April/May News

It's been such a busy couple of months that I didn't get a chance to write about any of it until now! I had a great time on tour at the start of April with The Furrow Collective. We tried out some of our new material and it seemed to go down well. Here is a (very grainy!) video of us rehearsing a new song to sing on our tour. 

A couple of days after the Furrow tour came The Shee tour of Germany. It was our third trip out there with Keith Melville organising our gigs and driving us around and we had a brilliant time. The audiences were so warm and enthusiastic and as often happens in Germany, we were presented with flowers after most gigs. The beer was also a highlight as was having two days off to explore Berlin. In the above photo I'm tuning up before a gig in a beautiful old chapel and below is a gig we did in an old cinema right up near the Danish border. 

After Germany, I headed down to Cardiff to join The Furrow Collective at The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where we were nominated for Best Traditional Track and Best Group. We didn't win either award, but we did have a fantastic time, including a rowdy late night sing along with Best Group winners, the brilliant Young'uns! After the awards, I went up north to Ullapool for a friend's wedding followed by gigging and teaching at Feis Rois. It was a brilliant, hectic weekend packed with sessions, workshops and gigs and I had a great time. 

Returning south again, there was just time for a couple of lovely Shee gigs in Edinburgh and Moniaive before I made my way to Norway for my first ever tour with Boreas. What a stunning country Norway is! I was unprepared for how beautiful it is and spent a great time of time peering out the van window with a tear in my eye. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip, including a gig we did in a lighthouse. 

After our last gig in Norway, it was the overnight bus to Oslo to catch a flight to Copenhagen then Edinburgh and straight in the car to join the Furrow Collective in Wales (again). This time it was at Giant Wafer Studios to record our new songs. We'll be sharing these with you later in the year and I can't wait. It's such a joy to work with this lot. Here's producer/engineer Andy Bell and Furrow member Lucy trying out some drums in the studio.

Looking forward to June, where I'll mostly be writing some new music of my own and preparing for Emily Portman's launch tour of her new album Coracle. It's to be released on the 19th and you can pre-order from the pledge music page still if you'd like a copy.