"a world weary traveller of stories and music"Dick Gaughan, traditional folk singer and guitarist, songwriter, composer and record producer, played the Place, Milngavie to a packed and enthralled audience. His traditional folk hits hard, with powerful guitar and voice. He sings often of Scottish heroes and stories, of our lost past and voices long forgotten. In between songs, while re-tuning, he tells of his travelling. He ponders in one song, have we forgotten the protest voices of the 60s, We Shall Overcome, and What Are We Fighting For. Another about connecting to his grandfather while visiting the first World War graveyards in Germany, who died while half his age from mustard gas poisoning, and connects this to the faces he remembers well as a child, the sad faces of old men and the old miners.
Next year will be 300 years since the Treaty of Union. In the National Library, Dick Gaughan found a 300 year old song which he liberated, giving the old words a new tune. At this point he highly recommends buying Nick Jones, who wrote new tunes to many old folk songs, and who's work is being carefully reproduced in a new album out soon. He sang songs such as the Yew Tree, written by Brain McNeill, which tells of a thousand years of Scottish history. And encourages us all to embrace our differences with Both Sides of the Tweed.
An outspoken singer who isn't afraid to let his liberal politics come through in his music, Gaughan doesn't seem too impressed by recent doings in his homeland. When Scottish voters approved a new Parliament to be established in the year 2000, the singer predicted, "I think that parliament is more symbolic than useful. It will end up with a hell of a lot less power than one of your states. ... It'll be more like a city council." Born in Glasgow, Gaughan was raised in Leith, an Edinburgh port on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. His mother was a Highland Scot, his father a generation away from Ireland. From childhood, he was immersed in Scots and Irish musical traditions by both sides of his family. Gaughan is a national treasure. He is a world weary traveller of stories and music.
"Lucky For Some" released 1st April 2006 http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/
http://www.dickalba.demon.co.uk/
