Photography and Music December 2016

enjoying late sun on the south bank

MUSIC 2016

It’s been an honour to get to know some of the great Scottish folk musicians and writers of today – Dick Gaughan, Rab Noakes, Karine Polwart, Kris Drever.

Rab Noakes plays a home gig

This year I attended a house party gig for the incomparable Rab Noakes and it was good to chat and hear him perform in a more informal relaxed setting. This year at Celtic Connections 2016, I enjoyed the concerts of The Chieftains, Lucinda Williams, Rachel Sermanni, Siobhan Wilson and especially the fun ceilidh bands of Rura and Blazin Fiddles. As usual the highlight was the classy accomplished musicianship of the Transatlantic band with the wonderful singers Rhiannon Giddens and Cara Dillon this year.

At Edinburgh festival in 2016 it was a thrill to hear Alan Cumming perform his inimitable interpretations of songs. I enjoyed my talks at the EIBF and some of the top authors and musicians this year included -  Melvun Bragg Paul Mason, Erica Jong, Roddie Woomble, Alan Taylor, Tom Devine, Billy Bragg, Wilko Johnstone.

Emeli Sande returns

Exciting New Music 2016 - 

Christine and the Queens. The biggest new artist on the scene, made an impression on the Jools Holland show. She mixes movement, rhythm, music and mood to great effect. Impressive.

Blue Rose Code – Folk blues singer songwriter from Edinburgh. I saw him this year at Milngavie folk club and was mightily impressed and I have enjoyed his album very much – classic songs and energetic blues rhythm guitar and voice.

Emeli Sande returned with a wonderful second album Long Live the Angels. I was so honoured to take photos at her Albert hall concert in 2012. I saw her return to the Oran Mor Glasgow – I first heard her here in 2007. Loving her new track Breathing Underwater.

Some top albums this year too from Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool: Coldplay, Mumford, Muse, Adele, Ellie Goulding, Chvrches, Mark Ronson, Disclosure.

Sadly there has been in 2016, the deaths of many iconic musicians – Leonard Cohen, Prince, George Michael and David Bowie. Sadly the most successful architect ever Zaha Hadid and one of the most successful record producers ever, George Martin. In 1962 he started working with and unknown band, the Beatles, with innovative music productions.

Chieftians

Karine Polwart

At Celtic 2017, they will focus on the half of the population often ignored – the women’s voices with the singers and musicians. The women care about home, children and mother earth. There is a story of a south American tribe where the women tell the men to STOP.

Blazin Fiddles

WHY MUSIC?

With music I feel at home. It was the one safe happy place when I was a child. When I played piano, the rest of the world seemed to disappear and make sense. When I played piano and sang I felt connected to those positive things in life - the sunshine days, the happy memories. I felt good about myself in a world that was often dark and full of despair it seemed.  When my fingers learned to play Bach and Mozart a whole other dimension opened up, as if I was on some small way connected to those genius artists and transported to far away shores...  I travelled with folk artists and learned the shared joy of harmony singing and fiddlers rhythms.  And I have never looked back....  

Paul Simon said that he was inspired by African skies and African rhythms, but the anti-apartied forces shunned his musical collaborations for his amazing Graceland album 91986)

Simon was reaching out through his music.  

Yet now all these many years later we see that the unison of Simon's American voice along with African voices helped to offer a unifying hope that anything was possible. That the voices of fear and hatred might be overcome by the melodies and rhythms that we all understand and that unite us.

Some of us suffer great insecurities, and more than anything we need those voices of hope. Simon's journey was about music not politics. My belief was once a bright shiny thing... We all have our ingrained insecurities and they may lead to great art or they may lead to terrible despairs and fears.

Blue Rose Code

**The big Issues that Really Matter -  Scottish Land Reform, Greener energy, (only at 32% just now!), Child poverty, Social Care.  To hide the Tories failings on the economy and more – they use Brexit as smokescreens, instead of focusing on what really matters. 

AND THOSE false REFERENDUMS? HOW DEMOCRATIC ARE THEY REALLY?

They are about money and the Unionist press raining down on us.

According to Gordon McIntyre CEO business Scotland, perhaps only 10% of the population research, read and are knowledgeable about politics – the rest look for comfort and that’s why these maverick appeal, such as Farage or Donald Trump. The trouble is these opportunists don’t know how to fix anything.

**HAPPY NEW YEAR**!  to all who read my 'Scottish Arts and Music blogs' and posts here! 

2016 has been a rather scary, tumultuous year! Here's to ALL the independent, honest voices in 2017..Lennon, Dylan, Tony Benn, Mhairi Black,...And listening to ALL sides and not those echo chambers!. Yes I do read the Sunday Times and watch Question Time... even though it hurts at times!  

It's been a year of tremendous times personally and also of sad difficulties - that's life as they say!

My favourite Christmas song is by John Lennon, So This is Christmas - To all those masters of war, including those in the arms trade, Dylan wrote of - give peace a chance.. There is more to living than treasure chests. . In Karachi the wells are dry, in the Antarctic polar bears are dying … if we don’t’ care about our planet – then what do we care about. Mr Trump , please listen? 

HOPE

Back in 2014 many of us dared to dream there could be a better, more productive, fairer, greener SCOTLAND. With all these voices of fear we need more than ever voices of our shared humanity of shared hopes.  Yes, we need angels, voices fo freedom, informed thought, more than ever.

At Celtic Connections in January 2017 we will hear many women musicians’ voices...I look forward to it!

enjoying late sun on the south bank

**My Photography 2016**

I am continually inspired by B & W images and by my favourite portrait photographers. Sometimes colour works better though and some images just don’t translate into B & W.  But for me the B & W photography has more impact if you can capture enough subtle tones and contrast.

  

Scots children’s authors

JM Barrie

Many of the best and most enduring children’s classic novels were written by Scots in the 20^th century -

Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde) 

Robert Louis Stevenson 

Andrew Lang

RM Ballantyne (Coral Island), Andrew Lang (great populiser of folk & fairy tales), Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the Willows), Catherine Sinclair ( Holiday House),  JM Barrie (Peter Pan), John Buchan, (The Thirty Nine Steps)

Arthur Conan Doyle (1930) Sherlock Holmes)  

George Macdonald (The Princess and the Goblin, At the Back of the North Wind), Pioneer fantasy literature, mentor Lewis Carroll, influence on JR Tolkien, Walter De la Mare, E Nesbit.

I am shocked reading of al these great authors that growing up in Scotland `I leant nothing about them. Well apart from a Disney film on Treasure Island. Then again I grew up in Edinburgh where many support the unionist imperialism of a superior race. – that is that one group of people are better than others. Are we not all considered equal….?

  

Independent Voices

It is important to listen to the ordinary person in the street to have good governance. On the Questions of information and Truth.

Most of us all agree with immigration of International students or scientists.

Most of us also agree about limiting uncontrolled immigration - that is too many unskilled coming all at once. Now we have to try to find common ground – is that possible? I listen to Leavers from Wakefield on the BBC Question Time who simply want out as fast as possible.  OUT of the single market without it seems any thought to trade tariffs. I assume the plan is trade with China or US instead. Meanwhile Trump plans his own US isolationism and protectionism and this doesn’t look so promising.

The Brexiteers claim they did extensive research during the EU Debates – where? – in Rupert Murdoch’s press, Facebook fake news, in TV Debates? I listened to many EU debates and I thought they were dreadful and misleading. Their conclusions are that Europe is robbing them of jobs. How is Europe to blame for lack of investment in the English NHS and education or the infrastructure (outside of London). Farage admits the bus saying 350m a week for NHS was simply a lie. 

Some ask – how can we find truth anyway/!

I did research too and came to different conclusions. I read editorials in both the right wing Times (Murdoch), Herald (independent), National (non Murdoch’s press), listened to debates on the BBC Newsnight and Scotland 2016. It is crucial to obtain as diverse news as possible, in a country where one person controls such a huge chunk of the UK Press.

Meanwhile May heads to Poland, Japan and India in the hopes of finding support. These countries want movement of skilled people and access to universities above trade of goods or services. Where does that leave England (and with Scotland being dragged along behind) then?

Britain no longer has a captive Commonwealth to do easy trade deals with. Cutting ourselves off from Europe – when we have centuries of connections and history – doesn’t seem advisable, either for prosperity, business, cultural exchanges, research and investment business or trade.

Scotland wants none of this isolationist movement – we want more connections not less. For Scotland our diversity, free thinking and interconnectedness is what has made our nation creative and innovative over the centuries. The last thing we would wish to do is to close doors.

I read recently Jim Sillars views that Scotland could do well on the Norway model, in the efta (European Free trade association)

They are consulted and agree to some of the EU directives. (So I decided to research Norway’s history, another BLOG)

The EU discussion on this Question Time seemed alien and nasty. However when they talked of the HR2 train the discussion became real at last – and they spoke of how all this money spent in London does little good for those in the north of the country.

The most significant arguments for the EU I read from political commentators – were those Freethinking, Individual voices. More than ever we need these independent free thinkers. Don’t believe 98% of political talk – its all jargon and manipulations. In fact Lies are the name of the game the more sensational the better...where are the people of substance?

Three criterion for decent press.

Range and variety

Freedom to speak the truth.

Success in revealing society (On one level how they speak and believed. On another level how a country functions politically, economically, culturally.)