P R E S S R E L E A S E
9-13 November 2011
Tenth Carrying
Stream Festival
Celebrating 60 Years of the Scottish Folk Revival
This year’s Carrying Stream Festival, Edinburgh Folk
Club’s annual celebration of the life, work and legacy of Hamish Henderson
(1919-2002), will feature an anniversary concert commemorating the First
People’s Festival Ceilidh (1951) in the original premises of Oddfellows’ Hall
(Malone’s) in Forrest Road.
http://www.philcunningham.com/promo/
The sixtieth
anniversary of the Ceilidh – then masterminded and presented by Hamish
Henderson and recorded by Alan Lomax (released as a CD in 2006) – coincides
with the sixtieth birthday of the School of Scottish Studies.
Paying homage to
the original Ceilidh, the event on 10 November 2011 at Oddfellows Hall is
designed to make the link to that pivotal event which was a catalyst for the
Scottish Folk Revival. But it will also be a showcase for six decades of the
Folk Revival, with a programme including traditional and contemporary songs in
Gaelic and Scots, piping and other instrumental music, bringing together
generations of Scottish folk artistes, established names and exciting new
talents.
The doyen of
Scottish traditional music, Phil Cunningham, will headline the concert, and
singer, songwriter, storyteller and author Ewan McVicar will compere the event.
Sheila Stewart MBE, Margaret Bennett, Jean Redpath, Steve Byrne, Lucy Pringle
& Chris Wright are among the featured artists. A photographic exhibition in
the gallery of Oddfellows’ Hall is being put together by Talitha McKenzie.
A further
highlight of this year’s Carrying Stream will be a Gala Concert of tutors and
students of both the School of Scottish Studies and the Royal Scottish Academy
(now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) on 12 November in the Pleasance
Theatre. Presented by the inimitable Adam McNaughtan, among the ‘musicians in
residence’ and tutors will be the harpist Patsy Seddon, the piper Gary West,
and the singers Gordeanna McCulloch and Rod Paterson.
On 11 November,
Will Kaufman will bring his celebrated Woody Guthrie show ‘Hard Times and Hard
Travellin’ to the Pleasance Cabaret Bar; and Margaret Bennett will host he
Sunday ‘Ceilidh House Night’ at the same venue, with guests Bill Adair, Nancy
Nicolson, Carol Anderson and Martin Macdonald.
This year’s Hamish
Henderson Lecture (in association with Edinburgh City Council) will be
delivered by Owen Dudley Edwards on ‘Sectarian Songs: Hamish Henderson and Ireland’
– on Saturday, 12 November, in the City Chambers.
On Sunday
afternoon, there will be a talk on ‘Alan Lomax in Scotland’ with Ewan McVicar
and songs from Alasdair Roberts. While, at the Royal Oak, the TMSA Singaround
of this year’s Festival is dedicated to the memory of Ray Fisher, themuch-loved
folk singer who died at the end of August.
The Carrying
Stream Festival is an annual reminder of the impact Hamish Henderson has had on
the Scottish Folk Revival, designed to celebrate his legacy and showcase
Scottish folk music in an international context. The tenth Carrying Stream will
focus on the double anniversary of the People’s Festival Ceilidh and the School
of Scottish Studies whose first researcher Hamish Henderson was. He also laid
the foundation for the School’s extensive archive of field recordings which has
now been digitised and made available online.
The Carrying
stream Festival, and in particular the two showcase events on 10 and 12
November, will demonstrate the vibrancy of the folk scene in Scotland, said
Edinburgh Folk Club chairman Paddy Bort. He also said that the Club was
delighted to receive financial support for the event from
Enterprise Music
Scotland.
This year’s
Carrying Stream festival is flanked by two of the all-time greats of the
British folk scene – Martin Carthy on 9 November, and Martin Simpson on 16
November.
Tickets for all
these events from Edinburgh Folk Club and, from 1 October, from Coad Music on
the Mound, also directly from Paddy Bort – ebort@ed.ac.uk (ph 0131-650 2458)
www.carryingstreamfestival.co.uk
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8 September 2011
Edinburgh Folk Club
Paddy Bort
0131 – 650 2458
ebort@ed.ac.uk