This month, I made the long (but exciting!) journey up to Watercolour Music in Ardgour, Scotland to record a solo album of traditional and contemporary Manx songs. The experience was fantastic: the peaceful, remote surroundings created a calm atmosphere with few distractions. This helped to fuel productivity and energy, particularly for live group performances in the studio. The songs on the album...
Read MoreIn August I will be recording my debut solo album in the West coast of Scotland with guitarist Dave Pearce, double bassist Vanessa McWilliam, flautist and sean nós singer Eoghan O’Ceannabháin and fiddle player Tomas Callister. The album will feature an eclectic mix of traditional and contemporary songs from the Isle of Man in addition to an original composition written...
Read MoreThe Manx Heritage Foundation has just released two exciting new CDs – one full of Manx song and the other with tracks from five up-and-coming young bands. Sollys – which means ‘light’ – gathers together 30 songs in Manx Gaelic. Mainly unaccompanied, they show the range of material currently being sung – old words to new tunes, new words to new...
Read MoreOn Friday 17th May, I performed with my trio at Battersea Mess and Music Hall as part of the Wandsworth Arts Festival in South London. I performed alongside other artists in an evening billed as ‘a platform for contemporary activity, staging new art, performance and multi- disciplinary collaborations.’There was live participatory art from students at Central Saint Martins College of...
Read MoreManx Gaelic choir Caarjyn Cooidjagh, with whom I sing, swept to success in two out of three choral classes at the Pan-Celtic Festival in Carlow, Ireland in April 2013. The Manx group beat top choirs from Brittany, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Annie Kissack, musical director, composer and arranger of Caarjyn Cooidjagh was delighted with the choir’s achievement. “The Pan-Celtic Festival...
Read MoreThis February, myself and Manx fiddle player Tom Callister (Barrule; Jamie Smith's Mabon) travelled to Voss in Western Norway to begin a musical exchange with two Norwegian traditional musicians – Erlend Apneseth and Margit Myhr. The ongoing collaborative project, which is being funded by the Manx Heritage Foundation, focuses upon Norwegian and Manx fiddle and vocal music; instruments which are central...
Read MoreIn August 2012 I opened the Nuits Interceltiques spectacles to audiences of up to 12,000 in the Stade du Moustoir at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient. To date, this is the biggest thing that I have done and it was a completely exhilarating experience! The performance was televised by France 3, and can be found on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMQCsza93_4 During my...
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