometown of Dundee for an interview with Radio Tay. I was interviewed by Alistair Smith, a very good presenter! We had a great chat on air covering all angles of my career, my trips to the States, the artists I've worked with and my show coming up. They are also doing a ticket give away competition so he asked me to read out the question for the listeners. "In what year was the Declaration of Arbroath signed?" (relating to my current project!) ( the answer is 1320 by the way!). I was just leaving when I got a phonecall that STV had been in touch to do an interview and did I have my fiddle with me.? Aarrrrg! No!!!! Luckily I have a friend in Dundee who owns a violin shop and was kind enough to lend me a fiddle for the afternoon for the filming. Thanks Mike!! It was good fun. I love interviews as I love talking, but its even better when you get to play too!

April 1 2008 - Radio Cafe
1st April I had a session and interview on Radio Scotland's show Radio Cafe today. The show is produced in Edinburgh so we had to travel through. I played the piece Declaration from the 1st half of the show and sang the song Reaching Out from the scene in the show that deals with Immigration. I had a chat with the presenter about what I am aiming to achieve with the Arbroath Suite as a community project, as well as what people would expect to see on the 5th and 6th. I had gutarist extrordinaire Johnny Cameron to accompany me!

March 26 2008 - Radio Scotland
Radio Scotland 26th March I had an interview today on Radio Scotland as we are trying to find "The Voice of Scotland" to recite an extract from the Declaration of Arbroath at premiere of the Arbroath Suite show. One vital ingredient for my piece of music entitled "Declaration" is the haunting voice reciting the words IT IS IN TRUTH NOR FOR GLORY NOR RICHES NOR FOR THE HONOUR THAT WE ARE FIGHTING BUT ONLY AND ALONE FOR FREEDOM WHICH NO GOOD MAN SURRENDERS BUT WITH HIS LIFE. It was on the drive time show, the presenters asked me a few questions about the piece and what I am looking for in the Voice of Scotland, and they played clips of people who had previously been stopped and pre-recorded at Arbroath Abbey itself that day reciting the words of the Declaration. Fingers crossed we find the VOICE.

March 23 2008 - Arbroath Suite Rehearsals
Arbroath Suite Rehearsals My life has been filled with either Arbroath Suite rehearsals or Arbroath Suite work since my trip to Nashville. All is going well and its been amazing to finally hear the music being played by musicians instead of my PC! lol. Roll on the shows now!

March 11 2008 - Nashville debut
Nashville debut 11th March I thoroughly enjoyed my Nashville debut performance: We went to the venue in the afternoon for a run through. It was great, the sound on stage was fab and the band on top form. I just got the words from Jim Lauderdale for the Memphis Crawl, our co-write which was going to get its debut performance from me at the show that night. I was frantically learning the words and practising it all day. The band gave it a great feel which helped the song along. The show, which was a live webcast and radio broadcast went really well. The audience were ace and the set came alive with the band. As it was only a six song set- the time flew by. I loved it as I always love performing. As it was my first time playing in Nashville I wasn't sure how well my music would go down, but the audience loved that celtic fiddle style. I thought at first it might be all country music bands and my set might have been out of place but I was completely wrong. When I walked into the venue a rock band were playing, followed by a mixed selection of genres including country. The gig was great and I met some really cool people, and I have been given an invitation to go back and perform there again.

March 10 2008 - Nashville
Nashville 10th March After loosing a day travelling we also lost out on rehearsal time, but luckily the band could make a rehearsal tonight. First thing in the morning we went shopping for an outfit for my show - knowing at the back of mind i wouldn't get my luggage back in time. The rehearsal at night went brilliantly..... after a few wrong turns trying to find Billy's house. Not easy when you are in an unknown place. The band were excellent and sorted out any mistakes super quick. It was a great vibe and cool bunch of guys. I was very impressed. Jim, my keyboard player drove down from Cinncinnatti!! After the snow calmed down he also managed to get there ok

March 8 2008 - Leaving for Nashville
8th March - Leaving for Nashville My show in Nashville is scheduled for the 11th March at Billy Block's western beat. I had been liasing with the band by email sedning the trax i am going to be performing, and today we left for the airport. Nightmare journey begins stage 1. Told at airport there was bad weather in Cleveland where we were connecting. Got to Newark to be told all flights to cleveland cancelled - put on standby flight to Nashville, that was also cancelled as well as two other flights out that day as there was a snowstorm in Nashville. We were on standby but didnt get on the flight. Ended up being in transit for 32 hours and having to fly to Memphis and hire a car and drive to Nashville. It was the 1st time I'd ever driven on the right hand side of the road and to top it off I was also jet-lagged. Not ideal to say the least. We arrived there safe and sound though - even though our luggage did not

March 2 2008 - Radio Show
Brian Hurren, the keyboard player with Runrig, was hosting the Karin Ingram show in the Borders and asked me to be a guest on the show. That involved choosing 4 tracks to play and talk about that have influenced my music, and 6 of my own songs from my album. We were on air for 2 hours, and I was on the whole time. It was great fun. I love radio stuff. We talked about my work with Runrig, Jim Lauderdale, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and Shane MacGowan. It was quite a laugh and I hope the listeners enjoyed it. It was mother's day so we also did a wee mother's day dedication, aww.

February 23 2008 - Folk Alliance - day 3
I had a busy day scheduled for today. 5 gigs! Think thats the most I've ever done in one day! 3pm - session/workshop with Canadian fiddlers: Samantha Robichaud invited me to a session with a group of fiddlers. It was amazing just to join in and hear all the different fiddle styles. We all did our own tunes and played with each other. Its the first time I've ever done Orange Blossom Special the way they do it. Its amazing - each fiddler takes one part each, and afer every section it comes down then builds up again. 6.30pm: My official showcase I was very pleased this year with the turn out at my official showcase, and we had various bookers, promoters and agents who took an interest in my music. The only disappointing thing for me was the sound wasnt too good and there was a bit of feedback, in hindsight we should have played acoustically - but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Nonetheless it was still great fun. 1am - Private Showcase This was my highlight performance, We had another amazing session player join us called Andrew Harden. The vibe felt good from the off, and we had definately hit a high note! 1.30am - Cape Breton I was asked to play a couple of numbers for the Canadian contingent in their showcase room. They certainly know how to do it right, the vibe in their room was fab. I sang Reachin' Out, and played Roxburghe House on the fiddle. 2.30am - Stonehoney I joined Stonehoney for 3 numbers on fiddle. Wow, what a vibe in that room. The energy levels were high, and I went for it. There was no holding back. I had a brilliant day/night. Played with some of the finest country musicians and met some great people I hope to be staying in touch with. All in all a great way to end a great Folk Alliance!

February 22 2008 - Folk Alliance - day 2
Second day at the folk alliance and I felt a bit fresher after a good sleep. Today we did a lot of Net-Working, we browsed around the stalls and found a double bass player for my gig that night! He was called Bruce White, he was a great player and such a laugh. Turned out he also played the saw! But I couldn't quite think which of my songs that would work in! lol. We rehearsed with him and also Hank on acoustic guitar. My gig wasn't till 1am so we had plenty of time to meet people and check out other bands. My first showcase was one of the private showcases in the hotel rooms. They allocate the top 3 floors for people to hire out the rooms purely for private showcases. It means there are about 300 gigs going on all at once! Its mad, but very cool. The show itself went well, we did it part unplugged. Afterwards we went along to the Threadgills room, it was jumping. It was there I saw for the first time performing an amazing band from California called Stonehoney. I went to bed about 5am totally exhausted after a hard days work!

February 21 2008 - Folk Alliance / Memphis
We set off for Memphis today for the Folk Alliance, and what a journey! Our flight was at 6am! That was a sore one as I had to get up at 3! We also had a long wait in Amsterdam Airport before the next flight. Just as well I had my new ipod to keep me occupied! We arrived and got checked into the hotel - just across from where the conference was taking place so it couldn't have been handier. I had a gig scheduled for that night, doing a solo spot followed by a fiddle-off with myself and a few other fiddlers. We also had a quick rehearsal beforehand. It meant I had been up for 32 hours, I usually get a sleep after travelling before I perform so this was a new experience for me! Was great fun though, and what a vibe in the Threadgills room!! I was asked to perform Stepping Stone, Memphis Crawl, and the song which has been getting success already in Tennessee and has been selected as a finalist of the ISC awards "Reachin Out", it went down well. The fiddle off was fab, we worked out that we were going to play "Orange Blossom Special" and take a verse each, and finish with the tune "Bowing the Strings". Was a great way to begin the folk alliance, and meant that I met some amazing folk straight away!

February 18 2008 - Arbroath Suite
We had our first rehearsal for the Arbroath Suite with the musicians today. After weekes of getting the music ready I was finally able to hear the music performed by real musicians instead of my computer! That was a real treat. It went well, everyone got on well together and the music was starting to come alive. I had Rachel Newton on small harp and fiddle, Simon on pipes and whistles, Wendy Weatherby on cello, and Stevie Lawerence on bodhran, bazouki and G whistle. Was great fun. The show is going to be on the 5th April in Webster Theatre Arbroath, and the 6th April in the Oran Mor, Glasgow.

January 26 2008 - Border's performance
Border's store in Glasgow were doing a show in con-junction with Celtic-Connections and they asked me to do a short set. There were a few other artists from Celtic Connections appearing, and I took the last slot at 3pm. It went well, all the kids clapped and sang along on Hail Caledonia and I even had two wee ones up with me. One Scotland also went down a treat with the wee ones, ashame I didn't have my childrens' choir from Whitench and Bridgeton with me!

January 24 2008 - Studio / Josh White Jr
Today we went into the studio to record a demo of Josh White Jr's new song "We Can Do It" - it is a tribute to Barack Obama. We had Josh himself on guitar and vocals, a mini gospel choir, and myself on fiddle and vocals. We got a good demo done for one day's work, so everyone was happy with the result. It was also good to work with Josh in a studio situation too. Its a great song.

January 22 2008 - Jim Lauderdale - ABC, Celtic Connections
Tonight I was invited play with Jim Lauderdale at his Celtic Connections show at the ABC. I performed on the songs "Lost in the Lonesome pines" and also "When The Apples Are Just Turning Ripe". The show was packed, and it was great to get another chance to perform with Jim and his bluegrass band before thay all headed back to Nashville.

January 20 2008 - Tayside 2 Tennessee show - celtic connections
This is it. The time has come for my Celtic Connections show, it was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. A lot to pull together, but it worked. First good thing was that it was a sell-out! The audience were brilliant as were my guests Jim Lauderdale and Josh White Jr. The concept of the show was to exlore the links between celtic, bluegrass and gospel music. Josh joined me on Reaching Out (my gaelic meets gospel track) and then I joined him and his gospel choir on his own gospel songs - I also did two duets with Jim: my song "Johnny McRae" and the famous "Tennessee Waltz", and I joined him and his bluegrass band for his own songs. We finished the 1st half with Jim singing and me on fiddle on the "Memphis Crawl" our co-penned track. As Jim said the ink was still wet on the page as it had just been finished! We finished the whole show with an encore of our rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and got a standing ovation. A perfect way to end the show...........on a high note!

January 19 2008 - Final rehearsal / Tayside 2 Tennessee
Jim and his bluegrass band flew in today and we had our full rehearsal. We got it all together really quickly and everyone was happy. Jim was still writing the lyrics for Memphis Crawl which he was doing for the show - he says its his writers curse and he can only finish a song under pressure! Its a great bunch of guys and I'm really looking forward to the show tomorrow.

January 18 2008 - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall with Josh White Jr
Today Josh White Jr and I headlined the children's show at the Royal Concert Hall, part of Celtic Connections. It was the earliest sound check in history! 8am! Thats most singers and/or musician's nightmare, but we managed fine. I lost my skirt on the way to the venue! and no not the one i was wearing, the one i was going to wear for the show - it must have fallen out my bag on Renfrew street. ooops. The gig itself was fab, all be it lively with 2000 3-7 year olds in the concert hall! They loved Josh, his songs went down a treat, as did my song "One Scotland" which they loved!

January 10 2008 - Rehearsals for Celtic Connections show.
Rehearsals started today for my Celtic Connections show "Tayside tae Tennessee". The line up is exciting, with Scottish and American musicans both on the bill. We will not be able to rehearse with Jim Lauderdale's bluegrass band until the day before the show so i have emailed them mp3s of the songs. The Scottish group got together today though and all went well.

December 20 2007 - One Scotland presentation.
Today the Oran Mor Outreach programme team went out to both schools involved in the programme (Dalmarnock and St Pauls), to present each child who took part with a DVD collection of the project, (from the song performance to background clips, studio clips, the children working etc.) It was a great package for them and definately an extra Christmas treat. Colin Beattie of the Oran Mor presented each child with their award, in front of the entire school. It was a special day for all.

December 8 2007 - last tour date- Runrig
The finale performance at the famous Barrowlands Ballroom in Glasgow. What an event and close to the tour! The Glasgow young audience certainly know how to enjoy themselves. The Vatersay Boys were supporting this time and I was playing with the band, they also invited Gary Inness on accordion to join them for Clash of the Ash. Just watching the way Runrig perform to their fans has been an experience for me. They really know how to interact with the audience and their show is very much visual as well as musical. They have such great hooks in their songs and plenty of places for the audience to join in. They know how to do it right. Bruce Guthro on lead vocals has a rapport with the audience as well as with the performers and guests on stage. They did a quirky thing near the end of the show which was a surprise to us and the audience, and got all the backstage crew on stage singing and playing with their Santa hats on , all dressed up. What a laugh we got. They gave us a great reception at the end with a wee after show party. Once again I'd like to thank Runrig and their production team, Regular Music and everyone involved for having me on the tour. Its been great "craic" as they say, and I would love to work with them again soon. Thanks!

December 7 2007 - Runrig - Stirling.
The audience in Stirling were definitely family orientated. You could tell straight away. They were more of a listening crowd. It was great to see yet another full concert hall all ready and waiting for the headlining act! Johnny was back in form for the show and we were all set. It turned out that there were quite a lot of Germans at the gig, as I got the chance to meet them at the album signing after the show. I know that Runrig have a huge following in Germany but didn't realise that some of them also travel here to see their favourite band! Thats dedication. I joined Runrig again for Proterra and Stamping Ground. It is sad that it is coming to an end but the tour has been invaluable experience for me as a performer, and I loved every minute of it. Sharing the stage with Runrig has been a privilege and great fun!

December 4 2007 - Runrig in Perth
Next stop - Perth Concert Hall. I got a mighty Tayside welcome at this show I tell you. It wasn't without its other hitches mind you. My guitarist the mighty Johnny Cameron, came down with a tooth abscess. He couldn't talk, couldn't move and as a result could play or sing. Yikes! Luckily though, we had Sean anyway, and Gary Inness on accordion that night. I also played a few more songs than usual on guitar to fill out the rhythm. Poor Johnny, but once again "the show must go on". (Thats a great cliche). The audience were amazing, and our choreography worked a treat and really got them jumping. I was totally sweating by the end with all that moving, but energy levels were high all round. I also had my family in the audience that night, which added to the buzz. I joined Runrig for both songs tonight, I think Malcolm forgot I was coming on for Stamping Ground and didn't realise I was there till the solo - then he got a wee surprise! It gave me a giggle. I was signing albums at the end at a very busy merchandise stall, so got the chance to meet some of the fans. They were a great bunch. Another show over.

December 3 2007 - Monday night in Aberdeen - with Runrig
Onwards and upwards to the next leg of the tour. The journey up to Aberdeen was fine with no hitches. The car was fixed and there were no more problems. Again got to the venue in plenty time for sound-check. It was the first time I had been in the Aberdeen Music Hall, having heard so much about it. Its a stunning building. Very old and impressive. We kicked off our part of the show this time with Reachin Out, which the audience seemed to enjoy. The crowd were very energetic and up for it with the occasional "Go Laura" from a familiar face near the front. It all added to the atmosphere in the hall. Unbeknown to them though we were having a few technical problems on stage, as there was an electrical fault with the monitors, as a result we couldn't hear anything on stage, just what was going out front....so the sound was booming back! It didn't bother me too much. As they say "the show must go on". Once again I joined Runrig for "Proterra". The audience were fab that night! All in all a great gig.

December 1 2007 - Runrig - Inverness
I had my 2nd show with Runrig today, and it was the first one we had to travel to. We hired a car which we picked up in the morning. Was big enough for 4 of us plus all the gear! We got there with no wrong turns and no hold ups on the road....phew, and made it in perfect timing for our 4pm sound check. The Ironworks venue was great. Sound-check ran smoothly, we'd done most of the work the previous night so Chris knew what we needed. The show itself was good, we warmed up the audience, and by "One Scotland" they were all singing and clapping along. I also joined Runrig on Proterra, but couldn't do the 2nd one I normally do called "Stamping Ground" as we had to travel back to Glasgow that night! And what a journey that turned out to be! After nearly not getting out the car park as we were locked in, we only got to Aviemore, when the oil light came on and we had to stop, we feared there might be a leak and the shop didn't have the correct oil for the vehicle so we phoned the RAC and as a result didn't get home till 6am! Needless to say I spent the majority of the next day in bed! Catching up on sleep and re-charging my batteries for Monday night's gig in Aberdeen. It was annoying but hey "C'est la vie" at least it wasn't on the way TO the gig! That WOULD have been a nightmare.

November 30 2007 - Opening Night of Runrig UK support tour
First day of the Runrig support tour today and it was all hectic as I had a live radio broadcast on the BBC in the morning, one of my musician's Sean had just flown in from the States for the tour, and we had to be at the Concert Hall for 4pm for the sound check. The road crew gave us a lovely welcome, making us feel at home and we hit it off with Chris the sound engineer. At one point during the sound-check the stage manager Martin asked if I would get my mark for lighting for when I was to play with Runrig. I thought he meant for the Barrowlands gig but no, it was for that night! Had no idea I was to be playing with the band that night. Just a wee surprise to kick things off....keeping me on my toes! There was a feeling of tension backstage just before we walked on to open the show for Runrig.......not knowing what to expect form the audience and how much they would like the songs! Turned out to be a fantastically warm and appreciative audience. My new song "One Scotland" went down a storm and was especially fitting as this was St Andrews day. There were a few folk flying the St Andrews flag in the audience. Felt great, and think us Scots were all feeling particulary patriotic at that point. We finished on a high note with Hail Caledonia, which also rocked the hall. 1st show down and I was pleased with how it went. Was very happy to be invited back on for 2 numbers with Runrig. The energy in the room by this point was high with everyone on their feet. Clapping, stamping and singing. Just what you'd expect at a Runrig show.

November 30 2007 - BBC radio Scotland broadcast
Today was a very exciting day for some of the kids from Dalmarnock primary, and St Pauls....and me! Not only was it St Andrews Day, but we got the chance to perform the song "One Scotland" on BBC radio Scotland. The kids were very excited and nervous beforehand, but they did amazingly well. Such great experience for children of that age to be given that opportunity. I was so happy it went well for them. The song was released today worldwide on itunes.

November 23 2007 - One Scotland debut performance - Oran Mor
Tonight I performed my latest multi-cultural single "One Scotland" with the school children of Dalmarnock primary and St Pauls primary at the Oran Mor, Glasgow. This was part of the Oran Mor outreach programme. It was a successful night. It was the first public perfomance of the song, after weeks of workshops, working with the kids on their artwork, and recording the song. It was great to see the two schools from different religious backgrounds integrating and getting along with each other. At the same time it was great to see kids from ethnic minorities involved, as that was the whole idea behind the project and the song. I hope to be getting more schools involved in this kind of project next year.

November 20 2007 - workshop
Did another workshop in school today. Part two of the 2 days workshops I've been doing about Multi-cultural Scotland which is as part of the Oran Mor Outreach Programme. The kids were great. Really enthusiastic and responsive. The last time I visited that school we recorded them singing the "one scotland song". This time we practised for the performance of the song this coming friday in the oran mor, and the children created a mural of drawings and stories relating to different cultures that have migrated to Scotland.

November 16 2007 - studio
I recorded vocals for my new song Careless today at Riverside studios Glasgow, with the legendary producer Duncan Cameron. He is fab to work with. I get great adrenalin and enjoyment from recording aswell as performing live, and its great to hear the finished result. This is due for release on itunes early next year.

November 9 2007 - Jim Lauderdale
I joined Jim Lauderdale onstage tonight in Glasgow for the number called "Lost in the Lonesome Pines". Was great to see his gig and get the opportunity to work with him again.

October 20 2007 - Ian Hunter / Old Fruitmarket.
I performed tonight again with Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople at the Fruitmarket. Last gig I did with him in May was acoustic, this time was with the full band. It was kicking! My friend James who performed with my band at the Knitting Factory is on tour with Ian in the UK just now, so it was great to see him again too! I played fiddle on the song "Big Mouth". I hope the rest of their tour goes well and hope to work with Ian and the band again soon.

October 17 2007 - Studio
I was in the studio again today to do more work on the new single "One Scotland" - Johnny recorded the electric guitar parts and we got all the children's parts transferred over and slotted into the track...as they were recorded on the mobile studio. This took hours to do. All the parts are recorded now and we are happy with it. The final task is to mix and master which we are doing on Friday. Can't wait to hear the final mix!

October 16 2007 - Tribute to Wallace Cameron
Today is the 1 year anniversary of the death of Scottish folk singer Wallace Cameron. I took part in a special tribute to him tonight in East Kilbride organised by his brothers Duncan and John. The first time I met Wallace was on a trip to NYC in 2004 for a Matt McGinn tribute concert on Broadway. He was excellent at the McGinn songs and gave great renditions of songs such as "Manura manya" and "Foreman O' Rourke". He fulfilled one of his long time ambitions that night by performing onstage with Pete Seeger.

October 14 2007 - Studio
I was in the studio today to record the song "One Scotland". I did my vocals before my US tour and we are now recording all the other parts. We had an excellent drummer in called Stuart Kidd (The BMX Bandits, Nice Man & The Bad Boys, The Primary 5, Saint Deluxe). I recorded my fiddle parts and Johnny and Stuart also did the backing vocals...the mighty Johnny also did the keyboard and Hammond parts and Stuart did some percussion too....Oh we also started another new track as well. All in all a very productive day!

October 9 2007 - Multi-cultural workshop
I am working on a multi-cultural song with schools around Scotland, due for release as a singe for St Andrews day. The song is called "One Scotland" - its about embracing all cultures in Scotland today. Today I did a workshop at another school - I taught the children the song then recorded them.

October 5 2007 - Community project
I am working on a community project in schools, part of the Oran Mor community arts programme. This involves workshops in local schools as well as recording a new single due for release for St Andrews's day. I have been teaching the children the song and today we went into the school with Duncan Cameron and his production team to record them. They had done excellent work and were really singing out well! We also recorded a small instrumental group who had been working hard on their parts. They were really well prepared for today! I was very impressed with the attitude of the children. Well done to the p7s of St Pauls!

October 1 2007 - back to sunny Scotland
Made the trip back to my home land today. Was glad to be back and brought the sunshine with me! Makes a change from taking the rain everywhere! Getting organised to go into the studio to record a new single. Its part of a multi-cultural project I'm doing involving Scottish school children.

September 29 2007 - Recording for Midpoint music festival
Just finished recording a track and interview for the MidPoint music fest podcast at the Sound Images studio, Cincinnati. Did an acoustic version of Tell It Tae The Lover with Sean Seymour on guitar, backing vocals and percussion. We did some over-dubs so I was able to play guitar for the live performance of the song then over dub the fiddle parts. Sean played guitar on live take then overdubbed the backing vocals, tambourine and shaker. I found out that only 10 of the artists were selected for this pocast from the whole festival, so I was very happy to be picked. Will be aired soon, will let you know when we find out when. I also did an interview with Steve, chatting about my trips to the US and my music. Matt was the engineer in the studio. A great bunch of folk. Enjoyed doing it and meeting them. Now looking forward to my gig tonight at Arnold's.

September 29 2007 - Midpoint music fest, Cincinnati - Arnolds
Fab gig tonight in Arnolds! Absolutely loved it....apart from my hairpiece falling out....ooops. I got a new hair piece for stage which I thought was pretty funky and have actually worn it successfully a few times now, but unfortunatley tonight I must have been giving it too much laldie and it fell oot. lol. Apart from that awesome gig! Great crowd in good ole Cinncy. The band behind me were brilliant. Mike Hodges on drums and Kurt Hall on bass. Excellent players - played with Bowie. Also the dazzling Jim Morris on keyboards and the shining Sean Seymour on guitar. We rocked Arnolds. Even got an encore to which we performed the Burns/Beatles cover I've Just Seen a Face with Tam O' Shanter intro. We literally finished the gig, packed away the equiptment, had a drink, then jumped into the car back to NJ....15 hour journey! Puts the journey back to Scotland to shame!! All in all a brilliant trip. Wish I could do it all over again. But I've got lots to look forward to coming up in Scotland so its all good.

September 28 2007 - Rehearsals
Today was registration day at the midpoint music festival Cincinnati, followed by rehearsals with the band for tomorrow night. It was great to see another new city. Georgetown Kentucky where we stayed last night is only an hour and a bit from Cincinnati. Nothing compared with the previous journey! Rehearsal went really well. Can't wait for the gig now. Oh, we also checked out the venue when downtown. It looks really cool.

September 27 2007 - Off to Kentucky
We left New Jersey for Kentucky yesterday. A long 12 hour drive so we decided to leave last night and stop over at Sean's mum's in Virginia on the way to break up the journey. The 1st leg went very smoothly and we got there about 3am. I was so tired I was out like a light. We got very nice hospitality there and it was great to see another part of the country. Beautiful place. We left this morning for Kentucky and half way there we stopped at a rest stop only to discover we had a flat tyre!! Sean put on the spare and it was also flat!! Couldn't believe the bad luck. We had to call a local garage to come and tow us and repair the tyre! Luckily we still made it to the venue in time for the gig, slightly later than planned but it all worked out! I did my hair and make up in the car! Thats a first for me. So it was arrive at the venue and straight on stage after a 12 hour journey... rock and roll! The gig was great. We played to a very captive and appreciative audience! They were great. I did a signing of albums for them after the show. We then recorded a live interview for the celtic folk podcast, due to be aired soon, with Al Mann. Thanks to him for a great night. Hope to play there again next year.

September 22 2007 - Long Valley, New Jersey.
As New Jersey is such a big State we decided to fit in another gig here before we leave. This time in a place called Long Valley. Very beautiful scenery there. Reminded me of home. This time had full band, Sean Seymour on guitar, Pat Robinson on accordion, Chris O' Hara on drums who recently appeared in the Sopranos, South African Keith Lentin on bass, and Chris Flynn on banjo. All fantastic musicians!

September 18 2007 - The Goldhawk, Hoboken
I played an impromtu night at the Goldhawk in Hoboken with Sean on guitar and Nelson on Djembe. Yes the birthplace of thee one and only Frank Sinatra! I've been asked to do a showcase night there next year as part of my East Coast acoustic tour.

September 15 2007 - Chuck Berry
Got a great treat today! Got to see Chuck Berry playing live at the New Jersey music festival. He was amazing! Can't believe he was on, I honestly thought the band were winding me up and it was going to be a Chuck Berry tribute, so when he walked onto the stage and did his duck walk I got a shock.

September 14 2007 - Cranford, New Jersey
Did a gig tonight in Cranford New Jersey for the Union County festival. Was yet another outdoor gig! Told you I was doing a lot of them these days. This time it was a smaller acoustic set up but the crowd were still into the music. Did a half hour set. Met loads of great folk including Mike Peters from The Alarm who did a fantastic set. Hoping to be involved in this again next year.

September 11 2007 - 911 memorial anniversary.
Flew over to NYC yesterday as I'd been asked to play for the BMG concert in Hanover Square for the anniversary of 911. It was obviously a big event in New York for a very important day. I was to play my piece "Commemoration" written especially for the 911 victims. There were also 2 singers, American and Welsh singing their own nation anthems. The weather was threatening rain but as it has always been an outdoor event they decided to go ahead outside. The full pipebands were there marching down the street. It was only drizzly to start with but as soon as I started Commemoration the heavens opened and down it poured. We're talking a thunder storm! We all had to move inside as soon as I finished the piece. I finished my set inside, and had John Smeaton, Glasgow local hero from the terrorist bombings to recite the words from the Declaration as I played.

September 9 2007 - London gig 2.
Played 2nd gig in London for the festival today. Numbers were up and the place rocked. I met Billy Boyd and his band Beecake. They were excellent. Also met Eddi Reader who seemed to enjoy my set. I also got the chance to watch her set which was great. We also did a couple of numbers at the after show party. Excellent weekend. Definately reckon "Hail Caledonia" went down the best yet again.

September 8 2007 - Gigging in London
Did a gig in London today for the Scottish festival the "London Gathering" It was a first year event which is going to become an annual thing. I played an up-beat set with the full band, Ross McFarlane on drums, Kevin MacGuire on bass and Zac Ware on guitar. The gig was at the Temple garden, lovely setting for outdoor gig. Weather good this time. Seem to be playing mainly outdoor gigs just now! It was on the Thames at Westminster, right in the heart of the city. Great location.

August 30 2007 - Diabetes UK
I was auctioned at a gig back in June to raise money for the diabetes UK, and a man called Tony (Chivas Regal) put in the highest bid. He booked me for tonight, so I did the gig for his party. Did an hour's set, with album tracks as well as some new songs. The high point of the night was Hail Caledonia at the very end. The audience seemed to love the song.

August 20 2007 - BBC TV filming. - Phil Cunningham
I was filming today for the BBC TV documentary about the history of Scottish music presented by Phil Cunningham. I was asked to be involved because of my interest in Matt McGinn. They were talking about him along with other Scottish figures from the 1960's folk revival. I performed the song With Fire and With Sword, the anti war song, because of its relevance today, and its also a great wee tune! Johnny Cameron accompanied me on guitar and backing vocals. Later in the day I was filmed chatting with Phil about McGinn. It was definately an informal vibe as it was all filmed in a wee pub in Glasgow and we were chatting over a drink. A fitting setting for the subject matter as thats what folk music is all about after all. "Scotland's music" is going to be aired in November, and I will be featured in the 1st episode.

August 18 2007 - Runrig, Drumnadrochit- Beat the Drum.
17,000 people, big stage, RAIN RAIN RAIN all day long!!! I have never seen mud like it. Sods law that the very day of the gig they have been planning for over a year the rain doesn't let up. But then again this is Scotland after all. What do you expect?? Anyway. The gig itself was amazing. The buzz onstage was brilliant. I loved it. Got to watch the band from the wings....attempting to stay out of the rain! I played on Proterra, and a fantastic uplifting song called Stamping ground. The mud and rain definately didn't phase the crowd! A brilliant gig. Watch this space for DVD release.

August 17 2007 - Off to Inverness
Got the train to Inverness for the Runrig show today. I am staying in the Thistle hotel. We had to do all sound checks tonight as there are other bands on throughout the day tomorrow. I am using a radio pack which I can clip onto the shoulder rest of the violin. This is great as you can't see any wires. I am also using in ear monitors for the first time. It is also great as no matter where you walk on the stage you can hear yourself.

August 15 2007 - Rehearsal with Runrig
I had a rehearsal with Runrig at the Braehead arena. Fantastic venue. They hired it for a run through the whole show with lights and full stage set up. They are recording the show for DVD. We had 20 minutes to rehearse the 2 songs I am playing on. We also choreographed the songs so I knew exactly what part of the stage I was to be on at specific points. I began on a riser and then walked down the stairs to the middle of the stage. After the rehearsal they began the full run through. It was great to have a proper rehearsal before the show. Last time I played with them I didn't even get a proper sound-check!

August 12 2007 - Riverside Studios.
Another day another dollar....(or so they say???) The work continues and the tracks begin to take shape. We are going electric! I love the up-tempo vibe of the new songs we are recording. Looking forward to getting it all finished. These things take time, but its good to do a bit then take time out and come back to finish it...with fresh ears as they say! Its long hours working in the studio and I admire the producers that do it every day.

August 11 2007 - Riverside Studios.
Back in Busby, Glasgow working again with the Cameron Clan at Riverside Studios. What a laugh. Its great to work with people who clearly love what they do and have a laugh as they produce great records! The work continues on the tracks.........

August 1 2007 - Studio
We started working at Riverside studios on the forth-coming EP. I am recording 3 tracks to begin with. Its great working with producer Duncan Cameron, and once again musician extrordanaire Johnny Cameron. The songs are up-tempo with a country-rock vibe. Watch this space.

July 31 2007 - Ricky Skaggs support gig
I had a gig supporting Ricky Skaggs tonight at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow. A cracking venue! Amazing sound and has been recently refurbished apparently. I loved the gig. Just did a wee acoustic set for half an hour, accompanied by the fantastic Johnny Cameron on acoustic guitar, mandolin and some sweet backing vocals! We kicked off with my Gaelic meets gospel track "Reachin' Out", and continued with a set of some songs from my "Green Eyes" album, plus a new instrumental called the "Memphis Crawl". Definately a toe tappin' lively number to get the audience going. That went down well, especially since the audience were all Bluegrass lovers. I met Ricky and some of the band members - a lovely bunch from the deep South. Cool accent! The band were amazing! I got to see most of their set. It was fab. Hope to work with them again soon.

July 18 2007 - USA new Album Release & Maxi Download Single
I have now started the pre-production for my new USA album. I am recording at Riverside Studios in Glasgow also in New York and Nashville. My maxi download single Careless/Seven Days of Wonder/Convincing Me is due to be released in September to co-incide with my US tour (exact dates will be up on site in next few weeks). So far I am performing in New York City, Cincinnati Ohio, and Raleigh North Carolina. I am really looking forward to recording my new songs. It is exciting having some new material ready and I can't wait to let everyone hear them!

June 10 2007 - Scottish Music Series - BBC TV
I have been asked to appear with Phil Cunningham in a BBC TV documentary he is doing on the history of Scottish music. In the 1st episode they are talking about some of the figures involved in the Glasgow Folk Revival, including Matt McGinn. As I have performed contemporary arrangements of McGinn's songs at various tribute concerts over the last few years, they have asked me to perform one of his songs on the show. I am also going to be interviewed by Phil about Matt McGinn. I have chosen to perform "With Fire and with Sword". One of his anti-war songs, which is as relevant today as it was when it was written in the 60's. Arthur Johnstone who set up the Star Folk club will also be appearing, talking about some of the key figures in folk music in the 70's. He will possibly be singing a Hamish Henderson song. I am looking forward to the experience, which is going to be recorded next month, due to be aired in November this year.

June 1 2007 - Diabetes UK fundraiser
I appeared at a diabetes fundraiser with Fred McAuley (renound radio presenter and comedian) in Glasgow at the Radisson. I performed 2 songs. The audience were brilliant. They had an auction to raise money for the charity, at which I auctioned my services. A 40 minute set at their own home by myself. I was auctioned for £2000. It was the director of Chivas Regal that won the bid. I am doing the show for him on the 30th August in Stathaven. Never been auctioned before. It was more nerve-wracking than performing!!! Alls well that ends well! The charity were happy with the extra 2k

May 30 2007 - Youtube videos
You can now see videos of my show in NYC on www.youtube.com . There are several songs up including Reachin' Out and the Robbie Burns meets the Beatles cover version of "I've just seen a Face". (As I said before the meter of that song mirrors that of the Tam O' Shanter by Robert Burns). I decided to start the first verse with the 1st verse of Tam o' Shanter when I did the song in NY. There is also a new song called "Strange Love" up on youtube. As well as these from the Knitting factory there is also a news report video which was filmed and broadcast the day after I got back from NYC. Think I was still on a high from the amazing trip and didn't seem to notice the jet-lag till the following day. I did a live acoustic session for that also. It was filmed at my parents house which was cool.

May 21 2007 - The Simpsons sing folk/rock
Have a look at the video of Reachin Out put together by 15 year old Lolly from Glasgow UK. We found it on youtube. Great to see Bart Simpson singing folk/rock. I hope he decided to do some more in the near future!. lol, anyway thanks for doing that Lolly

April 5 2007 - New Scotland / New York
I was performing in my own show at the Knitting Factory at 8pm. We had booked a band from New York that play regularly together. The band were absolutely fantastic, top quality! I had a blast onstage. The energy was high and we gave it our all! The feedback from the audience was extremely positive, everyone seemed to really enjoy the music. I think the Beatles song probably went down the best. We have put our own unique slant on the song. I now start the song with a verse from Robbie Burns "Tam O' Shanter" The meter of the poem fits exactly with the meter of the song "I've Just Seen A Face". It takes the song back to its roots and shows how the music has come full circle, coming from Scotland over to the US where it developed into country music then influenced bands like the Beatles in the 60's. We had also extended some of the arrangements of songs like "Reachin' Out" and "Green Eyes"...so we now have the live versions and the studio versions. The set was an hour in total, and it was very hot up on that stage! I was sweating a lot by the end of it. I finished off with "Hail Caledonia". It always goes down well with audiences and is definatley a great finale. I break into a reel on the fiddle at the end of the song which gets folk jumping! I also joined Scottish Asian DJs "Tigerstyle" onstage for a 10 minute slot during their set. The fusion of Scottish and Asian worked really well and brought the two cultures together. Really summing up the focus of the show "New Scotland New York". I am hoping to work with them more in the future. I also joined MASH onstage for live versions of the dance remixes he has done of "Reachin' Out" and "Green Eyes". He joined them both together to make a ten minute mix. It worked really well. It was great performing the dance mix live for the first time and I hope we can also do more in the future. There is a possibility of the Green Eyes dance remix being released as a single fairly soon. MASH has had dance hits in Belgium and is well known in Europe. He is a great person to work with.

April 4 2007 - British Memorial Garden
I was invited to perform at the event for the British memorial garden trust fund. I performed my piece "Commemoration" in memory of those who lost their lives in the 911 tragedy. I also performed "Amazing Grace" with two of the pipers from the Strathclyde fire and rescue pipe band that were performing on the day. The event was meant to be hosted outside near the garden itself (which is still under construction at the moment in Hanover Square), with the dinner taking place afterwards in India House. However, this was the only day that it rained in a whole month! Typical bad luck. They had to move the whole thing indoors into India house, and intersperse the speeches and the entertainers with the dinner. I performed at the beginning, then enjoyed a beautiful meal.

April 1 2007 - Interview with Sunday Times
We got an email asking me if I'd like to do an interview for the Sunday Times back home. We arranged a phone interview from an office in NYC. It was pretty extensive and covered a lot of my background and career, especially my work with Jim Lauderdale, and how we are going to be working together later this year. From that I ended up getting a lot more press back home on the run up to Tartan Week. The Scotsman, the Scotland on Sunday, the Herald and the Metro.

March 24 2007 - Odetta tribute concert
I had the absolute priveledge of appearing at an Odetta tribute concert in Washinton DC. For those of you Europeans who don't know know she is, she is an absolutey amazing singer and folk/blues icon in America. She did the song "This little light of mine". It was her who made that song famous! And I got to perform it onstage with her in the finale, along with numerous other well-known American folk artists, Josh White Junior, Janice Ian, Oscar Brand to name a few.What a great experience for me! Oscar asked me to join him playing fiddle on his two songs. He has the longest ever running radio show....been running for 60 years! He is 88! I was also asked to perform a solo violin interpretaion of one of Odetta's songs. I chose one called "Roberta" It has a lovely melody and worked extremely well on the violin

March 20 2007 - Hayley Westerna New Zealand TV broadacast
I had been booked to play with Hayley Westerna at her New York performance. I joined her on stage for "Amazing Grace" on which I played fiddle. I also did a few songs as a support slot. There were lots of record company people at her show and the audience were very responsive to my music, especially considering its totally different from Hayley's style. It was amazing working with her. She has such a beautiful voice and I especially loved her rendition of "Danny Boy". I would love to work with her again in the future.

March 16 2007 - Nightmare journey
I got ill in Austin with Cedar fever just after my performance. I felt so ill in the airport I had to be put in a wheelchair! I could hardly walk. Our flight ended up not being able to land in New York as the airport was closed due to 14 inches of snow in NYC! We landed in North Carolina and got given hotel vouchers. The next day we spent most of in the airport finding out when our flight back would be. Luckily I was feeling much better that day. We were delayed even more then my manager couldn't get in touch with his mum in Glasgow and had to have the police bash down her door, when she wasn't there she was reported missing! Finally landed in Newark and eventually found out that she had been found in hospital with a broken knee, she had fallen two days earlier! Then I got my mobile phone stolen, then my luggage falied to turn up at airport and we had been waiting 4 hours in airport for it to arrive. Luckily I got my guitar. We totally missed St Patricks day, it was midnight before we left the airport! What an experience!

March 15 2007 - SXSW / Red Gorrilla
I was performing at the Red Gorilla festival at South by South West in Austin. We found a band even quicker this time! In the taxi coming from the airport! The taxi driver had a band and gave us a couple of contacts. We had to find musicians over there as the trip to Toronto and Austin was self-funded. It was a difficult job but we managed in Toronto so we were convinced it would work again. The players we got were great, but we had even less rehearsal time this time as my gig was earlier! Nonetheless, we made it, and got through the set no problem. The venue seemed to fill up throughout my set which was great. Darwin's was on 6th Street, the main street where it was all happening, and it had huge windows with no glass so people could see right in and hear what was going on. At the end of "Hail Caledonia" we got a roaring applause! A few promoters also made it down to that one as well which was great, as there is so much going on at sxsw. There are potential gigs coming out of that show which is great. Afterwards I was asked to do a TV interview for sxsw.

March 10 2007 - CMW -Toronto
Canadian Music Week. I started off my North American tour with a perfomance in Toronto during Canadian Music Week. The gig was the Cadillac lounge, the time was 10pm and the bass player was Janice Joplins! He was fantastic, Brad Campbell. We only rehearsed that day and he didn't hit a bum note the whole gig! The audience were excellent. It was full of young people who seemed to love the music. I even had a group of girls sitting on the floor infront of the stage. It was cool! I performed a new song for the first time that night called "Strange Love" Its a great one to perform, and gives me such a buzz. A Canadian agent we had met with at Celtic Connections came along with another promoter. They seemed to enjoy the set.

February 22 2007 - North American Folk Alliance, Memphis
We did a lot of net-working during the day in the hotel. We also met up with 2 black guys from Miami, which we asked to join me on stage for my gig that night. They were excellent players. We had a rehearsal with them in the afternoon and they were well up for it. The show at night was fun, apart from breaking my guitar string half way through the set! Luckily there was a spare guitar handy and sound guy on hand to change string for me! There were a few promoters and record company folk there who seemed to enjoy the music. All's well that ends well...We flew back via NYC the following day.

February 20 2007 - North American Folk Alliance, Memphis
Made my first trip to Memphis Tenessee today for the Folk Alliance music conference. Had my first private showcase tonight. I had read up on the plane about the conference as I had no idea what to expect, being the first time I had done anything like this. It said whatever you do do not worry if you don't have a huge audience. These showcases are private for people from within the industry and the ratio of perfomers to promoters at the conference is about 20:1! Therefore a lot of times they might be committed to seeing another showcase at the same time as yours etc etc. In the end I was lucky with a reasonably sized audience who responded to the music. I had Fats Kaplin from Nashville accompany me which was amazing. He is a fantastic musician and multi-instrumentalist. We performed a mix of material including 2 of the "Tayside tae Tennessee" tracks. It went well apart from the sound people not being able to get the monitors working! Yikes. The whole conference was taking place in the Mariott hotel and it was soooo busy. You couldn't move in the elevators! It took us about half an hour to get down from the 24th floor. There were also showcases taking place on the 24th floor, which is the music floor, in rooms which people hire, and organize themselves. We figured out that would be the best idea for me for next year. You can do as many performances as you want and work round the promoters schedules. The following night I met Jim Lauderdale, (Country music grammy nominee) who asked me to join him for a song. We rehearsed it just before the show. It was an excellent song called "Lost". Was amazing getting to perform with him, and then sitting back to watch the rest of his show. He did most of it solo with acoustic guitar. What a performer, and such a great entertainer. He is also a comedian. Very witty guy.

February 18 2007 - Trip to Nashville
Flew over to Nashville, home of country music for the 1st time ever today. What a place. I love it! Could really imagine myself being there long-term and working with those fantastic musicians. I met Phil Maderia, a producer I really admire who has written for the Dixie Chicks and also produced Dolly Parton to name a few. He is up for working with me on my next project "Tayside tae Tennessee" which we are planning to record in Nashville later this year. This will be the part of the Arbroath Suite that deals with the immigration and Scots and American music coming together for the 1st time. I also mentioned one of my influences being the Small Faces in terms of the direction we are going with my full band line up for my solo set, and he said he had a song which he thought would suit me. I am very excited about working with Phil in the near future.

February 5 2007 - Celtic Connections gig
I did my celtic connections gig at the Classic Grand last night. I was supporting the David Munnelly band, a band from Ireland. I had a great line-up on stage with me: Stevie Lawrence on Bazouki, Johnny Cameron on acoustic guitar, Zac Ware on electric guitar, Garry-John Kane on bass and blues harp player Fraser Spiers. I did a 40 minute set, some of which was new material. Got a new song called "Half Way There" which I co-wrote fairly recently. The set was all up beat, and the audience were fantastic. Included in my set was the Elvis Cover song his Latest Flame, and I finished my set off with "Hail Caledonia.", that got everyone singing along. Was a great night and I seemed to warm the audience up for David's band who got eveyone up dancing. The band were fantastic. They also had a step dancer with them doing a spot who was also great! All in all a brilliant night.

January 20 2007 - McGinn night / Glasgow singer -songwriter festival
I was asked to join a line up for a smaller scale McGinn night tonight. I opened the show with the afore mentioned "Fire and Sword song" (see next blog entry) and I did my rendition of the "little ticks of time" plus finishing with comedy song "Two Foot Tall". In addition to this I also did an arrangement of Matt's song "Depth of my Ego". A lovely song in the minor key, we did a plaintive version of the song which has a beautiful melody and lyric. I have come to love Matt McGinn's songs and look forward to doing more shows and possibly the "McGinn sessions" will strike again somewhere else.

January 18 2007 - The McGinn Sessions
I was one of the artists performing at the Matt McGinn night at Celtic Connections in "St Andrews in The Square." It was a celebration of Matt McGinn's work. It was a fantastic night. The venue was sold out and the concert was both varied and enjoyable. I sang 3 songs accompanied by the band in the 2nd half of the show. That was the McGinn session line up, with lots of fantastic musicians including blues harp player Fraser Spiers, John Cameron on banjo and acoustic guitar Stevie Lawrence on Bazouki and Sean O' Rourke on whistle and flute. To name but a few! The 1st half was more of an acoustic set up with the fantastic singer Carol Laula, Mick West and Duncan McRoane. I joined Duncan's band on stage to play fiddle on the famous "Loch Lomond" but not as we know it. It was as sung by McGinn with the original and beautiful Jacobite lyrics. In my solo spot in the 2nd half I performed the anti-war song "With Fire and with Sword" I also did an arrangement of "Little Ticks of Time" a light-hearted song with a sentimental lyric. But we gave it a contemporary approach and gave it a more swampy feel. It was cool. Lastly I did one of Matt's comedy songs "Two Foot Tall". A great fun way to finish my spot which got the audience singing along. The words in it are hilarious. We finished the show with the McLuskey Brother's rendition of "Tinny Can". It was also great to join the band playing fiddle

December 2 2006 - Celtic Folk Podcast
www.celticfolkpod.com My Celtic Folk Podcast interview with Al Mann was aired this month. We caught up in the Woodlands hotel in Dundee in October, and over a cuppa tea we had a chat about my music. We talked about how I sing in a Scottish accent and how my song "Reachin Out" is a mix of Scottish Gaelic and American Gospel influences. How the two infuences sit side by side: Scottish peasant women sang gaelic mouth music during harvest in the highlands of Scotland, and I married this with gospel song from the harvesting of cotton by Negro women in the Southern states, to create a song which celebrates both cultures. He took a genuine interest in my music and was keen to talk about my "Arbroath Suite" project. I also talked about doing a cover song of the Beatles "I've Just seen a face" on my album "Green Eyes". One of the reasons for doing it was because the rhythm of the lyrics are the same as the "Tam O' Shanter" by Robert Burns. I did this song to bring it back to its roots. It was great meeting and chatting to Al Mann. He is originally from Brechin, very close to my home town and has been living in Kentuky for 16 years! He was over for a visit when we caught up.

November 30 2006 - St Andrews Day
In celebration of Scotland's patron Saint, St Andrew, I was asked to perform in Dundee on St Andrews night, along with the Lomond Ceilidh band. It was great to perform in my home town for the last time of 2006. I don't think I'll have so many opportunites to perform there as much next year, as I have stuff at celtic connections in Glasgow in January and I'm off to Canada and the States after that. I'll miss home but its exciting to be touring

November 19 2006 - Finbar Furey
I performed onstage with Finbar Furey at an MS fundraiser in Glasgow, after dashing back from the Christmas lights concert in Dundee. Yeah, it is possible to do 2 gigs in different cities on the same day....just! (Well in Scotland anyway as we're such a wee country!!) It was amazing to meet the Irish extrordinaire. I really admire his work and was great hearing him play his whistle live, with such passion. He seems keen to work with me in the future. He is a charater and despite having a really sore throat, he was on top form

November 19 2006 - Rockin' with Santa
I know it seems early for some, but this is the time of year when people start thinking about their Christmas shopping and the Christmas lights are switched on in the cities. I was on the bill for Dundee's big Christmas light switch on. What an event! It all started at one in the afternoon in preparation for the big switch on at night. My set was great fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and what a buzz we had on stage! Infront of an audience of 10, 000 it was pure rock and roll. Craig Hill was also on the bill and really got the audience going. Considering it was freezing out there they all looked liked they were havin' fun!

June 12 2006
I have another rehearsal this week for the folk club gigs. We are also working on a new version of a cover song that I am going to be recording soon. Will not let the cat out of the bag yet but all will be revealed soon! This is exciting. I was invited to be a judge at the Paisley University Degree show, there was a prize for each subject and we had to judge the music technology course. The winner was Steven Easton, who put together a short film called Lacuna. He wrote the story board and script and did the sound design. He also wrote and recorded all the music for it. Very impressive! I also had an interview with journalist Richard Purden for a piece for the Scotland on Sunday. I then had a photo shoot which lasted almost 3 hours. Think he got some good shots though. We went to Ashton Lane and asked at Bar Brel if we could take shots there. They were totally cool with it. Luckily it was in the morning so there were no customers in. I did get a few odd looks from the workmen passing by though!

June 5 2006
I am working on song-writing this week. Have a new song that should be ready soon for the live set. Its an up-beat and lively number. I am also continuing with the arranging of the Arbroath Suite. This takes time! As well as this I have been rehearsing for my folk gigs that are coming up at the end of the month. Really looking forward to them!

May 29 2006
No gigs this week, so I have been concentrating on arranging my Arbroath Suite. I am hoping to start recording this very soon. I finished writing the work before Christmas, and Im now in the process of arranging the parts. This is a more traditional work, but Im really excited about it. It has been in the pipeline for a while, and to finally get the opportunity to record it is fantastic. Watch this space for more Arbroath Suite updates!!

May 22 2006
I was over in Belfast this week. I was invited to perform at the launch of the George Best Liver Foundation. They had a dinner to celebrate what would have been the stars 60th birthday, at Belfast City Hall. What a venue. Its stunning! I performed the title track of the album Green Eyes, which seemed to go down well, as well as a special tribute to George Best. As he was nick-named the 5th Beatle, I sang my cover version of the fab fours Ive Just seen a Face. That afternoon I did a live radio session on BBC Ulsters Just Jones show. It was great to see George Jones again, and this time I performed 2 songs from the album in the studio with Kevin on piano. I love doing the songs acoustically as well as with the band. I also had a wee chat with George on air. He was also the host at the evening event, so the whole day tied up quite nicely. I hope to be back in Belfast soon doing more gigs.

May 12 2006
I performed in Dundee City Square on Saturday, during the radio 1 big weekend in Camperdown park. The buzz in the city was incredible. Luckily the weather was sunny when I was playing my set, beforehand and afterwards it was cloudy and cold. The band were on top form and it was exciting to play our first live gig together. We kept the set up-beat and lively and there was quite a big crowd watching. Everyone seemed to enjoy the music. We finished with a re-vamped version of last years single Hail Caledonia. On Sunday I performed on the Discovery ship at a reception for the Radio 1 big weekend. I performed the title track of the album Green Eyes as well as my Gaelic meets Gospel cross-over song Reachin Out. All went well, despite minor PA problems!! (sometimes to be expected), but I got great feedback from the listeners. Mondays rehearsal with the band went well. Im getting to know the guys better. They are a great bunch. We extended some of the songs for live gigs, and worked on a new version of the Credence Clear Water Revival song Bad Moon Rising. It may be added to the live set very soon!

May 8 2006
I performed at the Scottish fashion Awards. It was held at Stirling Castle. An awesome venue. A lot of the stylists I had already met at Dressed to Kilt in New York. I was given an Escada dress to wear. It was gorgeous. I met Sandi Thom who was also performing at the event. She was great. I closed the show in the Great Hall with the dance remix of my world music track Bhoona Haggis. I also performed Reachin Out my Gaelic/Gospel track, after the dinner. I met some great stars including Lulu who won the award for fashion icon. I enjoyed the whole experience. My hair was wild!

May 1 2006
The smaller radio stations are great. I had an interview on Loch Broom fm! Its based in Ullapool, and before you ask, no I didnt have to travel all that way. It was a phone interview! (thank goodness!) Thats not to say I wont be up there at some point if Im ever doing a gig in the area! The interview was with Kevin Guy. I also had an interview on Oban fm with Campbell Cameron. I actually went into the studio for this one, as Oban isnt TOO far away. I also played a tune live. As well as this I went to Central fm in Falkirk and did an interview with Lindsay.

April 24 2006
The album is released this week!! I had a hectic HMV tour, interspersed with radio interviews and sessions. Started the tour off in Aberdeen, where I also sang tracks and got interviewed on Northsound with Cammy. Great fun, and a great team up there. Then it was down to Dundee on the Tuesday. I did performances at a couple of the primary schools. Pretty sure they enjoyed it! I also did an interview with Alistair Smith on Radio Tay. Then it was on to HMV. It was mobbed. I was shocked. Wednesday morning I was on the MacCauley and co show, again on radio Scotland. Fred is so funny. There was a fair bit of hilarity there, but I also performed two songs live, with Ramond Harris, John Gray and Johnny Cameron. Then it was off to Edinburgh for the Princes street performance. Thursday I was interviewed on Saga radio in the morning, and they played a track from the album, then it was on to the last HMV store in Glasgow. A busy week to say the least! But it went well!

April 17 2006
Its the week before the album is released and I am doing promos over in Belfast. Up at 5am to catch the 1st flight over, and it was straight into the UTV studios on arrival. I met the presenter Tina. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. I did a live performance as the Fiddler on the Roof. Yes, I was literally playing on their roof! Then I had an interview with Tina. It was recorded and Broadcast that evening. They managed to get me a last minute spot on their radio show U 105. The presenter Lynda was a hoot, she called me the funky fiddler! I had to scoot from there down to Downtown radio. Just made it on time to do my spot before the 1 o clock news. I was interviewed by another Linda, the DJ. (Most people I met that day were either called Laura or Linda!) It was touch and go as we were held up in traffic. Panic!! But we made it. Then it was back up the BBC for my afternoon slot with George Jones. He was a laugh. He got his guitar out and accompanied me for my live track Riverside. Lastly, I got interviewed for an article for the Irish News. All in all the day was a success, but very tiring! I flew back to Glasgow the same night. Back in Scotland, I did a live session and interview on the Janice Forsyth show, radio Scotland. I really enjoyed it. Especially getting to perform my tribute to Jinky track Commemoration live for the 1st time. I also performed one of the album tracks Never Loved At All, (inspired by the poetry of Tennyson) with two fantastic musicians, Johnny Cameron on guitar, and Donald Shaw on piano.