Back in the 70s I was involved with the folk revival happening in Edinburgh and around Scotland’s folk festivals. Many happy days and nights spent at Sandy Bells folk bar. Although in my youthful twenties I wasn’t aware it was a folk revival! Or of the iconic figures who were often on its benches there - Hamish Henderson or fiddler Aly Bain.
Now many decades later, I realise its significance, after twenty years attending and reviewing at Celtic Connections music festival in Glasgow, Europe’s major winter music festival, and from my researching and studying Scottish cultural heritage.
I’ve read of the song collector and folklorist Margaret Bennet (mother of the renowned and innovative composer Martyn Bennet) and of the Scots legend Dick Gaughan, the Scottish studies school and of course the composer Hamish Henderson, who went to Sandy Bells back then.
I was introduced to the Shetland fiddler Aly Bain, (Silly Wizard and Boys of the Lough) and who has been a musical director of Transatlantic Sessions since 2005, plus a founder of Celtic Connections. I was also acquainted with the highly respected songwriter Rab Noakes. We used to sing and harmonise his songs – Clear day, Branch.
As a teenager I enjoyed Soul music, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, then the Stones, Mozart, Robert Burns, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac and many others.
