Organisers are preparing for the sixth year of the unique Fife Traditional Singing Weekend that takes place on Fri 16, Sat 17 and Sun 18 May. The event brings together some of Scotland's finest exponents of traditional singing for a weekend of old songs and bothy ballads in concerts, singarounds and workshops/talks on topics related to traditional song and culture. Described by the organisers as "A celebration of traditional singing for singers and enthusiasts", the weekend starts with three days of events all taking place at the Fife Animal Park in Collessie in the Howe of Fife.

The renowned singer Brian Watson from Prudhoe in Northumberland makes a first visit to the festival after Pete Shepheard and Arthur Watson (organisers of the weekend) met him last year at the Whitby Folk Week at which they were guests. Another guest new to the event is Sara Grey - originally from the United States and now living in Perth. As Pete says, "We are very pleased to welcome Sara to the weekend - Sara is a suberb exponent of the old time ballads - a ballad singer of great strength with a fine understanding the art of ballad singing. Her lovely voice alone makes her one of the most popular singers on the folk scene and, on many of her songs, Sara accompanies herself on five string banjo." Other guests include the fine young singer Shona Donaldson from Huntly - a recent graduate from the RSAMD, Ellen Mitchell a singer from Glasgow and Jimmy Hutchison from Newburgh. As usual, Ron Bissett the well known local bothy ballad singer from Falkland will be providing down to earth entertainment with his songs. Alex Clarke from Dundee, whose songs were received with great acclaim last year, will be a first time guest. The great North-east singer Jock Duncan from Pitlochry who has been a guest several years past will be at the events on the Saturday afternoon and the evening concert.

The main concerts of Old Traditional Songs and Bothy Ballads take place on the Friday and Saturday evenings and tickets are still available - tel: 01337 830773. The Saturday and Sunday mornings are given over to talks and and for anyone interested in the roots of traditional song and balladry and the social context these are events not to be missed (tickets at the door or in advance).

On Saturday morning the day starts (10.00am) with a presentation by Sara Grey and Tom Spiers: The migration of ballads from Scotland to North America. This is followed by a talk by Maurice Fleming: Discovery of the Stewarts of Blair, Mary Brooksbank of Dundee and folklore of Perthshire.

Sunday Morning ~ Rod Stradling: Publishing field recordings of traditional song from Scotland and the Appalachians. Alex Clarke: A Dundee life - the Hilltown, the jute mills, daft songs, Will Fyffe, Scottish dance, B&Q and the butcher’s shop, McGonnagall and his granny Clarke’s memories of the fall of the Tay Bridge.

Says organiser Peter Shepheard, “We are already getting booking from far and wide we are looking forward to a great weekend of songs and ballads. We are also launching the fourth FifeSing CD compilation during the weekend - recorded at the FifeSing2007 events.

The FifeSing weekend gives a platform for anyone with an old song to be heard and the organisers always hope for surprises. Says Pete Shepheard, "I hope someone will come up with an unusual song, perhaps a local bothy ballad we have not heard before or an old ballad that has survived in their family tradition. The event is there as a platform for singers with old songs and it is always great to hear songs and singers that we have not heard before." And then Pete added "Last year we were fortunate to have Alex Clarke of Dundee drop in for a couple of the events and he gave us a superb rendition of that magnificent leg-pull of a song from the era of 1930s unemployment that starts We're the lads fae the tap o the hill, we never work and we never will - We're on the Bureau. Alex went down so well he is back as a guest this year!"


GUEST SINGER BIOGRAPHIES:

Brian Watson was born in the 1930s into a Northumbrian musical family - his mother played piano, zither and mandolin and his father was a Burns enthusiast who also sang songs by the famous Co Durham pitman poet Tommy Armstrong. When his family returned home after several years in Australia and New Zealand he started singing at his local folk club in Prudhoe. His place in the folk tradition was recognised when he entered and won the singing competition at the annual Morpeth Gathering in the early 1970s. He has recorded several CDs including Where Ivvor heh thi gone? made with the assistance of several noted Tyneside musicians including Colin Ross and Johnny Handle. www.cdbaby.com/cd/brianwatson

Sara Grey: Sara grew up in New Hampshire but has lived in many parts of the United States and has spent many of the last 30 years on this side of the water, now living near Perth. As a youngster in North Carolina she became an enthusiast for mountain music, and her love for the old time banjo and Appalachian songs developed from this experience. www.maclurg.com/saragrey/sara.htm

Shona Donaldson is one of Scotland’s leading young tradition bearers. She grew up in Huntly surrounded by music and dancing in the heart of North-east Scotland’s bothy ballad country. Shona’s mother was always singing to her as she was growing up. Her father plays the pipes, her sister plays piano. While still at school, she joined the Strathbogie Junior Fiddlers and took part in fiddle competitions at local traditional festivals including Keith and Strichen. Hearing the great bothy ballad singers Jock Duncan and Geordie Murison at these festivals inspired Shona to start singing. www.tradmusic.com/artistinfo.asp?artistID=820

Ellen Mitchell was born in Glasgow. Although there was music in her family - she remembers a great aunt rattling out tunes on her granny’s piano, her father’s enthusiasm for classical music and jazz and an uncle who was in a skiffle group - it was the discovery of folk clubs and festivals that gave her an enthusiasm for traditional song. She has recorded for the Musical Traditions label (in a double CD along with her husband Kevin) and has been a guest at several festivals including Whitby and Auchtermuchty. www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/mitchell.htm#ellen

Jimmy Hutchison is originally from South Uist - his mother a Gaelic speaker, his father from Glasgow. Jimmy has been singing traditional songs for many years. In the 1960s he was involved in the St Andrews folk club and the Blairgowrie Festival and became a great admirer of Jeannie Robertson, the Stewarts of Blair and old Davie Stewart. Jimmy now lives in Newburgh where he runs a joinery business. www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/tradbear.htm

Ron Bissett of Falkland took his first job at Letham in 1950 - driving a pair of horse and living in the bothy. He learned some songs in the bothy and others from his mother and he was a member of the Fife Yokels bothy group when they competed in the Grampian TV Bothy Nichts in the 1960s.

Jock Duncan was brought up in the ballad-rich farming country around New Deer and Fyvie in Aberdeenshire, where he developed his love of traditional balladry and music. He is widely recognised as one of Scotland’s foremost traditional singers and, in 2006, he was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. www.springthyme.co.uk/album39/39go.html

Alex Clarke was brought up in a tenement just off Dundee’s Hilltown - hence his signature song - We’re the lads fae the tap o the hill. His mother was a weaver in the jute mills as was his granny, his father an engineer. As a boy he started out singing Harry Lauder songs and was soon singing in concert parties. He was taught Highland dancing as a boy and later took up Scottish dancing, forming his own troupe for shows with Robert Wilson and Andy Stewart and appearing with the White Heather Club. His granny Clarke was a source of songs and old stories of Dundee, of McGonagall and the fall of the Tay Bridge. He was first discovered by Maurice Fleming in the 1950s and was later recorded on the Coorse and Fine LP of Dundee songs on Springthyme in 1985.


WORKSHOPS :

Sara Grey & Tom Spiers. Sara grew up in New Hampshire but has lived in many parts of the United States and has spent many of the last 30 years on this side of the water, now living near Perth. As a youngster in North Carolina she became an enthusiast for mountain music, and her love for the old time banjo and Appalachian songs developed from this experience. For the last several years she has been tracing the migration of songs from the British Isles to North America and this is the basis of her workshop with Tom.

Maurice Fleming belongs to Blairgowrie and was for many years editor of the Scots Magazine. A suggestion by Hamish Henderson in the 1950s that Maurice should go out and find traveller singers during the annual berrypicking and look for the song The Berryfield’s o Blair led him to the Stewart family door and the discovery of The Stewarts of Blair. He was on the committee of the first Blairgowrie Festival in 1966 that led to the founding of the TMSA. Maurice also recorded a number of Dundee singers including Mary Brooksbank and he is author of several books of local history and folklore.

Rod Stradling has been involved in folk music for many years, a one-time organiser of the King’s Head Folk Club in Islington, a melodeon player and founder of the Old Swan Band in the 1970s and member of several other influential bands - the English Country Blues Band and latterly the English Country Dance Band. However, it is for his enthusiasm for traditional song and his productions of numerous CD compilations under the Stroud based Musical Traditions banner that we welcome him to Collessie.


HOSTED BY:

Shepheard, Spiers & Watson: The singing weekend is organised and hosted by a committee of Peter Shepheard, Tom Spiers and Arthur Watson who also sing together as Shepheard, Spiers & Watson. All three are enthusiasts for traditional song. Pete is a singer, musician and folk song collector and runs the Scottish music label Springthyme from his home in Balmalcolm. Tom, who has recently moved to Aberdeenshire, sings and plays fiddle and was for many years a member of the Aberdeen based group The Gaugers. Arthur sings and plays whistle, was also in The Gaugers, founded the renowned Peacock Print Makers in Aberdeen and is now Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Dundee.

For further information please go to :

http://www.springthyme.co.uk/fifesing or telephone 01337 830773