From Dunedin to Edinburgh...

Love to see a poster for our gigs!

It's been pretty busy since we returned from our trip 'down under'. It was amazing to be away, travelling, listening to a lot of music, which is always great inspiration on trips and playing lots of music too. Syd had his travelling guitar, a fab mini Taylor, with him, and as well as playing most days just to learn new things or work on different stuff we are trying out, we did a wee gig at Moons Bar in Dunedin. They hosted us the last time we were there, and we got a really warm welcome there and at the Dunedin Folk Club, where we joined their singaround evening and played the intro to their main act on the club night. A really nice bunch of folk, interesting chat and lots of fab music.

After NZ, we headed to Australia, where we had a brilliant visit with friends near Sydney and then on to WA too, again, seeing family and friends. Being away brings a great opportunity to think about gigs, make plans and work on music without other distractions. It's been great, and we are always grateful to have this time.

On our return, we have had a couple of really enjoyable events, and the first was at the Soutar Theatre, AK Bell Library, for Lament and Legacy. They were displaying a work by Robert Burns entitled Lament of Mary Queen of Scots on the Approach of Spring. This wonderful display is still in the AK Bell Library until the 25th of April, do go see, details here.

We were performing with local author Donald Paton. Donald is very well known locally, especially through his involvement in the Perth Burns Club, and he has written a book on Burns in Perthshire. His illustrated talk is interspersed with songs which Burns collected and wrote, inspired by his Perthshire adventures, and we performed the songs which were a little less well known and also gave our version of the original tune to the very famous My Love is Like a Red Red Rose. The original tune is quite different from the one we all know, and it is a captivating melody. We will be recording it soon, and I will write a bit on the tune and its origins then.

Enlist Bonnie Laddie!

Another event this past weekend was doing our Songs of the Scottish Soldier set at the Royal Scots Club, Abercromby Place, Edinburgh. We have a set of songs and a talk based on Scots soldiers through the centuries, and it was great to revisit this set and incorporate songs from the Royal Scots Regiment, including the original Dumbarton's Drums and again, this is not the famous one but a much earlier march! We had a lovely and appreciative audience and a lot of good chat afterwards.

So, our travel and recent gigs bring us from Dunedin back to Edinburgh with many good connections, friends and music along the way.