Foot Stompin's Scotland Music Blog

A few years ago a band came out of the highlands that changed the direction of folk music today. They were Croft No Five and their CD Attention All Personnel was a mould breaker. One of our customers Stooshie said of it “Buy it. Class. Need more be said? Not really.” It’s yours for £4.99 (60% of normal price). http://bit.ly/akIIx7

1. New Releases – includes Kris Drever – Mark the Hard Earth
2. International Women’s Day – our leading Scottish musicians
3. Scottish music article: Captain Simon Fraser
4. Best Sellers: includes Mother’s Day Cards, The Complete Songs of Robert Tannahill.
5. Snippets – Happy Retirement Bill Black!, new Ewan Robertson CD
6. Foot Stompin’ FREE ringtone – Back of the Moon
7. Foot Stompin’ Scotch whisky – featuring Lochnagar Distillery
8. Reviews includes Skippinish, Bellevue Rendezvous, Skerryvore
9. Discussion forum
10. Testimonials
11. Foot Stompin’ on Facebook and Twitter

1. New Releases (remember if you’ve bought from us before you get our loyalty 10% discount off everything)

HOT OFF THE PRESSES!! Mark The Hard Earth – Kris Drever: A wonderful, well-chosen selection of songs that Kris has loved and played over recent years alongside new songs written by friends and collaborators including cult Scottish songwriter Sandy Wright (Wild Hurricane, Shining Star), Boo Hewerdine (Sweet Honey In The Rock). Kris’s traditional roots are never far away as in his lovely treatment of O’ A’ The Airts’ and The Banks Of The Nile. He has assembled a fine array of guest stars such as fiddler John McCusker, who also produced the CD, Irish American multi-instrumentalist Tim O’Brien, Ian Carr on guitar and Karine Polwart and Heidi Talbot with whom he has vocal duets. A fine album from the Lau singer, one of folk music’s most in-demand performers. £12.60 (£13.99 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/dAgpVa

THREESOME!! Salamander – Bellevue Rendezvous: An excellent second album from acoustic instrumental trio Bellevue Rendezvous. The line up features Gavin Marwick (fiddle), Ruth Morris, (nyckelharpa) and Cameron Robson (cittern, guitar and jaw harp). A very talented trio with an extensive repertoire of tunes from Scotland, Europe and beyond, they can play both airs and lively dance tunes with equal grace and lyricism. £11.25 (£12.50 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/9JG4OU

NOW HEAR THIS!! Tune In – Nuala Kennedy: Nuala is a traditional singer and and much-admired flautist playing a range of music from Scotland, Ireland and beyond.The CD features her six-piece band plus special guests Bonnie Prince Billy, Norman Blake, Oliver Schroer and more. Tune In bears testimony to the many influences and collaborations Nuala has been enjoying in recent years. Originally from Ireland, Nuala settled in Scotland and played with the groups fine Friday and Harem Scarem. £12.60 (£13.99 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/96XaU2

A GREAT MAN!! The Shand Connection: Sir Jimmy Shand has become known throughout the world as the greatest exponent of Scottish Dance Music that there has ever been. Sadly he is no longer with us but on this CD the listener can become enchanted with his wonderful style, both for listening to and for dancing. The tracks are drawn from various sources; live performances at his beloved Letham Village Hall with his son, Jimmy Shand Jnr and his Band; studio recordings with the original Jimmy Shand Band and also some tracks of Jimmy Shand’s original compositions played in tribute by former band member Jim Johnstone with his band. A marvellous CD to introduce new listeners to Sir Jimmy Shand’s music. £7.20 (£7.99 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/dzv0PC

LET IT BLOW!! The Wind in the Bellows (Book): A really useful handbook for teachers and students of Border pipes & Scottish smallpipes. The Wind in the Bellows is a logical step forward from its predecessor, the excellent ‘More Power to your Elbow’, and it is surely a step in the right direction. While the new book focuses on the business of teaching Border pipes and Scottish smallpipes, it also develops some of the principles and proposals put forward by its predecessor; thus these two volumes are intimately linked. As all three writers in the Preface have suggested, this is yet another advance along the road of revival and re-development of the bellows pipes that have their origins in the Lowlands of Scotland and the Borders. £11.70 (£12.99 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/92GGnH

FOR THE SERIOUS PIPER!! The Glencoe Collection of Bagpipe Music (book): A collection of ceol mor and ceol beag pipe music, compiled by William M MacDonald of Inverness and featuring tunes by himself as well as a variety of other composers. Willie MacDonald was a top competition piper of his time. This 46 page book was first published in 1999.and has bagpipe notation. £11.25 (£12.50 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/a5ASCo

Back in Stock!

Oirfeid Uibhist (CD) Brilliant ‘Live’ Piping from Ceolas 10th Anniversary Concert. Sixteen pipers / tracks of piping from all over including Highland pipes, Border pipes, Smallpipes, Uilleann pipes, Sardinian pipes and a song! If you are a piping fan, this is a CD you will love! It is full of superb performances from visitors and local pipers including individual performances from each of the three MacDonald brothers Dr Angus, Iain and Allan. Fascinating to hear Graziano Montisc from Sardinia – it is only here that a living triplepipe tradition survives. £11.25 (£12.50 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/d2cvcC

Highland Voyage (audio CD) : A legendary recording about a bearded, whisky-drinking West Highland Scot who was the captain of a small, steam powered coastal tramp vessel called “The Vital Spark”. Highland Voyage, which features the voices of Duncan Macrae, Roddy McMillan, John Grieve and Alex Mackenzie is a musical journey aboard a puffer with characters loosely based on those in Neil Munro’s Para Handy stories. It first came out in 1962 three years after the conclusion of the BBC television series, ‘Para Handy, Master Mariner’, and two years before the follow up much-loved series The Vital Spark, in which Roddy MacMillan was promoted to the part of skipper, and, the incomparable John Grieve to his memorable role of engineer, Dan MacPhail. £11.25 (£12.50 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/c9J2Ve

Have you seen these related items?

The Vital Spark DVD: Sadly, these are the only five remaining episodes of this classic BBC series. This DVD is a real treat for fans of Scottish humour!
http://bit.ly/bYRCkn and

Para Handy (book) Neil Munro’s Para Handy has been sailing his way into the affections of generations of Scots since he first weighed anchor in the pages of the Glasgow Evening News nearly a hundred years ago. This definitive edition contains all three collections published in the author’s lifetime, as well as a new story never previously published which was discovered in 2001. Extensive notes accompany each story, providing fascinating insights into colloquialisms, place-names and historical events. This volume also includes a wealth of contemporary photographs, depicting the harbours, steamers and puffers from the age of the Vital Spark.
http://bit.ly/aOSZjS

Remember unlike many other websites you can speak to Foot Stompin’ on the telephone! Get us on +44 (0)131 441 3135 and we’ll help you anyway we can. We take all credit cards.

2. International Women’s Day
Monday 8th of March was International Women’s Day. It’s a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. The first IWD was run on the 19th March, 1911. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. Scotland’s music carries on this tradition. Here’s some amazing women within Scottish music.

Karine Polwart
Karine’s debut solo album Faultlines won many awards when it came out. She’s one of our best song writers and is not scared to write (and sing) about difficult issues. Have a listen to her song The Sun’s Comin’ Over The Hill – it’s a corker!
http://bit.ly/966izT

Margaret Bennett
Margaret is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Scottish Folklore, she features in several films, TV documentaries and on radio. Hamish Henderson wrote: “She is a folksinger of great sensitivity and versatility, and is undoubtedly one of the major figures of the modern Scottish Revival. There can be few scholars on either side of the Atlantic who succeed in combining such a wide range of skills as Margaret Bennett. Margaret embodies all that is best of the spirit of Scotland.”
http://bit.ly/9XyEvI

Rona Lightfoot
Singer, piper, storyteller, teacher and all-round tradition bearer, Rona Lightfoot is one of Gaeldom’s great characters, a one-woman ceilidh with a treasure trove of folklore and the spirit to take on authority and win. Many of the piping competitions were for men only and Rona campaigned against this, proving her point by becoming the first woman to take part in the coveted Bratach Gorm (or Blue Banner), the Scottish Piping Society of London’s premier pibroch competition (although sh was only allowed to enter once!).
http://bit.ly/cDdbIY

Sheena Wellington
Sheena is one of Scottish traditional music’s most passionate advocates, an internationally recognised champion of Robert Burns and in her proudest achievement, the singer who will forever be remembered for her stirring singing of A Man’s a Man for a’ That at the Scottish Parliament’s opening in 1999. As a tireless campaigner for traditional music from school room to concert hall, she was traditional music’s first representative on the Scottish Arts Council’s music committee, and became Scotland’s first traditional arts development officer, spending five years in her adopted home of Fife encouraging artists in all disciplines to feel valued and to pass on their skills.
http://bit.ly/b9DyZQ

Belle Stewart
It is generally agreed by folklorists that the Scottish travelling folk are among our finest oral tradition bearers, be it song or tale. Many of these tinker families claim direct descent from the dispossessed and scattered clans who supported the losing side at the battle of Culloden in 1746. Belle was of travelling stock; proud, dignified and a distinguished maintainer of noble traditions. A singer, songwriter and poet, Belle was born on 18th July 1906, in a ‘wee bow-tent’ by the side of the River Tay at Caputh. Stewart’s amazing ability to recall songs from the past meant she was visited frequently by folksong collectors, musicians, and musicologists.
http://bit.ly/aw8vEm

Dòchas
Featuring award winning singer Julie Fowlis, this all-girl band have taken Gaelic, Scots, Shetlandic and Irish music to the masses. They have a very distinctive sound that is loved wherever they play.
http://bit.ly/9vC9Nx

3. Scottish music article: Captain Simon Fraser

In 1816 Captain Simon Fraser of Knockie in the Scottish Highlands published a collection of 232 airs and melodies from the Highlands and Islands and left a legacy of Celtic music that has endured by its merit into the 21st century. Simon Fraser was taught violin by Nathaniel Gow and tried to present his music in the style of other successful Scots musicians of the day. Although some of his own work is included amongst the tunes the majority was derived from the singing of his father and grandfather. These were the songs of the bards of the Scottish Gaeldom, including songs of the Jacobite rebellions. Due to the political climate of the time Fraser was compelled to leave out the words in order to publish his work.

The first edition of the book (published in Edinburgh) sold out but his schemes ended in ruin when he was persuaded to invest the proceeds in a venture to export thousands of volumes of his music to America and India. In America pirated copies of the music were already in circulation thus destroying his hopes and investment.

In 1999, the first performance of the play “The Captain’s Collection” opened in Captain Fraser’s homeland in Errogie, on a memorable night when a thick, ghostly fog drifted down from the Monadhliath and almost two hundred people packed into tiny Stratherrick Hall. Following up with a more extensive tour in April 2000, the play was described in The Scotsman as “fascinating and provocative music theatre”. Captain Fraser’s Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles was originally suggested by Bruce MacGregor of the band Blazin Fiddles as the basis for a musical play as part of Highland Festival 1999. The play The Captain’s Collection was written by Hamish MacDonald and directed by Alison Peebles. It was developed into an award winning series for BBC Radio Scotland, produced by Bruce MacGregor. The Captain’s Collection CD featuring the musical repertoire of the play was produced by Jonny Hardie for the Greentrax label, and featuring Jonny Hardie – Fiddle; Brian MacAlpine – Keyboards; Alyth McCormack – Song ; Rory Campbell/Iain MacFarlane – Whistle & Pipes, becoming one of the most highly acclaimed and cherished CDs of Celtic music in 1999.
Read the complete article http://bit.ly/doFGhr

Check out the CD recordings of this book

The Captain’s Collection: http://bit.ly/c45O8b
Music from the Simon Fraser Collection: as played in the homes of Cape Breton Musicians: http://bit.ly/c5ECyd

4. Best Sellers
Foot Stompin’ Mother’s Day cards in Scots and Gaelic: Not long now! With these original cards you’ll make your mother feel very special. Available in Scots and Gaelic.
Gaelic Mothers Day Card £2.25 (£2.50 for first time customers) http://bit.ly/b5VdNb
Scots Mothers Day Card £2.25 (£2.50 for first time customers) http://bit.ly/aPgSMm

The Complete Songs of Robert Tannahill Vol.2: Since the centenary edition of his works and festivities in Paisley in 1874, which drew crowds of 15,000 to celebrate his life and art, Robert Tannahill has been sadly neglected. But thanks to Dr Fred Freeman, a project to record over 100 of Robert Tannahill’s songs over five volumes is well under way. We are delighted to have Volume 2 available this week. Tannahill’s work is of a quality that compares with Robert Burns, and these songs constitute his great legacy. This is a lovely album which features some of Scotland’s finest singers and musicians. £11.25 (£12.50 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/dlu5xG

Folk ‘n’ Roll – A Far Away Place: High energy acoustic music from the Isle of Lewis in a folk-rock style played by three young and very talented musicians. £11.25 (£12.50 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/cqI4a7

This Earthly Spell by Karine Polwart: Multi award winning Karine Polwart follows up her recent traditional Fairest Floo’er album with a set of mostly her own songs. £11.25 (£12.50 for first time customers)
http://bit.ly/cantzS

The Whisky Muse (book) by Robin Laing
Over 200 pages crammed with culture and commentary about our national drink
http://bit.ly/bZVGpT

5. Snippets

Happy Retirement Bill Black!
Bill Black button accordionist, fiddler, composer of dozens of tunes and one of Scottish Country Dance Music’s most popular bandleaders has retired this week after a career spanning more than 60 years. Read more about Bill in the Scots Trad Music Hall of Fame:
http://bit.ly/ad87M6

Ewan Robertson CD
The singer, guitarist and winner of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award 2008,will release his debut solo CD “Some Kind of Certainty” on the Greentrax label on 17th March

New Daniel Thorpe website
The 2010 winner of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award has a new website and it looks great. Check it out at http://bit.ly/93hc5s

Blazers take the stage!
The high octane Scottish group Blazin’ Fiddles will raise the roof of the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow this Sunday when they perform as part of Glasgow’s Concert Halls’ Fruitmarket Folk season.
http://bit.ly/bAEQN2

Calling Young Musicians!
Young musicians from across Perth and Kinross are invited to audition for a new Celtic ‘big band’ Corrina Hewat and David Milligan, founders of extravagant 22-piece folk orchestra The Unusual Suspects, will musically direct the band. It will focus on playing traditional music with innovative arrangements carrying on the creative spirit of Perthshire piper Gordon Duncan’s writing and playing…
http://bit.ly/9JgmSQ

NY Tartan Day Parade!
Join 2,000 pipers and drummers for the 12th Annual New York Tartan Day Parade – New York’s biggest celebration for pipers, drummers, Scottish music and single malt whisky – let the countdown begin! 2010 Grand Marshal will be Alex Fergusson, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament.
http://bit.ly/9LWiHW

Dressed to Kilt…
Is being hosted in New York on April 5th. Looks like a great evening. More information here http://bit.ly/dp6CMT

In the Mood!
Great concert from the Gaelic Society of Inverness with the theme “Seasons and Moods”. It is happening 12th March at Eden Court Theatre.and will include Kathleen MacInnes;Arthur Cormack; Maggie MacDonald; Paul MacCallum; Canntaireachd; and the Monach Isles Ceilidh Band.
http://bit.ly/c2Mwrz

Can you help?
Music in Hospitals, the organisation which brings performers into contact with people in various care situations, would like to include more traditional musicians on their roster. In particular they are looking for Gaelic singers. These gigs bring a lot of pleasure to people who cannot otherwise get out to hear music.
http://bit.ly/9Tfwsa

John Law RIP
John Law a tireless campaigner and stalwart of the Scots Language Society has died very suddenly. He will be sorely missed.
http://bit.ly/cg6qCJ

6. Foot Stompin’ FREE Scottish Music Ringtone
Another classic Foot Stompin’ ringtone from Back of the Moon and their Luminosity CD. Enjoy!
http://bit.ly/6H7zj6

Don’t forget to listen to our Free Scottish Music podcast featuring Outside Track, Brian McNeill, Iain Morrison, Duncan Chisholm, Catriona Garbutt and Phil Cunningham.
http://bit.ly/oWIhn

7. Foot Stompin’ Scotch Whisky
With our partners Master of Malt we’re going to feature a couple of whiskies from Lochnagar distillery. Read more about the Distillery (http://bit.ly/dvOrz4)

Royal Lochnagar 12 Year Old (70cl, 40%)
This 12 year old was distillery at the Lochnagar distillery, once visited by Queen Victoria when she was staying at nearby Balmoral. Queen Victoria loved malt whisky! £27.95
http://bit.ly/9MZ9yy

Lochnagar 19 Year Old 1990 – Old Malt Cask (Douglas Laing) (70cl, 50%)
A rare release of just 423 bottles from the Royal Lochnagar distillery. This was distilled in May of 1990 and aged for 19 years in a sherry butt before bottling by Douglas Laing in May of 2009. Brilliant deal! £59.95
http://bit.ly/avKqDR

8. Reviews.

CD: Skipinnish Live From The Ceilidh House – Reviewed in Scotland on Sunday
The Tiree/Lochaber entrepreneurs run a tight ship in Oban where they operate the Skipinnish Ceilidh House, a popular music venue and meeting place. The atmosphere is bottled here in this live recording of Angus and Andrew leading on accordion, pipes and fiddle, with a string of top guest musicians you might find there. There’s a Gaelic song or two among the feisty barn dances, reels and schottisches, and the only thing missing is the bar…..NC
http://bit.ly/92fi2Z

CD: Salamander – Bellevue Rendezvous – Reviewed in The Herald
“…a beguilingly lyrical, spirited and harmonious sound…” Rob Adams
http://bit.ly/9JG4OU

CD: Skerryvore On The Road. Customer review 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic cd. Nice collection and mix of music. I must say the track The Gentleman is one of the best pieces of music I have heard. Buy this cd, don’t think about it, just do it you will not be disappointed…Jason
http://bit.ly/dkOvTo

9. Foot Stompin’ Discussion Forum
Feel free to join in!

40 years on.
Just reading that it’s 40 years since Jimi Hendrix died. Doesn’t seem that long ago! A lot has passed in that time in traditional music – any good memories?
http://bit.ly/azWPi4

Instruments passed down
Just reading an article on a violin passed down through generations and still played. Does anyone here play instruments that have come through their family?
http://bit.ly/awzzvF

10. Testimonials

Thanks so much for the free ringtones…I’m really enjoying them! Linda D.

Can I just record how pleased I am with your prompt service – received the DVDs this morning in the post – amazed. Will enjoy them tonight hopefully.

11 . Foot Stompin’ on Facebook and Twitter

Filed under: bagpipes, fiddle, Gaelic, harp music, music, scotland, scottish | Tagged: Scottish music | Leave a comment »

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