Tag: The Shee

2015 goings on

Laura-Beth Salter

Hi folks,

its been a hectic year so far, but there’s lots of new, exciting things now gathering momentum which I hope you’ll be able to see/hear soon.

At the start of the year I was lucky enough to be involved in Ross Ainslie’s New Voices Commission for Celtic Connections. It was his first delve into song writing, and I loved getting a chance to perform his songs and tunes with a great cast of musicians. In he took us all to Dunning for a week, to the wonderful TPot Studios where we recorded the whole lot……and had a LOT of fun! You can get a copy on Ross’ website. In a spare few minutes I recorded this video with Ali Hutton behind the studio

Talking of Ali Hutton, that’s another new project I have slowly been working on this year. We have teamed up with Andrea Gobbi (Laki Mera), Patsy Reid and Innes Watson to work on some new material. We are still at the stages of coming up with our own sound, but we have a few solid tracks now, and I am really excited to see it progressing. They are great musicians to work with!

For the last couple of months, Jenn Butterworth and I have been working with Keir Long at Carrier Waves in Glasgow to begin planning our first duo album. We have been recording ideas, and have arranged a lot of new music already so we’re hoping to have an album completed by Christmas. Jenn and I have had some nice gigs recently at Newton Stewart Traditional Music Festival and Mull of Kintyre, and we’re really looking forward to a weekend of playing in Colonsay in a couple of weeks time.

As for The Shee, we have been working on a big plan for out ten year anniversary next year. I can’t believe we’ve been a band for that long! We can’t say too much about it just now, but the project will be launched at Celtic Connections 2016 and I’ll let you all know as soon as I’m allowed!

Last week I had the pleasure of playing the Queen’s Hall at Edinburgh Fringe with Dougie Maclean’s ‘The Maclean Project.’ The audience almost had me in tears with their amazing singing and Dougie has some beautiful new songs which I really enjoyed getting to play.

I’ve been working on my next batch of new tunes and songs, and am planning to pop a couple of videos of them up soon for you to check out. The song with Ali above is one of my favourite John Hiatt songs which I learned as a teenager.

Next up for me is a few Bluegrass gigs with Glasgow based The Daddy Naggins and Feis Na Mara with The Shee, as well as getting back to teaching at Glasgow Fiddle Workshop and planning my next mandolin workshop in Glasgow. I ran my first one in June and had a lovely turn out. If you’re interested you can check out my workshops and teaching page for more info.

Over and out!

LB

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Shee-ing, duo-ing and running

Laura-Beth Salter

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

Me and Rach at the Glasgiw Women's Bupa 10k