Category Archives: Scotland

Freewheeling Now – –

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Jack is honored to hit the deadline for his Wednesday guest post – –

There are many landmarks in life and my latest was my 80th birthday last Saturday. It was meant to be a surprise but couldn’t really be as it was a virtual on-line party and I had to be warned to be there by Wendy.

I wandered past her a couple of times as she was talking on-line to our old friend Aileen Carr in Scotland but didn’t realize what a central part she (Aileen) would play in the whole shenanigans.

The real surprises were many!

Just a few of the folk who dropped in – –

Some sixty-five people attended, and from all parts of my life: family members, some old work colleagues and many folkies from both sides of the pond.

Aileen MCd the whole thing expertly, while Wendy kept hold of the Zoom requirements. I just sat back and enjoyed the whole thing!

There were people from all across the US and Canada, from Ireland, Scotland and England, so many different time zones.

Lots of laughs, memories, stories, songs and music.

Also memories of my 60th birthday which was meant to be a genuine surprise and was derailed at the last minute by our great friend Jock Duncan. He phoned an hour after Wendy had expertly rescued the event to say “Sorry I can’t make it to your surprise party” – he really did say that and we just knew that his wife Frances was standing behind him trying to wrestle the phone away from him. Both gone now like many others who didn’t make it as far as me. We took a moment to remember Jock, who died during the pandemic.

Here’s the late Jim Reid with one of his great songs – https://youtu.be/5rPdjQee850

A Carrying Streamlet – –

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Jack jumps in to rescue the Monday book post – –

The Folk River – Fraser Bruce

I should start by saying this is yet another book to which I had some input.

It started with a lengthy series of discussions instigated by Fraser Bruce on FaceBook where he challenged some of the accepted ‘myths’ surrounding the Scottish folk scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s. This led him to do some serious research, including interviewing those folk still around from these days, as well as previous publications – books and magazines.

He then set out on the mammoth task of pulling it all together and then enlisting our mutual friend Pete Heywood to proof, type set and insert lots of pictures.

Most other books covering this subject that I’ve seen tend to be written by observers rather than practitioners so this one is different and wherever Bruce’s experiences overlap mine I can attest that they are accurate. I can be reasonably sure, then, that where he overlaps with other folks’ experiences they are likely accurate as well.

Being married to a writer and published author I have some idea of the work that has gone into this and commend Bruce for taking on this formidable task.

Of course it will be of most interest to the diminishing band of like-minded folk who were around then, but I hope, like Bruce, that it might add to the existing small number of more academic publications about this fascinating time.

Finally – even if I hadn’t been involved I would still recommend this as an excellent window to a time that both mirrored and connected with the similar American folk revival.