Scottish musician Mike Vass has made his first serious foray into songwriting for the exciting new project The Dead Stations, which is touring Scotland in early 2016. The Dead Stations combines live music, recorded audio drama and animation to tell the thrilling tale of what happens after a passenger alights at a deserted train station […]
Newsletter
The Tradition Is Nothing Without Innovation
At the weekend we hosted the Strathspey and Surreal Society. This is my introduction to the concert! The tradition is nothing without innovation. Innovation is nothing without the tradition. They go hand in hand. We need innovation to keep our music and culture moving forward, to keep the interest of young people. We need the […]
Strathspey and Surreal Society debut Saturday 23rd Jan, Celtic Connections Glasgow
Next Saturday 23rd January Aidan O’Rourke, Shona Mooney, Jenn Austin and Simon Thoumire have written four new pieces of music for Aidan and Simon’s project Strathspey and Surreal Society. They have assembled an amazing set of fiddlers to perform the music and it will be conducted by Dave Milligan. They had their first rehearsal last Tuesday and the music is […]
Line-up for 36th Shetland Folk Festival
An eclectic line-up for the 36th Shetland Folk Festival has been announced by its volunteer committee. Fifteen acts have so far been confirmed for this year’s four-day feast of superb music, sessions and sleepless nights! An exciting variety of bands from USA, Canada, Russia and Belgium will be featured alongside an array of fantastic UK […]
BBC Radio Scotland Young Trad Award semi-finalist makes it through to Young Folk Award finals
Katie Macfarlane, a semi-finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Music Award has made it through to the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award. Read her thoughts. I was so happy to find out I was through to the final 10 of BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award. I sent off an application along with […]
First four acts announced for 34th Orkney Folk Festival
Liz Carroll, The Unthanks, Frigg and Julie Fowlis heading to the isles in 2016 With just over five months to go until the 34th Orkney Folk Festival, the event’s organisers have this week announced four of the artistes scheduled to appear at the late May event. World-renowned, Grammy-nominated Irish-American fiddler Liz Carroll; Mercury-nominated Tyneside vocal […]
FREE Online Course – The Centre for Robert Burns Studies at Glasgow University
In celebration of Burns Night 2016, the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow, in partnership with Futurelearn, will be launching the first Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) on Robert Burns (Starting 25 Jan 2016). The course ‘Robert Burns: Poems, Songs, and Legacy’ is free and open to all. They’re aiming to […]
MusicHub is here!
We are announcing the launch of MusicHub! The site exists to showcase new tunes and songs written in the Scottish tradition. The Scottish tradition is changing all the time and whilst we all LOVE the old tunes – lots of great new tunes are being written as well. This site will build a collection of new tunes which are […]
Scottish Music Brand
Hands Up for Trad have launched a Scottish Music brand that is freely available to all Scottish musicians and bands. The objective is to promote our music as Scottish across the world. The brand can be inserted on CDs, printed materials, websites and social media. It is available in Scoats, Gaelic and English. The various formats are […]
Tribute to Folk Legend from Gaelic Voices in Sweet Christmas Harmony
Gaelic version of classic carol – Wexford Carol released as download charity single Laoidh Loch Gàrmain. The Highlands’ famous Watercolour Music studios in Lochaber release an exquisite reworking of one of the Celtic world’s favourite carols this week as a special download single, with proceeds going to the Mercy Corps. Gaelic singer and broadcaster Mary […]