2017 round up

2017 Round Up

Is it really mid February already?! I’m a bit late with this but better late than never?! 2017 was another brilliant year for me, which started out with the live launch of my debut album Out of My Own Light, at Celtic Connections
Festival in Glasgow in January. It was a fantastic evening, with a fantastic bunch of musicians and friends and I’m delighted with the response I had to the album and the reviews it received.

“The Margaret S Tait Project builds a musical bridge between memory and motherland and it’s a powerful document.” ★★★★ (New Internationalist Magazine)

“This is a truly beautiful piece of art.” ★★★★ (Songlines Magazine)

The album is available from Bandcamp or can be ordered on the website www.outofmyownlight.com/store and is now also on Spotify as well as itunes and Apple Music.

Apiary

I was incredibly excited to kick off 2018 launching a new project with some of my favorite fiddlers, Laura Wilkie from the
Highlands of Scotland and Jenna Moynihan and Katie MacNally at Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow in January, sharing the stage with the fantastic Le Vent Du Nord. We share a passion for both Scottish and American fiddle music and after chatting about the importance of fiddle camp in fostering that, decided we should play some music together and Celtic Connections was the perfect festival for our debut show! I can’t wait to play with these women again, hopefully it can happen in the near future, watch this space!

2017 Photography

This year I have, again had the chance to photograph so many wonderful, talented friends, here is a selection of photos.

I also had a lot of fun shooting video of musician friends, including this one of a bunch of housemates and friends:

This summer one of my fiddle pupils, Katrina, turned 16, and for her birthday she got dolled up 50s style, along with her friends (another of which I used to have a lot of fun teaching too) and I got to come along and take photos, all round Edinburgh! It was a fantastic day, and so lovely to see the girls looking so beautiful and grown-up!

Summer Touring

This summer I had a lot of fun playing music all over Scotland with my great friend Conor Hearn playing guitar with me. We started the tour in Orkney, where we were joined by New England fiddler Katie McNally for some island hopping and a couple of mainland shows. We visited the Ring of Brodgar and shot a wee foggy video..

Between Islands

I was extremely honored to have been asked to represent Orkney in a fantastic project, spearheaded by Alex MacDonald from Lewis, which celebrates the links between three Scottish island groups, Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides. It was a lot of fun to work with Maggie Adamson from Shetland and Jane Hepburn from Lewis, along with our brilliant accompanists.

NuDay Syria Fundraiser

I was delighted to be asked to play a few tunes in a fundraiser concert, organised by Katie McNally, to help raise money for the charity NuDay Syria this autumn. I enjoyed playing some tunes with guitarist Eamon Sefton and fiddler Emilie Rose.

Fiddlecam

I set up a youtube account, as well as an instagram for Fiddlecam this summer and took a lot of videos while traveling around. I was very grateful to have been gifted a GoPro camera in order to upgrade fiddlecam a little and have been having a lot of fun with that since!

North Coast 500

I had a fantastic couple of days driving up the North West coast of Scotland, when my Canadian cousin Judy came to visit. We took the long road home, on the way up to Orkney and saw some really beautiful spots along the way.

Weddings

My lovely friends Steven and Mikeala had the most picturesque wedding on the island of Mull this summer and I had a fantastic time taking photos at it. I mean, just look at that golden sand and blue sea, do this not look like a Visit Scotland ad to you?! <3

My beautiful, talented friends Eden and Lukas got married outside of Boston in October and I had so much fun taking photos at the beautiful autumnal wedding! Eden and Lukas make the most gorgeous banjos, check them out here: www.ozarkbanjo.com

Berklee

It has been another fantastic year at Berklee College of Music, I’ve learned from so many inspiring and brilliant teachers and had some incredible opportunities. Earlier this year I was extremely lucky to have had the chance to perform with world renowned pianist Tigran Hamasyan, along with Berklee World Strings. His music was an inspiration to me while I wrote my album, so this was an exciting thing to be involved in. We also recorded strings on an album of jazz ballads by Kenny Werner and Peter Eldridge and traveled to Connecticut to teach high school kids and play a show there too. I really love playing with this fantastic group!

I had the chance to play at Freshgrass festival with two of my housemates, Ethan Hawkins and Ethan Setiawan, in our (recently named, thanks to our friend Dr Fogel) trio, Corner House, as part of the Berklee American Roots Showcase. Mum and dad had their first trip to Boston and came along to the festival with us for the weekend, dad took this little clip of us playing in one of the galleries at Mass MoCA.