The band played at a wedding this evening in Borthwick Castle – not our usual type of venue (church halls, community centres …)! It was great fun as ever, the bride and groom were lovely (he played the pipes too!).
Busking at a wedding
Category: Fiddle
Buskers at Greenbank Ceilidh again
I enjoyed playing with the Greenbank Buskers again for the annual youth ceilidh. The fiddle needs its exercise! Here’s the best photo of the band (until the Facebook link breaks).
The band personnel always depends on who’s available, but it’s always good fun to play with these great people.
Boda Bar evening session
I enjoyed a great session in the Boda Bar this evening hosted by Alice Thorsell. Lots of great tunes (pretty international, though lots of Swedish and Scottish) and good to see other session friends there. I will be back! For a change, I took the fiddle – nice to give it some exercise, and I played a few Swedish tunes on it that previously I have only played on the nyckelharpa. G minor is very good for my fingering 🙂 No photos, sorry.
Blazin’ Fiddles 20th anniversary concert
We rarely get to Edinburgh festival or fringe events – but found out this year after returning from France that Blazin’ Fiddles are finishing off their 20th anniversary celebrations with a series of concerts, two in the Queen’s Hall – so we went along. It really was a fantastic concert, they were truly on form, and also had Karen Matheson singing a few sets. We were surprised to find only a couple of people there we knew – there are usually lots on well-kent Edinburgh fiddle people at these gigs!
Also posted to:String Sisters concert
We enjoyed a great concert at the Queen’s Hall this evening – the String Sisters were performing. Lots of great tunes – and lots of fiddle friends and acquaintances were there. Great to catch up with people.
Floor monitor speakers
Last September the ceilidh band I play with (the Greenbank Buskers) were doing a gig in a hall which was filled with lots of noisy dancers (etc!). We have usually managed fine in the past but found that the fiddles were having difficulty hearing the accordions, and vice versa. We had amplification but only for the hall.
Having done other gigs where we had (gasp!) a sound tech and even (gasp again!) floor/stage monitor speakers, I knew there was a solution to our problem – but commercially at cost – and we are just a band that plays for charity. However, I remembered that I had an ancient guitar amp I made with a couple of really nice speakers in it …
Also posted to:Buskers Trio at Haddington – video
Greenbank Buskers at Haddington
The Greenbank Buskers played a wee gig today in St Mary’s Kirk, Haddington, as part of their summer concert series. We normally play for dancing at ceilidhs (for charity), but today had been asked to do a performance – so our bandleader Hazel had finally got me to play the nyckelharpa (I don’t really do reels on it yet). We formed a trio from the band – Fiona on fiddle, Tom on guitar and self on nyckelharpa, and gave them three Swedish tunes. It meant that I had both fiddle and nyckelharpa there; the nyckelharpa seemed to go down well with the audience. Continue reading
Also posted to:More recording fun – a Trollpolska – with pictures
Fiddlers’ Bid and Frigg at Celtic Connections
Last night’s Celtic Connections concert – Frigg and Fiddlers’ Bid. Absolutely superb, both on form (though Maurice missing from the Bid, festering with flu in Shetland, so the stories weren’t quite up to standard!). Some good tunes need to be added to the Scandi Session list!
