This photo of Gaughan was taken at Milngavie Folk Club in 2011
Dick Gaughan
Interview with Phil Cunningham Radio Scotland March 2012
Dick chose
five songs that have influenced him –
(1) Big Bill
Broonzy – Glory of Love
(2) The
Shadows – Apache
(3) The
Beatles – Love Me Do
(4) Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues
(5) Davy Graham – 67
Gaughan
talked about his musical influences. His chat is often profound, sometimes
humorous and always entertaining.
He said
that The Shadows were the first eclectic guitar group and that back then we were discovering all these new
sounds for the first time. Before that
nearly every American singer seemed to
be called ‘Frankie’ and sang songs about what it was like ‘to be a young lad at
summer camp!’
Gaughan
said that ‘Love Me Do’ from the
Beatles was another defining song.
He became
obsessed with songs - he was like a magpie and studied songs at the National
Library. In 1979 the Thatcher government
made him first think about ‘why’ he
was singing the songs and he became a political artist then. He said that Traditional music is about fair play, the
totality of life and about the community.
Nowadays the barrage of media attempts to put forwards ‘one’ message he claimed and he likes to be part of
what he calls the ‘awkward squad’ who are the grain of sand in the ointment and
have other ways of looking at reality - and try to at least think about it!
He spoke
about Dylan’s beautifully crafted songs that punched out images such as ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Gaughan played
with Aly Bain’s Boys of the Lough and
a punk band called Five Hand Reel. Like
many others on the folkscene back then he developed a drink problem and then he
had a breakdown. He had to clean up and dry up.
Lastly he
talked about Davy Graham’s guitar
which was tuned differently. His musical ideas were unbelievably creative - he
was predictably unpredictable! Hearing
Graham's guitar it becomes clear where Gaughan had learned his distinctive playing style
from. His list of favourite song choices is interesting too and shows the
breadth of his roots in both traditions and more contemporary musical
styles.
Gaughan is
best known for singing the songs Both
Sides the Tweed and Westlin’ Winds.
Some very few artists have the ability to transport and
transcend the moment, and Dick does so with forceful guitar playing and classic
traditional songs with a strong message and a deep expressive, growling
voice. He draws from both Irish and Scottish folk traditions. I first
heard Gaughan play in the 70s in Edinburgh
when I was dating a folk guitarist who raved about how incredible and very
distinctive his playing was. Many years later (after being in America for
nearly ten years and having three children) I heard Dick again at Milngavie
Folk club in 2007, and this was an intimate gig where his chat between songs
was worth going for alone. In his own so distinctive style, Gaughan hammers and
speaks with his acoustic guitar. He performs traditional folk tunes, Robert
Burns, favourite cover songs and his own songs.
He doesn't play the predictable
smoothed-over sugar box 'tartan shortbread' songs - and he may not be to everyone's
taste. Gaughan is plain spoken and holds firmly held beliefs on the rights of
everyman and at one time he took past folk stories and songs from the library
archives and put new melodies to them. You come away from his gigs questioning
but ultimately renewed in the faith of our
shared humanity. Dick Gaughan is a Scottish living legend, and he usually
performs every January at 'Celtic Connections' Glasgow.
