THREE-piece ceilidh band, Freereelin’, play the latest Celtic Music Radio house concert at the station’s studios in Admiral Street, Glasgow on Friday, June 9. The group features fiddler Lesley Thompson, guitarist Davy Lees and percussionist Stuart McQueen and will be following musicians including Israeli-American singer-songwriter Eef Barzelay and Canadian country singer Tia McGraff in the station’s house concert series.
celticmusicradio.net
IT HAS taken the better part of a year to come our way since it was previewed at Perth's Southern Fried weekend of Americana last July, but the three part series American Epic begins transmission on BBC Four on Sunday May 21 at 10pm. Narrated by Robert Redford and with the crucial involvement of Jack White and T-Bone Burnett (all three of them "executive producers", which usually means they put their money where their mouth is), the films document a crucial period in the recording of music in America when the labels felt radio breathing down their necks and set out their stalls in the backwoods from Appalachia to Hawaii, capturing the music of the nation in the 1920s in the process.
The series is a fascinating evocation of an era that also includes some remarkable performances, many of them unearthed for the first time, or recorded exclusively for the cameras. The producer, co-writer and co-director of the series, Allison McGourty, pictured, is the Scots ingredient in the mix, and she is doubtless delighted that her work is now at last being seen here and on PBS in the States. It was originally announced as part of the 40th anniversary season of the BBC's Arena strand and then was further postponed by the US elections.
The music from the series is also being made available this month with various albums entitled "The Collection", "The Soundtrack", and "The Sessions" appearing on the Sony Legacy, Columbia and Jack White's Third Man label in a selection of formats.
americanepicmusic.com
THE 46th Perth Festival of the Arts gets begins this evening with chamber music from Nicola Benedetti and Alexei Grynyuk, with English Touring Opera, chamber choir Tenebrae, violinist Nigel Kennedy, Scottish Opera's roadshow trailer, and the Moscow Philharmonic also in the programme.
Other musical tastes are catered for by Martin Taylor and Alison Burns, Jools Holland, Perth saxophonist Helena Kay, Dundee's The View, Treacherous Orchestra, Justin Currie and a Come-and-Sing HMS Pinafore with The London Operetta Company.
There's also visual art in the ArTay marquee, comedy from Marcus Brigstocke and a Children's Classic Concert entitled Tartan Tales.
perthfestival.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here