AISEAG – our Ferryboat on Radio, TV and Download!

Ferries have been occupying my thoughts for such a long time now – and here’s the whole thing coming together. When I get time I’ll travel back to some of the voyages that have culminated in the new piece Nick and I created with Scott Macmillan and Aonghas MacNeacail, but meantime….from Watercolour Music:

Jennyfer, Colin, Scott, Mary Ann & Nick aboard the MV Corran – heartbeat of the ‘Aiseag’ commission.

“Well, our boat has well and truly come in – and now you can be part of the voyage all over again, on radio TV and download!

Watercolour Music’s Mary Ann Kennedy and Nick Turner have made an epic journey over the past eighteen months to bring to fruition a significant new Gaelic work for strings, chorus, trad soloists and soundscape, culminating in performances in Skye, London, Inverness and Glasgow at the heart of the Commonwealth Games’ cultural celebrations.

‘Aiseag – The Ferryboat’ was part of the first-ever PRS Foundation New Music Biennial – twenty 15 minute compositions exploring different corners of the Commonwealth around the globe. Mary Ann and Nick’s commission saw them collaborating with the highly respected Canadian composer Scott Macmillan and poet, lyricist and Gaelic guru Aonghas MacNeacail. The quartet worked transatlantic-style with the help of Skype and email, with only one face-to-face meeting during the entire process, to produce a ground-breaking musical experience that has set a new benchmark in Gaelic choral music.

The ferries which have been a lifelong fascination for Mary Ann, and the various ferry stories in each of the creative team’s own lives and upbringings were the background to ‘Aiseag’, but the epic sound-poem that resulted covers a wealth of human experience and connection on both sides of the Atlantic with the central narrative a journey from youth to old age, experience and beyond.

The premiere of ‘Aiseag’ took place at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig as part of SEALL Arts newly resurgent Fèis an Eilein in Skye at the end of July, featuring the quartet of writers, plus Cape Breton fiddler Colin Grant, Skye-based Cape Breton piper Angus MacKenzie, percussionist Allan Òg MacDonald, reader Christina MacDonald from the Isle of Skye, the strings of the Scottish Festival Orchestra, led by Stewart Webster, and the award-winning Inverness Gaelic Choir. The commission was won by Mary Ann during her tenure as Musician in Residence at SMO in 2013.

The sleeper – interesting name for the ceilidh-safari vessel…

Subsequent performances involved a Caledonian Sleeper safari-ceilidh to London for a massive Biennial celebration at the Southbank Centre, a home-town gig at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, and the finale at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of the Commonwealth Games celebrations.

Sectional rehearsals for the Inverness Gaelic Choir…

Mary Ann’s wonderful choir have been instrumental in making ‘Aiseag’ possible, from funding, to music-learning, logistics to taking over the sleeper cabins for mini ceilidhs the length of the carriage through the night to London – the ferry could not have successfully set sail without them!

Angus MacKenzie ‘daimhs’ right in with the tenors and basses…

There are several opportunities now to experience ‘Aiseag’ for the first time or to revel in some great memories from the project across the summer.  The live Glasgow performance of ‘Aiseag’, will be broadcast ‘Hear and Now’ on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 9^th August at 2200 BST. BBC Radio 3 is broadcast in the UK on digital radio and on 90-93FM, and online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3 – the programme will also be available for seven days after broadcast on the BBC iPlayer.

Able Cameraman M. Graham

A MacTV documentary produced by Skye director/cameraman and musician Magnus Graham, following the entire ‘Aiseag’ voyage from first meeting to maiden voyage and safe return to harbour, will be broadcast on BBC ALBA on Monday 22^nd September. BBC ALBA can be found on Sky 143, Virgin Media 161 and Freesat 110 (UK), Freeview/You View 8 and BT Vision 8 (Scotland only), and Smallworld 170 (Ayrshire and North West England). It can also be viewed live throughout the UK on the BBC iPlayer. www.bbc.co.uk/alba

A download album of all twenty of the PRSF New Music Biennial compositions is available on the NMC label in MP3 and FLAC formats. The entire collection can be purchased for ten pounds and the various commissions are downloadable as they become available online. ‘Aiseag’ will be available to buy from August 25^th, but you can pre-order now. Go to http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/new-music-biennial/mary-ann-kennedy and click on the New Music Biennial icon to find out more.

The Watercolour Music team are grateful to all the wonderful artists who have been involved in the ‘Aiseag’ project, and especially to the various organisations whose financial assistance have helped make this a reality.

Our funders:
Performing Rights Society Foundation
Bòrd na Gàidhlig
Touring Network (Highlands and Islands)
Creative Scotland
Fèisean nan Gàidheal
Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Our crew:
Mary Ann Kennedy – composer, vocals, harp
Scott Macmillan – composer, guitar
Aonghas MacNeacail – lyricist, reader
Nick Turner – soundscapes
Colin Grant – fiddle
Angus MacKenzie – pipes/ whistle
Allan Òg MacDonald – percussion
Christina MacDonald – reader

Inverness Gaelic Choir
 
Scottish Festival Strings:
Violins
Stewart Webster
Liam Lynch
Stephanie Brough
Gillian Risi
Ysla Robertson
Violas
Emma Peebles
Ian Anderson
Ronan MacManus (London)
Cellos
John Davidson
Rosie Townhill
Alice Murray (London)
Bass
Brodie Jarvie
Our associates:
Jennyfer Brickenden at Scojen Productions, Halifax, Canada
Donald Dixon and crews, Corran Ferry
Vanessa Reed, James Hannam and team, PRS Foundation
Clare Hewitt, Creative Scotland
Duncan MacInnes and team, Fèis an Eilein, SEALL Arts
Magnus Graham, Seumas MacTaggart and team, MacTV
Josh Williams and team, Howl Films
Margaret Cameron and team, BBC ALBA
Rebecca Hannah-Grindall and team, Southbank Centre, London
Colin Hynd and team, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
David Boag, Nicola Simpson, Toria Caine, Chrissie Cumming and team, Inverness Gaelic Choir
John Davidson, Scottish Festival Orchestra
Loudon Temple, Bloody Great PR
Roz Bell and the Eden Court Theatre team
Seumas MacDonald
Arthur Cormack at Fèisean nan Gàidheal
Iain Hamilton at Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Graham McKerrow at the Touring Network
Campbell Cameron, Marlene MacKinnon and teams, Benderloch Victory Hall and Lismore Village Hall
Lucy Mackay and team, Craignish Village Hall
Hannah MacAllister and team, Colonsay Village Hall

 

Ferries 2: Tayinloan to Gigha, June 2014

Go Gigha!

The trio set sail again this weekend, headed for one of the prettiest of the Hebridean islands, Gigha, off the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula. Finlay Wells – looking every inch the lean, mean, Tour de France machine he training to be at the moment – put down the wheels and picked up his wee Faith parlour guitar to join myself and Lorne MacDougall – looking every inch the lean, mean piping machine he always is! – for a double bill at the Isle of Gigha Music Festival.

Looking over from the mainland at Tayinloan

A double bill with one of the biggest bands on the Scottish trad scene, literally – and we did wonder how the little Gigha Village Hall was going to accommodate the hendecacephalous creature that is the Treacherous Orchestra. But they did.

The Treacherous Boys … where’s Spad?

No, seriously, where IS Spad?

The rendezvous began at Lochgilphead, where the road south is marked by a sign that completely sums up the importance of ferries in the fabric of this part of the world – wherever you want to get to, a ferry is going to take you there.

The Choice at Lochgilphead – we picked Gigha.

We were bound for Tayinloan, a tiny village around the bijou ferry terminal which itself is set in sandy machair land (not Macker, Ewan MacGregor), where the meadow flowers are absolutely at their best at the moment – clouds of clover and bees, and the fragrance of salt, sand and blossom and the sight of low-lying fertile islands made me think so much of dad’s home island of Tiree.

The Loch Ranza was our passage over, the same class of vessel as the Loch Tarbert that took us to Arran, and – as the name would suggest – which plied that same route until the Loch Tarbert was commissioned in 1992 and took over. She’s definitely an older bird – the red Calmac lippy just a little brighter, and a little more carefully applied to cover the signs of age, but then, which of us disnae dae that!

Still looking good…!

The ferry was pretty busy with festival goers and musicians, and Jane Clement worked the Calmac Tetris magic to get today’s broad modern cars two-abreast on a car deck that was built for rather more modest vehicles.

The lovely Jane!

I last visited this island when it had just newly been acquired by the community, having been an island completely stifled by poor landlordship. Even back then, at the very beginning of a new era for Gigha, it was obvious that there was an appetite for change, so to see how the island has blossomed in the intervening years was really wonderful. Small businesses, thriving tourism, investment in housing and community assets, self-determination – all very evident even in a short visit.

Ahh…..

There’s……..

SPAD!!!!!!

My afternoon began with a glorious workshop with about twenty folk all game for some Gaelic song – brilliant sound! – and then on to the gig at night (which began after penalties, Finlay had six quid riding on Chile in the local hospital sweepstake…). Really lovely crowd who were up for listening to the songs, and singing some of them to boot!

Just checking on the scores…

Thanks to Tony, Andy, Henri, Jane and all the festival team for making us feel so welcome, and to Moira and Duncan for putting us up – especially for the big bags of Gigha new tatties that were waiting for us on our trip home!

Gigha’s music festival underway.

Alba Nuadh

From an article written for Bella Caledonia and the Scotsman on Saturday…

I’ve said several times during this campaign that just because I’m a Gael, or a Gaelic-speaker, it’s not a given that I’m a Yes voter, despite some other people’s notions to the contrary. We are of course as diverse in our backgrounds, passions, convictions and opinions as any other group of voters in the referendum. But this thought has stayed with me a good while now, and I have come to the conclusion that there is some truth in the idea, albeit by a rather unusual path.

I grew up in Glasgow, on the South Side, in Pollokshields. A place in the 70s that was full of distinct and distinctive arrival communities – the Gaels, Highlanders and islanders among them. For years, I’ve often talked on stage or in conversation about being part of this multi-cultural Glasgwegian community – a fabulous place to grow up in as a bilingual kid. And then I began to question my own recollection of this time and place – I wondered if this was just a rather enhanced memory, embellished to make it relevant and entertaining, to give Gaelic, and me, our place in the big city and the big wide world.

For five-year-old Mary Ann, one of her greatest idols was Miss McNair in Primary 1 – new to the teaching game, and an inspiration to her class. It was this class that I had in my memory – a cohort where every second child spoke a different mother tongue, and where many cultures sat side-by-side. My pal Sumeera would come to Highland dancing with me, I got to sit in on the traditional celebrations for a Pakistani wedding. Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi , Irish, Polish, Mandarin, Gaelic – all of them were part of the soundscape of Pollokshields. Was it all wishful thinking on my part?

And then Facebook came out to play. My primary school teacher re-emerged as an FB friend via a completely different route to that of southside Glasgow. And in amongst the contributions to the ‘Oh no, is that really me?’ photies from another time, appeared a class picture. Not the ‘sit still and fold your arms’ type in the school gym, but gathered in the playground, against the Victorian cast iron railings looking out onto Melville Street from the infant department of Pollokshields Primary School – a snap on the hoof by Miss McNair. Twenty-five faces, smiling, happy – and affirming completely my memory of multi-culti Glasgow.

In this setting I and the other kids were brought up to appreciate, tolerate, understand, embrace, celebrate, investigate each others’ cultures and languages – by the teachers, by the mammies, by community energies and movements. Theirs was an overwhelmingly powerful influence, one that allowed Gaelic its place alongside all the others, where a belonging to an indigenous culture made it easier to appreciate others, and made it all the more important to accept others.

I want to be a part of a Scotland that does not fear diversity, that celebrates difference, and where a self-confidence in national identity and culture opens doors and brings down barriers. I believe it is only through that self-acceptance of all the things we are as Scots that then allows us to accept all the other possibilities for a new and flourishing nation state.

This assurance of Scottish self – Gaelic, Doric, Weigie, Glasgow-Irish, Caitness, Shetlander – will surely lead to the artistic expression of joy in a world of new possibility, as happens so often when new (!) countries assert their place in the world. But it will allow us also to welcome in the people of different nationalities and backgrounds who will contribute to the success of this new Scotland, on whose skills and talents we will depend as much as on those who have already made Scotland their home.

It will also assert that this is no country that plays on fear, ignorance, fragmentation, religious intolerance, bigotry, the politics of ‘not in my back yard’.

So, whatever way they choose to vote on September 18th, thank you Sumeera, Mumtaz, Andrew, Alistair, Maggie, Vijay, Armin, Naseem and all the rest of you who were part of those Melville Street years. And thank you Miss McNair for retrieving an archive memory that allows me to look forward to September 19th and beyond as a Gael and a citizen of a multi-faceted and optimistic Scotland.

Ferries 1: Arran Folk Fest with the Trio – Claonaig to Lochranza, June 2014

Last weekend was the first ‘official’ outing of the MAK trio at the wonderful Arran Folk Festival, celebrating their 20th festival this year. I was joined by Oban guitarist (and racing cyclist of Duracellian stamina) Finlay Wells, and piper, whistle player (& arch-Whovian) Lorne MacDougall, whose home village of Carradale in Kintyre is just a few miles down the coast from our departure point at Claonaig.

An ourselves-ie? Carradale boy on his local ferry.

http://http://www.arranevents.com/arranfolkfestival2014.php

This was my first trip to Arran in 14 years – the last time also being a folk festival foray with my old band, Cliar, for a mighty night double billing with Deaf Shepherd, and before that away back with the venerable Whistlebinkies, whose legendary bodhran player and story-teller, big Mick Broderick was an Arran institution.

This time we were joined on the bill by Findlay Napier and local heroine, Gillian Frame, and by Lorne’s own trio, that night featuring Sorren MacLean and Hannah Fisher from Mull, and Linzi Murphy from Neilston. In fact Lorne and co. and myself did a double ferry connection that day – Craignure to Oban and onwards down the Postman Pat style road to Lochgilphead and Tarbert, and left at the Kennacraig junction that offers you no less than four different ferry destinations. We wound our way down to Claonaig, me via a crab salad detour in Skipness at the Seafood Cabin – thanks for the heads-up, Lorne!

En route to Arran on a perfect day with Claonaig behind.

Claonaig is nothing more than a slipway for the wee ro-ro MV Loch Tarbert, which – being the 6th June – was appropriately doing an excellent impression of a D-day landing craft, powering across the sound from Arran. On board we met the crew – Jim, Neil and Andrew – and they showed us round the wheelhouse. My Skye Navy MacLeod ancestors would have approved!

Chilling out, Calmac style!

Hannah Fisher and the Loch Tarbert crew

It’s safe, honest!

Our whole stay on Arran was punctuated on the other side of the island, in Brodick, by the regular arrivals and departures of the larger MV Caledonian Isles heading for Ardrossan on the Ayrshire coast, a sight easily observed from the stunning Douglas Hotel, home for the weekend to folk festival artists and a packed session in the bar.

But for me the real discovery was that west coast crossing. As a Weigie, I had always really thought of Arran as being something of a back-door to Glasgow, a 60s beatnik retreat or golfing haven, depending on your tastes. But the Lochranza connection – on the side of the island less favoured by way of sheltered havens – really brought home to me how much more connected to Kintyre and its Argyll Gaelic heritage Arran actually is, certainly on its western side.

The gig on Friday night was something special. As I said, it was D-Day 70, and all day people’s minds had been on older generations and their wartime sacrifice. It was really moving therefore to be able to debut a new song remembering an earlier generation still from the Great War, and sing out Prof. Donald Meek’s elegiaic tribute to his great-uncle Iain who died saving the life of his officer. The song, which I set to original music, features later this year in a documentary about the lives of the two soldiers – more on that soon, but you can read Donald’s own wonderful blog in the meantime – John MacDonald (Iain Againn Fhìn) appears in Chapter 5 of the autobiography):

Donald Meek’s Blog

At Lochranza, Isle of Arran – tall ship, wee ferry.

Our last bonus was the Dutch barquentine Thalassa lying alongside at Lochranza – one of the regular ‘Tall Ships’ looking even more impressive for sitting beside her doughty Calmac neighbour.

http://www.atseasailtraining.com/177/ships/40/thalassa.html

Brilliant weather (sandwiching a truly drookit day between), fantastic hospitality, appreciative audiences with a great line in expressive dance, an impromptu stage lesson in stompbox (I want one), a schoolday reunion and a family night of giggles and bubbles. Arran. Love it!

http://www.cmassets.co.uk/en/ferries/mv-loch-tarbert.html

Aiseag (The Ferryboat) – PRSF New Music Biennial 2014

Last April, I landed an amazing opportunity to co-create a new work celebrating Commonwealth connections through the PRS Foundation’s first-ever New Music Biennial. The challenge was to make artistic connections throughout the Commonwealth and write a 15 minute piece that would form one of twenty to be showcased at London’s Southbank Centre and at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall during the Commonwealth Games in the summer of 2014.

I was inspired by the idea of the network of little ferries that play their trade on the Highland west coast, and over in Nova Scotia, especially on Cape Breton Island. For many folk, ferries are a tourist novelty, a quirky and somewhat anachronistic mode of transport, but for me they are, and always have been, far more than that.

As a kid, they were the means of getting ‘home’ from Glasgow – home being the islands my parents belonged to, Tiree and Skye. As such they were a source of adventure and promise, anticipation and excitement. And good mince and tatties on board, with sea-going acoutrements to go with – fat-bottomed sugar bowls, lipped tables, all designed not to be phased by a little swell.

Today, living in the parish of Ardgour, a community where a half-kilometre ferry crossing is the heartbeat of the village, I can see that the boats are not just a transport for cars and lorries, bikes and bodies, but a vital human connection – whether it be to pick up the parcel, meet family and friends coming home, or simply to get the latest craic, news and gossip. It’s slows life down for a few brief and valuable minutes. It’s a connection a bridge cannot ever be.

My biennial commission, ‘Aiseag (The Ferryboat)’, is a celebration of all the real-life and metaphorical connections evoked by these vessels – a co-creation with Canadian composer Scott Macmillan, Skye poet Aonghas MacNeacail and sound wizard Nick Turner at Watercolour Music, our studios here in Ardgour.

The end result is a microcosm of ferry crossing, of culture meeting, of life progressing, and I’ll post more about the music over the couple of weeks leading up to the premiere of Aiseag on the Isle of Skye.

Since I started on this project, I’ve also been collecting ferry journeys, to show how much an integral, fundamental part of life ferryboats are for so many people. I’ll also post on some of these voyage-lets. All these journeys were a normal part of my travels, I didn’t go out of my way to incorporate ferries into my travel or touring plans. They are a pretty random selection, but all of them are special in their own way, and an irresistible draw for someone who never likes to be too far away from the sea.

All aboard!