Category Archives: between books

New Lang Syne – –

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Jack manages to hit the deadline for a change with the guest post – –

Some disconnected recent events have got me thinking about American artists who successfully interpret Scottish music and songs.

Maura Shawn Scanlon
  1. John Turner – John runs the ‘Jink and Diddle’ series of Scottish fiddle classes in North Carolina and is a multiple winner of the US Scottish fiddle championship. My friend Randy who runs our local used book store gets lots of LPs and lets me know if there’s anything interesting among the recent arrivals. A few days ago he messaged me to say he had two by John Turner and Fiddletree. I had never heard of them but consulted Dr Google, which leads to the next performer –
  • Maura Shawn Scanlon – About six or seven years ago she won the US Scottish fiddle championships and I had her on my radio show. She was invited to compete in the Glenfiddich world championships in Scotland (which she also won) and I had her back. That’s when I found that she had studied at the ‘Jink and Diddle’ classes under John Turner! Since then she has moved to Boston to continue her studies and performs in various groups playing both classical and Scottish music. That leads me to another winner of the US championships –
  • Jamie Laval – I first met Jamie when we were both on the teaching staff at Swannanoa Gathering Celtic Week and we hit it off. Jamie is also an expert of Scottish fiddling, but he concentrates on the west coast style, so, very different from John or Maura Shawn. That style owes a lot to bagpipe influence – not just in the actual tunes but also the tunings and drone effects. Talking of the west coast of Scotland leads me to –
  • Rhiannon Giddens – Wendy and I met Rhiannon when we led workshops at ‘Common Ground on the Hill’ in Westminster, Maryland about ten year ago. She was part of ‘The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ at the time and they were a black string band playing jug band music. But one evening there was a gathering in our room and Rhiannon started singing Scots Gaelic songs. I was astonished. How could a young black woman from North Carolina be doing this? It was obvious that she wasn’t just parroting the sounds but actually knew the language.

There are many events around the US featuring Scottish music but most of them feature performers that just skim the surface and have done no real research or study. But every once in a while folk come along that really do dig deep.

Some of them are listed above – – –

Family Matters

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Jack is in trouble for being really late this week – –

I have a second cousin who has become the historian of the family and has been writing stories going back generations and putting them up on FaceBook.

The first few were so far back that I had to dig deep to recognize the people he was referencing. Of course that was partly because they existed on the periphery of my direct forebears. Nevertheless, some names were familiar, including my grandfather on my dad’s side after whom I was named.

I read recently that if you go back ten generations you have over a thousand direct ancestors that have contributed to or share your DNA.

But as Donald began to get up to date, more and more familiar names emerged. People I remembered from when I was a child and we would go on trips to visit them over in the west of Scotland. This was often quite an adventure in our unreliable pre-war and second hand Hillman Minx. There were no modern roads and we would meander slowly through towns and villages until we arrived.

Cousins, Aunts and Uncles and friends of theirs (many long gone) have emerged into the light through Donald’s stories which are amazing and a mixture of remembered family memories and research through on-line databases. He always manages to work in a connection between the family story and what’s happening in the wider world at the same time

 A recent one concerned the marriage of his parents – John and Sheila Adamson (Sheila was my dad’s niece, the daughter of his sister).

The photograph he posted of the wedding was a real time-warp. A mixture of folk that teased back through various family strands and forward to my own life now. My sister Margaret and cousin Pat were bridesmaids and I seem to remember the occasion although I was only seven.

When Wendy first came over to Scotland she was able to record family stories from my mother and these add another dimension that is more immediate, but also adds another layer in her own words.

I’m sure Donald would say this is just a hobby for him and that may be, but I know that these stories, written from a family perspective, but placed in that wider context are important and I hope he is archiving them safely!

Much kudos to Donald Adamson for taking on this time consuming task!!