Ed's Journal
journalcontent
January 2008
Greetings from Austin...another year has flown past...just like that ! Anyway, I hope 2008 is a good year for you and yours.
Firstly, I hope you like the newly revamped Web
Page. My great thanks to Beverly Poplin and her students at Lamar
College in Corpus Christi TX - I allowed myself to be the guinea pig
for Beverly's web-design class and after several to-ings and fro-ings,
this is what we've come up with. Your comments are welcome so that we
can keep moving towards the "perfect" website.
2007 ended on a very sad note as news of the deaths
of 2 good fiends arrived. Most devastating was the sudden and
unexpected passing of Alex Sutherland, an Edinburgh man who was the
life and soul, not to mention workhorse, of the Scottish community in
St Louis. Alex always thought of others before himself and always had a
kind or funny word to add to any situation. He was a far better agent
and organiser than anyone who does those jobs professionally, and I'll
miss his company greatly. Ken Thomson, an old friend from my Edinburgh
days, also died in December. He was a journalist and wordmonger to
trade and helped start and run the Edinburgh Folk Club as well as Sandy
Bell's Broadsheet, Scotland's premier folk publication for many years.
On happier topics, December and January are
typically quiet times for me, so I've had a lot of time at home
catching up before the traveling season resumes. after a couple of
Burns Suppers here in Austin, the first trips will be to
Oklahoma/Arkansas and to St Louis for a big Burns Supper and several
house concerts.
Looking back on 2007,
- The June and September Folksong Tours of Scotland both went very well -
great groups of people and pretty good weather to let us enjoy the
country in both summer and early autumn. In between these two trips, I
also squeezed in 10 days over the water with Scooter Muse and Jil
Chambless from the Alabama-based band Henri's Notions. We were booked
for the Mull of Kintyre Festival in Campbeltown, where we hooked up with
wonderful fiddler Archie McAllister to play an opening set before
Dougie MacLean. Never have I been treated so well as by the organizers
of the MOK Festival, and we also had plenty time to explore the
southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula in glorious weather. The
conditions stayed that way for the whole of our trip, including several
days in Edinburgh, with visits to the Borders and to Perthshire.
Scooter, Jil, her husband Dan and Amy Brady from NC all now believe
Scotland is paradise (which of course it is...when the weather is good)
Equally memorable, but for the wrong reasons, was the
cost of living in Scotland these days. This, allied to the slumping
value of the $, means that next year's tour (June 14-25 2008) has been
shortened to 10 days, so as to keep the price in a reasonable range.
If you are interested in coming on next year's tour, please contact me at edmiller@songsofscotland.com for information and application forms.
Even after crossing the Atlantic and back 3 times,
there were still a couple of significant trips to come after that. The
Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival in S.E.Colorado was a delightful event
held in communities like La Veta, Gardner and Walsenburg...a mixture of
concerts, workshops, school teaching and sessions involving folks like
Margaret Bennett, Jerry O'Sullivan, Seamus Connolly, Abby & Rosie
Newton, Arlene & Bruce Patterson and the amazing guitar & harp
duo Chris Newman & Maire Ni Chathasaigh. My special thanks to
Barbara Yule for putting it all together and her husband Jack for the
drollest MC'ing I've ever enjoyed.
From there, it was on to St Louis for 10 days -
starting with the Highland Games, starring The Tannahill Weavers, Brian
McNeill and John Taylor; and followed by a week of teaching local
school choirs Scottish songs with Caroline Pugh. She is a graduate of
the Traditional Music course at Glasgow's Royal Academy of Music &
Drama, directed by Brian McNeill. Brian brought 4 of his current
students with him(3 fiddlers and a harpist) to perform and to teach,
and they were just amazing - great to see that the future of Scottish
traditional music is in such brilliant hands and all credit to Brian
for putting his heart and soul into this project.....to see hundreds of
school students on stage at the final concert playing and singing was
truly inspiring. Thanks also to Diane McCullough who set up all the
school connections as part of what we hope will be a growing program to
bring Scots music to singers and musicians in St Louis. I also
have an even greater admiration for school teachers after doing their
job for one exhausting week - how do they do it all year round, five
days a week?!
So, its been good to "rest-up" in Austin for a while,
although there were short trips to Houston, Ruston LA, New York City
and Arlington TX before 2007 was over. I've also been able to host
KUT-FM's Folkways show more frequently after relying on others to take
over my 11am-4pm Saturday slot.
All the best, Ed
The most recent CD, Never frae My
Mind,
was released a year past August.
Rich Brotherton did an amazing job of accompanying, arranging,
engineering, producing and mixing.
Thanks to modern technology, Brian McNeill was able to add fiddle and
concertina tracks. Other great
contributions come from E.J.Jones on various pipes and whistles; Karine
Polwart and Jil Chambless on harmony vocals; Mark Stone on various
drums; Marty Muse on steel guitar; Pipo Hernandez on charango and Rob
Forkner on bodhran. I am really
excited about this collection of songs, and feedback from a variety of
sources has been very positive. You can help with promotion by
requesting your local folk radio show to play tracks from the CD (if
the station doesn't have a copy, let me know and I'll send one)...and
don't forget to support non-commercial radio stations when they ask for
your help
.......................................................................................................................................
CD ORDERING
There is a order form in this web site for ordering all 7 CD's by mail using
a check, money order or credit card. 5 CD's, however, are
available from CDBaby.com or PayPlay.fm where you can also download individual tracks
from iTunes :
Never Frae My Mind : http://cdbaby.com/cd/edmiller4
http://payplay.fm/edmiller4
Generations of Change
:http://cdbaby.com/cd/edmiller3
http://payplay.fm/edmiller3
Many's the Fine Tale : http://cdbaby.com/cd/edmiller2
http://payplay.fm/edmiller2
Lowlander
: : http://cdbaby.com/cd/edmiller
http://payplay.fm/edmiller
The Edinburgh Rambler : http://cdbaby.com/cd/edmiller5
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