Travels

I’m currently in Victoria, BC, having spent some time with my cousins finding out more about my family history and my Grandmother’s trip to Canada in 1950. It has been wonderful getting to know my Canadian cousins and I’m looking forward to meeting more on my way across the country to Cape Breton.

Alice and I had a great time playing a house concert in Victoria with Bruce and Nolan, the Whisky Minstrels
and since Alice left for home last week, I’ve also played another wee set at the Deep Cove Folk Music Society near Sidney, BC. Many thanks to Tark Hamilton for the invitation to play there. Tark also wrote some incredibly kind and encouraging words to me:

“Your sense of composition and willingness to learn and share the best of the new traditional tunes sets you in the top ranks of living fiddlers. When you play sweetly and slowly, emotions carry to the crowd and they can feel it in that deep innate place. Your straight time reels and jigs are perky and toe tappers. Your wicked crooked timing tunes are teasingly complex and expertly presented. Keep up all the great things you are doing!”

While I’m in North America I am writing a fortnightly blog piece for the Orcadian newspaper. The first of these is below, or read more here.

For more information, photos and blog posts about my trip, keep up to date on Facebook and Tumblr.