Tuesday 6 August 2013

Aoife O'Donovan at Celtic

Great review of Aoife O'Donovan's new album in Sunday Times. 'Fossils' signals the arrival of a serious talent! — with Aoife O'Donovan and Bruce Molsky.

Aoife sang with the band Crooked Still at the Transatlantic Sessions.
Photos of Aoife at Celtic 2013.

Sunday 4 August 2013

At Celtic Connections 2013 I took photos at the 20th Celtic Connections celebration concert with Finlay MacDonald and Chris Stout. Also photos of piper Fred Morrison who was great fun and my images are used in Fred's new music book Outlands.

Fred Morrison

The festival was started by a young Finlay when it was hard to imagine the festival becoming the biggest worldwide piping festival.

I'm a big music fan but I don't know so much about the piping world. I'd no idea the Piping Live was such a big world wide event. I love the pipes at the end of songs such as this one be Karen Matheson - (lovely voice) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGKAft_LzdU

Also, I lived in the US for ten years and it was the pipes that really used to make me feel homesick! The pipes made me think of the highlands and glens - getting sentimental now - I even missed the wet streets!

Finlay MacDonald and Chris Stout

The Piping Live festival is now in its tenth year.

A few highlights

11th August Piping Live Birthday bash - 1pm

11th August Finlay MacDonald & Chris Stout 4pm - Finlay MacDonald (head of piping studies at Glasgow's piping centre) and Shetland fiddler Chris Stout launch an album titled The Cauld Wind on 11th August - 5pm Their sound combines a Shetland style with the Scottish pipes.

15th August - Fred Morrison launches his new Music book Outlands.

16th August - Friday Night Folk event Oran Mor which includes Scots, Irish and Breton players.

Plus the World Pipe Band championships.

Finlay MacDonald

Chris Stout

Wednesday 31 July 2013

Edinburgh Book Festival 2013

Alexander McCall Smith

In August I attend EIBF (Edinburgh International Book Festival) in Charlotte Sq.

The Square is quite the right setting, surrounded by the Georgian new town at the end of George Street, and on one of Edinburgh’s higher grounds. Edinburgh is a city of many vantage points with wide-ranging views and this square is one of them. Here the light is often clear with just the right amount of ambience.

After a walk on the bustling colour of the high street, I can escape here to the tranquillity, peace and wisdoms of the written (and sometimes spoken) word. I enjoy too the international aspect of the festival with writers from around the world.

Neil Gaiman

The book festival offers many contrasting events – talks, debates, conversations between novelists, poets, scientists, politicians, journalists, world writers conference, reviewers, broadcasters, economists, reports, storytellers, university lecturers, crime writers, children’s writers, educators, comedians, musicians, artists, authors, and even more…Some authors are writers, poets, artists and musicians.

2013 will mark the 30^th year of EIBF. To celebrate the festivals wishes to look back and to the future with several festival threads. In 1983 the EIBF was run by director Jenny Brown and now the festival is run by Nick Barley.

John Byrne

Bidisha

Some writers are wonderful to photograph with so many wonderful characters.
I’ve also attended some outstanding talks at EIBF – Melvyn Bragg, Nile Rodgers, Gao Xingjian, Debates, the Unbound.

I include here some of my favourite images from the past few years - it has been hard to choose!