Well hello,
As always, its been a while, but plenty’s been happening!
I have had a few lovely gig recently with The Shee, including the Edinburgh harp festival, the Speyside whisky festival (!!) and a double bill gig with the wonderful ‘Shine’ up in Cromarty. It was nice to get back to Shee-ing. This year we have all taken some time out of the band to work on solo projects and other groups, but we have a few more gigs dotted about this summer and a UK tour lined up for October which we are all looking forward to.
On Friday night I got to play with Shooglenifty at a brilliant night through in Edinburgh put on to raise money for the new Soundhouse Organisation.You can see a video below, but beware, you’ll see my concentration face! The Bevvy Sisters, Lord Rochester and DJ Dolphin Boy were also on the bill, and the audience were jumping. Keep an eye out for Soundhouse. It’s going to be a great new venue run by a committee of musicians and the musically minded to put on gigs, workshops and events.
Last weekend saw the result of at least three days training (oops) when Rachel Lightbody and I managed to complete the Bupa Women’s 10k to try and help raise a bit of dosh for MacMillan Cancer Support. There were about 8000 runners and the atmosphere was brilliant. Well done to all you runners!! If you’d like to see more you can visit http://www.justgiving.com/LBSalter
Next up for me is a few gigs with Jenn Butterworth, my trusty duo partner. We are heading across to Arran Folk Festival in a couple of weeks, but not before we play at Glasgow’s Southside Festival this weekend as part of ‘Women in The Fringe.’ I am also planning to look into putting on a few solo gigs with the album band so will keep you updated on here about that!
Other than the gigging,I am doing lots of teaching. If you fancy coming along to anything here are a few options for you;
Trad From Scratch (Perth) – an informal, friendly evening of tune learning for adults who aren’t quite confident to join in at a session.
Intermediate Mandolin (Glasgow) – one of three monday night adult classes held at Glasgow Fiddle Workshop. Mine focuses on a mixture of American and Traditional material, as well as accompaniment and arrangement. There is also a beginners class with Jenn Butterworth and an improvers class with Nigel Gatherer.
Bluegrass/Oldtime workshop and session (Perth) – Laura Wilkie and I will be running a follow up to our previous workshop, this time with extra guest banjo and guitar tutors. The provisional date is the 26th July but watch this space for more info.
Advanced Groupwork – Rachel Newton and I are leading a four week, folk band short course in arrangement and performance for the Scots music Group in Edinburgh, starting tonight (20th May).
There are a few more teaching weeks coming up during the summer but I will let you know about those when I have a bit more info!
Righto, best get on with some mandolin-ing!
LB x
Laura-Beth Salter 