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FREE NEWS LETTER>
Celtic Connections and Transatlantic Sessions
February 11, 2010
It's been a wonderful 20 days beginning mid - January with rehearsals then a 4 day concert tour of "Way to Blue" the songs of Nick Drake. The singers featured were Green Gartside, Teddy Thompson, Krystle Warren Robyn Hitchcock and Vashti Bunyan and Lisa Hannigan and Scott Mathews. With a string section featuring the arrangements of Robert Kirby/ Harry Robinson/Kate St.John. I was taken back to the time of those recordings and memories of being with Nick. Neil Mcoll played those guitar parts to perfection....tough too!....
The concerts were well received but it was a tough itinerary Glasgow to Brighton to London to Warwick 4 days full on.
After a few days rest I was off to Glasgow again this time as part of the "Celtic Connections Festival". and rehearsals for the "Transatlantic Sessions! a collection of Celts and Americans and 1 Englishman..me !!...Originally formed for T.V.this project has become a perfomance feature during the festival, we played to sell-outs at The Concert Hall January 29th and finishing the Festival with a concert on the 31st..a great couple of nights..featuring Tim O'Brien and his sister Mollie, Eddi Reader and Karen Matheson and Cara Dillon, Darrell Scott, John Doyle, Russ Barenberg, Phil Cunningham, Donald Shaw, Michael McGoldrick and James Mackintosh,
In between these shows I had been invited to do a concert with some ‘FRIENDS’ I therefore invited some lovely people to join me at ‘The Fruitmarket’ my wish list was Darrell Scott, Martin Simpson, Eddi Reader, Donald Shaw, Luka Bloom, Tim and Molly O Brien and Michael McGoldrick, They all said YES !!...
It was a year since the painful loss of my curly-hared mate John Martyn I asked each of my guests to do a John song...Luka did ‘Head and Heart’ Eddi sang ‘Couldn't Love you More’, Martin sang ‘Spencer the Rover’ Darrell did ‘Over the Hill’ and Tim and Molly "Easy Blues"....we finished the sell-out night with ‘May you Never’ being sung by Darrell and playing the guitar made by Martin Guitars for John; who died before being presented with it; a wonderful moment as the crowd joined in the song which was being projected and scrolled either side of stage....although the audience stamped for more I gave the encore to my mate with his great version of ‘Over The Rainbow’....a very special night for us all and I was so happy that John's love Teresa was there also John's daughter Mhairi.....there was no creepy tribute or flag-waving just a night of friends playing and remembering a very special mate...I miss him very much ........even the rucks and 3 a.m. phone calls.
After the final Celtic Connections concerts we were off on tour with Transatlantic sessions featuring ...........Aly Bain, Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien, he was joined by his sister _Mollie. There was Dan Tyminski, who provided the singing voice for George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou, Sara Watkins, Eddi Reader, Karen Matheson and Cara Dillon.
What an itinerary...Glasgow/Manchester/Gateshead/Belfast/Birmingham/London a very large touring group but wonderful companions all and we were guided and assisted by Jane,Declan and Jade who did a fantastic job looking after us with no stress.
It was a very succesful tour and one I was very priviliged to have been on.....now for a short rest but looking forward to some gigs with Martin Simpson..I must mention that I had also been invited to join Roger and Pete for the Miami Superbowl which I couldn't accept...however they have asked me to join them in March for Albert Hall gig......also during those weeks managed a Maconie and Radcliffe show and a ‘Culture Show’ and must mention the the ‘Way to Blue ‘ was filmed for the BBC at the Barbican.....nuff said !!!.......dinners ready
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