After a brilliant start to the year with our visit to the Caledonian Club and the Burns Club of London we had a few local gigs to follow up. Being back at Dunning Historical Society was great, catching up with some good friends and PlaidSong supporters there.
We also did a new session of songs for the Friends of Perth and Kinross Archive. We created Oh What A Parish! especially to highlight local history through song. This set of songs was based on one of our favourite songs, the terrible Parish of Kinkell, and it set us thinking about songs from other parishes and the local stories they tell. We had a great night exploring the history of Perthshire and this is a session we hope to do again - and one we can keep adding to!
We have a number of songs we need to record now and future dates are helping us to focus on new material. We will be at a private gig in Pitlochry this week, playing for a party there at Fishers Hotel, a new venue for us.
Come and join us at the Abbotsford pub in Craigie in May! We will be helping launch a new book about the Craigie area by local writer, Donald Paton. "Nae Place Mair Braw" which is a social history of Craigie and Cherrybank is Donald's latest book and we will be in the pub on the afternoon of May 29th singing a few local songs to complement his work!
We are also working with an artist in the coming weeks at Strathearn Arts in Crieff. This is part of Raise the Roof, a project which is supporting all kinds of groups to explore the history of local, notable women! we are going to be talking to a group of artists about the life and work of Carolina, Lady Nairne and they are going to hear her songs and think about her life and work. They are then going to create some art around her as the inspiration and we get to go back a few days later and see what has been created.
Coming up in June is the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and we have been in talks now for a long time with the ever enthusiastic Andy Middlemiss who envisaged a concert to celebrate this event. He has worked hard to assemble a team and a big event is planned on June 2nd at Perth Concert Hall. PlaidSong are really delighted to be part of this and we are looking forward to kicking off a wonderful weekend of celebrations at this event. Have a look at the full line up and details - its free but tickets need to be booked. Platinum Jubilee Concert (horsecross.co.uk)
Also in June will be a gig at the Royal Perth Golfing Society where we will do our songs on Scottish soldiering, 'Enlist Bonnie Laddie!' This is a great set of songs where we explore the lives and adventures of Scots mercenaries and soldiers through the ages, some great songs are included in this set and we always enjoy a warm welcome at the RPGS.
In July we will be playing a couple of dates at the historic House of Dun near Montrose. We have long enjoyed the poetry of Violet Jacob and she will feature in our program of songs for these events. Its a beautiful house, fabulous grounds and gardens, with lots going on there and a really beautiful venue for PlaidSong to perform in!
Nicky is also teaming up with Perth based vocal coach and singer songwriter Debra Salem to do a six week session of workshops called Singing Perthshire - this short course is being run in the AK Bell Library in May and June with more details to follow. It will be open to anyone who wants to learn more about traditional songs, how songs were once collected and with some new versions of old songs for participants to learn. Keep in touch to learn more.