News
Results 1-10 of 15 articles.
16th Jan 2012
Burnsong Songwriters Feature In Olympic Commission
The BIG Breakthrough! a celebration of Olympic and Paralympic values through song Monday 23rd January 2012 free schools concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall: 11 am Mitchell Library: 7 pm Adults £13, Children under 14 go free (maximum two free tickets per paying adult) Box Office: 0141 353 8000 Web: http://www.celticconnections.com/whatson/event/119592-The-BIG-Breakthrough Several songwriters connected to Burnsong are performing a brand new commission, Breakthrough, at Celtic Connections 2012, written by Burnsong Gathering Winner Kim Edgar. 
Karine Polwart, Mairi Campbell, Mattie Foulds and Kim Edgar herself are performing in this celebration of Olympic and Paralympic values, which features children and young people from The BIG Project, Broomhouse (in the south west of Edinburgh), alongside Inverness Gaelic Choir, Sangstream, Cappella Nova, and 10 leading professional musicians.
The newly-commissioned work features all performers en masse, with a series of overlapping themes representing the Olympic rings. Audience members have the unique opportunity to participate in the premier performance of the brand new commission, Breakthrough, and can learn singalong parts by visiting YouTube and searching “BIG Broomhouse Breakthrough”.
Kim explained:
“The commission was inspired by children in Broomhouse; footage of their thoughtful responses to the values is integral to this uplifting concert, which features pop/rock, Gaelic, folk, classical and Scots songs, plus a Glee style mash-up! Audiences will have fun taking part - singing’s great for our physical and emotional health. It’s an ambitious undertaking for The BIG Project kids, but I’m confident they’ll rise to the challenge: recently, they’ve taken Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall by storm, worked with Gareth Malone, and some members performed live on BBC Children in Need. As you can imagine, they’re extremely excited about their Celtic Connections debut!”
Breakthrough was commissioned by Celtic Connections and The Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and its performance is central to a year-long singing project which Kim Edgar is leading at The BIG Project, Broomhouse, funded by Creative Scotland. David McDonald, Youth Arts Manager, Creative Scotland commented:
“Creativity plays a vital role in children and young people’s development; it builds confidence and communication skills. The Youth Music Initiative has given thousands of young people the opportunity to learn about and enjoy making music. The BIG Breakthrough will be an amazing experience for the young people – to play live with some of Scotland’s most talented musicians will be a night to remember and something to inspire their music making for years to come.”
Suitable for children, young people and the young at heart!
10th Jan 2012
Songwriting Festival 2012 Announced - 12 - 17 August 2012
BURNSONG is delighted to announce that the UK Songwriting Festival 2012 will run from August 12th (evening) to August 17th 2012, and will be presented in partnership with our partners at Bath Spa University; it is supported by Creative Scotland. The venue will be the wonderfully secluded Shennanton House in Galloway. Our choice of venue is deliberately rural – so for a whole week you’ll have nothing to do except write, rehearse, record and perform songs with the support of tutors and fellow songwriters.
Bookings open late January 2012 and prices will be modest BUT places are extremely limited – so early booking via the UK Songwriting website at http://www.uksongwritingfestival.com is essential.
Confirmed tutors include:
- Boo Hewerdine
- Iain Archer
- Joe Bennett
- Jez Ashurst
- Andy White
5th Jul 2011
The Burns Unit forthcoming tour
In advance of their forthcoming August tour, The Burns Unit explain how they grew out of the Burnsong Songhouse 2006. Read the article where they describe how they came about through the Songhouse here.9th Jun 2011
2011 Burnsong International Songhouse artists revealed
Now that new songs are streaming out of the Galloway Songhouse, the identities of the seven songwriters in this June’s Burnsong Songhouse can be revealed.
The ‘mystery house’ is filled with talk and music this week, as seven artists from Britain and beyond hone their skills and work together to write the new material that will be performed at the Burnsong International Songhouse Gig in Dumfries on Friday 10 June.
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Aimee Bobruk comes all the way from Texas to take part in Burnsong for the first time. Aimee is a hugely talented, focussed singer-songwriter who has been winning awards for the last four years and is now recording her new 2011 album with legendary producer and engineer Brian Beattie. The album is fan-funded and those that contribute will see her chronicling the recording process in video and photo blogs. She is also part of Austin’s The House of Songs, through which she has collaborated with Danish songwriters, most recently the up and coming Danish band, Hush. Her music alludes to traditional folk and rock genres, but it‘s her distinctive voice and ambient arrangements which create the compositional mosaics that set Bobruk apart as a true indie-pop gem.
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Annie Grace hails from Fort William in the Highlands, where she grew up with marches, strathspeys, reels and Piobaireachd. She arrived in Glasgow where her singing and her skill on the whistles, big pipes, border pipes and small pipes soon saw her immersed in the folk scene. She was a founder member of Iron Horse, which became part of the big folk revival of the 90's. Annie toured worldwide with Iron Horse until in 2001 she took the plunge and went solo as a musician and actor. She performs with the Celtic Big Band The Unusual Suspects and GHP (Grace, Hewat, Polwart) a vocal trio with Corrina Hewat and Karine Polwart.
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Tim London is currently Edinburgh-based, but says he’s originally from Essex, via Hackney, London. He was a member of English pop trio Soho in the ‘90s, and wrote their hit single ‘Hippychick’. Soho played Top Of The Pops just as the first Gulf War was kicking off, despite being told they wouldn't be allowed on unless they removed an anti-war sticker from Tim’s guitar and CND symbols from the dresses of singers Jacqui and Pauline. Tim really is a musician’s musician, as he’s an Ivor Novello nominated songwriter, producer and musician, who has written hit singles, movie soundtracks and created music and sound design for many theatre productions. He’s also a writer and film maker, who has made several shorts and one feature-length film and has been commissioned by the BBC to complete scripts for a series based on the film. And he’s just finished his second novel, part of a trilogy, begun at the start of 2011.
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Aly Macrae was born in the heart of darkest Ayrshire, and brought up singing and playing with the world famous band The Macrazies, graduating to the more serious art of playing for ceilidhs with The Tattiehowkers and later The Oatcakes. Lured on, he says, by the promise of working late nights and long periods of unemployment he put pen to paper in earnest, writing songs about whatever took his fancy: drinkers, itinerant gangsters, favourite jumpers and teddy-bears. He has also worked as an actor, musical director and composer with the National Theatre of Scotland, Tramway, The Traverse, the Arches Theatre Company and more.
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Stevie Palmer is Edinburgh based, and no stranger to Burnsong as he, like Aly Macrae, was a Burnsong winner in 2007. Stevie’s background was a musical one, where his mother Eileen Penman provided a strong thread of the folk tradition. Stevie’s songs are often story-based, creating a powerful narrative and sense of occasion. His first love was black American music, from the Motown era, and he has continued to weave folk influences into songs of soulful intensity. Stevie’s debut album Heartprint Shadow was released by Greentrax in December 2010.
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Patricia Panther is a Glasgow-based singer songwriter, who started to write and record her own work in 2008. Prior to that she had a stint in a girl band, appeared at T in the Park for Souljam and Slam Tent, performed at the Arches, and at Sub Club – but the urge to make her own music led her to a six day course in the music software program Reason, and since then, she’s been creating and recording her own work, which has immediately garnered Radio 1 airtime. She describes herself as a soulful electronic artist.
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Lisa Rigby is a singer songwriter with Edinburgh-based acoustic trio Townhouse and a member of Scotland-wide collaboration The Kilmarnock Edition, which emerged from an earlier Burnsong. She’s about to launch her 2nd solo album Transition. Lyrically her songs often draw upon life experience, emotions and ideas of the world while musically exploring various acoustic styles. Lisa says she is a firm believer in the positive power of music and art to move and change and is chuffed to be given the chance to return for what will be her 3rd stay in the Songhouse.
The seven artists have been spending the week 'hothoused' in the mystery location in the peace of the Galloway hills. They share living space, the washing up and a unique creative experience now famed for the quality that emerges.
We can't wait for the showcase moment on Friday 10 June at Brigend Theatre Dumfries, when brand new songs hit the stage for the first time.
25th May 2011
Burnsong International Songhouse Gig
5th May 2011
The Burns Unit on Later with Jools Holland!
The Burns Unit - a band which grew out of the Burnsong Songhouse 2006, featuring Karine Polwart, Emma Pollock, MC Soom T, Kim Edgar, King Creosote, Future Pilot AKA, Michael Johnston and Mattie Foulds - has been invited to perform on the mighty "Later With Jools Holland" show which airs on BBC 2!
The band rehearse in the studio on Monday 16th May, and perform in a half-hour live show on Tuesday 17th May (10 pm), as well as recording a show which will be aired on Friday 20th May at 11.35 pm.
For more information check out www.theburnsunitband.com
28th Mar 2011
Burnsong Under 25s Songwriting Competition Winners Announced!
After much deliberation, the panel of music industry experts selected the following winners from the 313 entries submitted:25th Jan 2011
Enter the Burnsong Songwriting Competition for under 25s here!
12th Jan 2011
Burnsong launches Songwriting Competition for under 25s
Burnsong, in partnership with Mattie Foulds’ Mobile With A Home (producer/drummer for the acclaimed collective, The Burns Unit) today offers a brand new opportunity for young up and coming Scottish songwriters to record their first demo, working with industry professionals in this fantastic new recording studio.
The Burns Unit's debut album, Side Show, garnered glowing reviews upon its release in August 2010, with live performances taking Cambridge Folk Festival by storm, and has subsequently been nominated as one of the albums of 2010 by a number of sources including Ian Rankin, Vic Galloway and Spiral Earth.
Produced by Mattie Foulds, the album grew out of The Burnsong Songhouse 2006, a songwriting retreat for professional songwriters. On the first date of The Burns Unit's 2011 tour, Sunday 16th January, at their Celtic Connections gig in the Old Fruitmarket, Mattie will announce the opening of this great opportunity to follow in the band's footsteps.
"I'm delighted to be supporting three young Scottish songwriters in taking their first steps into the music industry by recording a high quality demo in my new recording studio, Mobile With A Home".
The anonymous competition entries will be judged by fellow Burns Unit members, Karine Polwart, Emma Pollock (Delgados), Michael Johnston and Kim Edgar, and a panel of music industry experts including Scottish songwriter and lecturer David Scott (Pearlfishers, BMX Bandits) and music industry consultant Ronnie Gurr. With funding support from Creative Scotland, the winning songwriters will then work in collaboration with Mattie Foulds to plan, record, mix and master their first professional recordings, which will help them to progress in their music careers.
To enter the competition, which opens at 5 pm on Burns Night, 25th January 2011, young people aged 25 and below should return here to www.burnsong.org where they can follow instructions to upload up to three entry songs, of any genre, for consideration by the panel of judges.
The competition will close on 28th February 2011 and winners will be announced via the Burnsong website in March.
For more information, or to set up an interview, please contact Mattie Foulds on mattiefoulds@mac.com , or visit:
22nd Nov 2010
Burnsong Live at The Scottish Parliament, 27/11/10
BURNSONG LIVE - A SAINT ANDREW'S CELEBRATION IN THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENTBurnsong returns to the Parliament on Saturday 27th November to tell its own story through the music it has helped create over the last five years.
Curated by past residents of the Burnsong Songhouse Kim Edgar and Davie Scott, the event will look at song, time, place and environment through performance and chat, exploring the art of the songwriter and the concept of the charmed circle – a space where creation becomes possible / inevitable.
Songwriters Emma Pollock, David Ferrard, Jo Mango, Riley Briggs, Fiona J Mackenzie and Alex Hodgson will join Kim and Davie to talk and sing about their own experiences in the Burnsong Songhouse and the journeys taken by the songs they created during their stay. And because they’re songwriters and because music is about community and because the Parliament is itself a charmed circle it is likely that all eight will join in, sing along and raise the roof.
Doors will open at 5.30pm for 6 pm start and there will be an early evening reception, from 7.30pm, for performers and audience members.
This event is free but places are limited so to avoid disappointment booking is advised. To book a place please contact:
Email: sp.bookings@scottish.parliament.uk
Telephone: 0131 348 5200
Textphone: 0800 092 7600