MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2025: Storylands Sessions

Congratulations to Storylands Sessions who has been nominated in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2025. Vote now! It’s going to be another great night at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards on Saturday 6th December in Aberdeen Music Hall. Why not join us for a brilliant night of music and awards. Buy a ticket here.

We asked Hamish of Storylands Sessions the following questions.

Tell us about yourself

The Storylands Sessions is a one-off: nothing quite like it has happened anywhere else in Scotland before. The monthly events are held in Badenoch, hosted by musician, Hamish Napier, and writer, Merryn Glover. It’s a contemporary community gathering combined with a traditional Highland house ceilidh on stage, a poetry circle, a storytelling forum and a pop-up art gallery. All our inter-generational shows draw out the storytelling, music, poetry and song talent of the area, and feature an invited guest to share about their work in the arts, heritage, ecology or adventure spheres. From 2025, a special addition has been a visual art and photography display curated by Aila Shafer. In addition to our monthly Shows in Kincraig, we also run an extensive workshop series in music and words.

We welcome:

– folk who just want to come along and listen.

– all kinds of stories: historical, myth and legend, personal experiences – or a mix!

– poetry: ideally original, but your faves from other poets are welcome, too

– music: traditional, contemporary, original or borrowed; instrumental or sung; solo or ensemble

– art, photography, video and other multi-media presentations

– we’ve even had step-dancing!

Why are you involved in Scottish music?
We welcome all kinds of music to Storylands Sessions, as well as poetry, storytelling, slide presentations, art displays and dance. Interestingly, traditional music has organically emerged as the most popular music genre chosen by our local performers. We are proud to provide a platform for traditional folk musicians of all ages – helping our native music to continue as a living tradition. We have a wealth of excellent trad music teachers in the area, including harpist Emma Wright, fiddle player Charlie McKerron (Capercaillie and Session A9) and Gaelic singer Sheila Mackay (from the Badenoch Waulking Group).

Any particular career highlights?

We formed in 2021, under the banner of local charity Badenoch Heritage, to provide a warm and welcoming community arts event for locals, following the isolation that many people experienced for prolonged periods during the Covid pandemic. Starting as a duo, a writer and musician, we have grown to a team of five. To see the community grow from an audience a dozen or so, to big ceilidh dance events of over a hundred people, has been truly wonderful and rewarding.

There are many special highlights and magic moments – too many to detail! We have witnessed some wonderful developments in our local performers, eg. a young 9 year old harp player came along to play in public for the first time (one of her own compositions) and 4 years later has gained considerable experience and confidence in her music as a result of performing at Storylands Sessions every month. We have seen an elderly gentleman perform an original poem in public for the first time. A local singer songwriter Greenshanks (aka Will Boyd-Wallis) has now released his own professional demo EP after premiering all of his songs at our events. A local storyteller, Sarah Hobbs (Strathspey Storywalks), a regular with us, has now been officially registered on the TRACS Scottish Storytellers list.

It’s these magic moments that make it all worthwhile.

What are your plans for the future?

Storylands Sessions continues to grow, develop and welcome performers with open arms. It is our mission to provide monthly performance opportunities for people in the Badenoch & Strathspey area and to bring the community together in warm and inclusive events.

Next year we plan to create an anthology of highlights of works performed or presented by people at our events. This book and audio album will be available in a variety of formats in late 2026.

In the meantime our Storylands Sessions documentary film, by Katrina Brown of Broon Coo films, will be released this December.

Storylands Sessions Social Media
Website: https://badenochstorylands.com/storylands-sessions/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storylandssessions
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storylandssessions/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StorylandsSessions
TikTok:

The 2025 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards are on the 6th December 2025 in Aberdeen Music Hall! You will be able to watch it live in person (buy a ticket here). Watch it live in the UK at 9pm (GMT) on BBC ALBA and and around the world here. Hosted by Scottish personalities Alistair Heather and Mary Ann Kennedy, the night in the Granite City will also welcome live performances from some of the brightest lights on the thriving trad scene today including beloved singer Hannah Rarity, UK folk legends The Poozies, trad pop band Mec Lir and BBC Radio scotland Young Traditional Musician and Scots Performer o the Year Ellie Beaton and many more!

If you would like to support Hands Up for Trad in their work with Scottish trad music and musicians why not become a friend of Hands Up for Trad. In addition to our high profile events like the Scots Trad Music Awards, we also deliver a less well known, education programme for young people from 8yrs right through to young adults at the start of their careers. Read more here.