Glasgow Gigs and Glasgow Songs

The last couple of months have been pretty busy on all fronts. While things were going a little crazy in my day job, and family life was making all its usual demands (and, to be fair, offering all the usual delights!), I also managed to cram in a few gigs.

In my last post, about ‘Johnny Blue’s Well’, I mentioned my delight at getting to play at Cottiers Theatre in support of Yvonne Lyon. Since that gig at the end of March, I’ve also played a support slot at Dignity Row’s gig at the Old Hairdresser’s in Glasgow. That was a lot of fun too — especially since I got to join forces with Outi Smith and Sam Macadam (Maya’s Radio Orchestra) to combine our slots into a song-circle. I really enjoyed playing with those guys; not just because of how their contributions lifted my songs, but also because of the challenge of trying to contribute something to theirs (well, in fact, only to Outi’s songs, since Maya is her own most excellent orchestra, thanks to the wonders of looping!).

Last weekend, I played a couple of songs at the Solas Festival (with Alison Urie on BVs again) as part of a really wonderful set of songs by the Unbound community, which I’ve written about before on the blog. It was so much fun to see my friends take the stage and own it, and the audience really seemed to love it, to support us all, and to understand what we’re all about.

I have one more gig coming up; headlining this time (at the Old Hairdresser’s on 30th July), with support from my old friend Graham Robertson and my new friend ‘Doctur Normul’. I met Lorna on the UWS course that led to the latest release (Sandstone & Lime) and we co-wrote a song called ‘Folly’s Ladder’ which we hope to release soon. We’ve performed it together (along with a few other songs) at some open mics in Glasgow. Indeed, we’ll be at the Scotia on Tuesday coming if you’re in town and want to say hello. I’ve really enjoyed working with Lorna: our styles are quite different but complementary, I think!

Here’s the ticket link for 30th July in case you’d like to join us: Old Hairdresser's Tickets

There’s also one new song which is, just about, ready to share. This one was inspired by a street sign that I passed walking along the Gallowgate — for ‘Little Dovehill’. I guessed there had to be a story behind a street name like that and, as you’ll discover if you listen to the song, I wasn’t wrong… After I recorded the demo, I also realised that it was yet another Glasgow song, so I decided to put four of those together in a SoundCloud playlist called ‘The Dear Green Place’. You can find that here: The Dear Green Place

I’m wondering about studio recording these four songs as an EP, so if you have any thoughts on that, let me know!

Hope to see you on 30th July if you can join us!

Fergus x