I’ve had an incredibly busy summer of music and photography; I played with Gria at Heb Celt Festival in Stornoway, Insider Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe and Lorient Interceltique Festival, I photographed three lovely weddings, took photos and videos of Glasgow based band Fat Suit, and played lots of great ceilidhs with Whisky Kiss and Dalamist. I also had a short holiday in Orkney with the wonderful Elly Lucas, a fellow photographer and musician who I seem to have a massive amount in common with. We met for the first time at Celtic Connections in January and instantly ‘clicked,’ Elly is a wonderfully talented and super lovely lady. We had a mini ‘photo-day’ together in Orkney, see some of the photos below.

Fat Suit teaser video, edited by Gus Stirrat, shot by myself:

I’m now preparing to head to Canada and America for two months, leaving this week. Firstly Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in California (with many thanks to them for a scholarship towards the course fees!) before heading to BC to visit family, then working my across Canada and America to eventually end up in Cape Breton in October during Celtic Colours International Festival. I’m going to be working on a photography, film and music based project looking at the links between Scotland and Canada, concentrating firstly on my family links and then the historical, cultural and musical links with Cape Breton. In 1950 my grandmother Margaret Sarah Tait travelled to Canada to stay with relatives and to mull over two marriage proposals (thankfully she eventually came home and married my grandfather!) I want to find out more and tell her story through my elderly Canadian cousins. I’m also very interested in the way Scottish music has developed in Scotland compared to in Canada and in the people who brought that music over and passed it on. I’m very excited to meet new people, learn new music, possibly to collaborate and maybe do some gigs while I’m over. Any suggestions/advice/contacts would be very much appreciated! My cousin Alice Tait will be joining me for the first couple of weeks at the camp and visiting relatives too… double trouble! This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I’m very excited that I’ve finally managed to make it happen. I see this as a long term project which I very much hope will lead to future projects and travels. I shall be blogging and updating my Facebook page and my tumblr as I go for anyone who is interested.

Last weekend I played at the Orkney Folk Festival with Gria and the Orkney and Shetland Gathering. It was a fantastic weekend, with Gria I played for Primary School children in Dounby, at the Festival Club, the Sunday Supplement concert and the Farewell Concert as well as playing in the pub sessions. We had glorious sunshine for the weekend! We’ll be back in Orkney again to play at the St Magnus Festival on the 20th June, before heading to Aviemore for the Insider Festival (one of my absolute favourites!) I’ll also be joining the Hidden Lane Choir for a few songs, which I’m looking forward to! 

I’m really excited to be heading out to California to Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in August, and I’m really grateful to them for awarding me with a scholarship for the course! I’m applying for funding at the moment which would then allow me to spend two months in Canada working on a photography and music related project, looking at the links between Canada and Scotland. I’ll be concentrating on my own family links, looking at my Grandmother, Margaret Sarah Tait’s trip to visit her cousins in Canada in 1950, as well as looking at the musical links between Scotland and Cape Breton. This is something I’m really excited about and I can’t wait to meet lots of new people and learn/play/share lots of music!

Until then I’ll be all over the country playing at various festivals and ceilidhs, taking photos at three weddings, and a wee trip to France with Gria for Lorient Festival!

I’ve had a busy start to 2013: I played on BBC TV for the Hogmany Live Show with Rachel Sermanni to see in the New Year, we played as part of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations on the 1st and then I played my last show with Rachel and the girls, a birthday party in the style of Glastonbury Festival at the beautiful Union Chapel in Islington, London.

My new band Gria won an award at the Danny Kyle Open Stage at Celtic Connections in January. We have been busy arranging and recording some music and have a few exciting bookings to announce shortly. We had some photos taken by the absolutely wonderful Elly Lucas, a fellow photographer, fiddle player and singer who is based in Sheffield. Elly and I then went to the launch of Blair Dunlop’s album (artwork by Elly) at the Mackintosh Willow Tearooms and the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and had a great time!

I also played as part of the Orkney Folk Festival’s Gathering concert during Celtic Connections. Here is a video I took during the soundcheck at the Old Fruitmarket.

I spent a few days in Germany in January taking photos of folk band Nua, whose fiddle player Catriona Price hails from Orkney. I’m now working on an album cover design for them.

I’m currently trying to get funding, visas etc organised to take a trip across the pond later on this year. I hope to spend a couple of months in America and Canada playing music, meeting people and take photos for a couple of projects I want to work on.

I have plenty of ceilidhs and a few wedding photography bookings to keep me busy over summer and I will be working alongside my mum during the St Magnus Festival in Orkney, keeping things running smoothly at the Festival Club.

A week or so I had my first go at shooting video, for clothing brand By Sea By Land; have a look here. Huge thanks to director Tom Duncan for getting me involved!

I’ve just finished working on an album cover design for Kris Drever and Éamonn Coyne and I’m about to get my teeth stuck into one for Orkney folk group No Soond. We had a great album shoot in Orkney, earlier in the summer, before most of the group left to start University in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. The Glasgow pub sessions have been full of Orcadian’s and good tunes lately!

I’ve had a couple of great rehearsals with a new band I’m involved in; really looking forward to getting things going with that. I have a few photo shoots lined up for this month and this weekend will be my first official job as a Wedding photographer.. for an Orcadian wedding in Grantown-on-Spey! I’m excited/nervous!

Another busy month; just back from playing a few gigs in Norway with Rachel and the girls. We were in Arendal and Farsund (a few hours from Oslo) playing at BAKGÅRDEN and Nordsjofestivalen. Thankyou to everyone who looked after us, especially Frank and Espen. We also played on the BBC Introducing stage at Reading Festival. I have been taking lots of photos for musicians including Kris Drever and Eamonn Coyne, Bella Hardy, Tom Gibbs, Jessica Burton and Orkney folk group No Soond, who I will be designing an album cover for.

I’ve had a busy month or so at festivals, taking photos for lots of lovely musicians and filming with God Help the Girl. Insider and Belladrum were great fun. The  gig at Insider with the new band (named Ham Strings for the festival) went down really well. We are planning on recording a demo soon and have a couple gigs in the pipeline, one in Ireland in September. We also have finally come up with a new name for the band! We are now called ‘Loome.’ Watch this space!

There are a few things coming up with Rachel Sermanni, including Reading festival and a trip to Norway (first gig abroad with Rachel!) and the album we recorded with her is out in September. Can’t wait to hear it, it’s been a long time since we arranged and recorded everything at Watercolour Studio in January!

Festival season is here!!! The Insider Festival near Aviemore this weekend. I’ll be playing with Alistair Ogilvy at 3pm on saturday, then on Sunday with the Ham Strings (new fiddle trio with pianist Jennifer Austin) at 1.40pm and finally with Rachel Sermanni at 6.20pm, all on the Lawn Stage. Looking forward to it! Last weekend I was a rehearsal for a film which I am playing some strings in: God Help The Girl by Stuart Murdoch of the band Belle and Sebastian. I’ll be playing in a couple of scenes, as part of the string section in the band. I’m looking forward to filming in July, it will be a new experience for me!

Had a great gig with Rachel Sermanni in Oran Mor, Glasgow, on friday evening. Here is a video of me playing with Rachel and the girls at St Pancras train station in London last month. (It was very cold!)

I have a new camera! I have come over to the dark side and have bought a digital SLR, Canon 5D ii to be exact. I need to get a memory card and sort myself out with lenses but I am excited to have a go with it! I still intend to use film but thought this would give me a few more options.

Fiere is due for release on the 28th May. I took took photos of the girls last year and put the artwork together for this collaborative album between Gaelic singer Joy Dunlop and harp (Esther Swift) and fiddle (Catriona Price from Orkney) duo Twelfth Day. We had a great time taking the photos (despite a near-disaster with a broken-down car at the start of the day!) and I’m really pleased with how it looks. It is available to pre-order now here.