THE Glasgow-based Irish Minstrels branch of Irish traditional music organisation Comhaltas is being presented with a Landmark Award by Hands up for Trad to mark its sixtieth anniversary on February 4. The branch was formed by ballad singer Owen Kelly and fiddler Jimmy McHugh and has enjoyed consistent success in teaching young musicians, latterly through its weekly tuition sessions at St Roch’s Secondary School in Royston under its long-serving musical director, Frank McArdle and his team of twenty tutors. Button accordionist Paddy Callaghan, who became the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year in 2013, is one of the Irish Minstrels’ best known recent successes and is now a prominent member of the teaching team, which sent one hundred and twenty competitors – more than any other branch of Comhaltas anywhere – to Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the all-Ireland music championships, in 2016.
glasgowirishminstrels.com
THE LATE Dundee-born singer, songwriter, actor and artist Michael Marra’s entire recorded back-catalogue is being made available digitally for the first time from February 3 through Amazon and other outlets. During his lifetime Marra’s contribution to the culture of his hometown and of Scotland was acknowledged by honorary doctorates from Dundee and Glasgow Caledonian universities. He was also awarded a Herald Angel for his performance at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010. His albums include his first release, The Midas Touch, the experience of recording which made him concentrate on the idiosyncratic style that produced songs such as Hermless, Happed in Mist and All Will be Well and others that documented real and imagined visits by personalities as diverse as General Ulysses S Grant, artist Frida Kahlo and Dr John to Tayside locations. Marra’s producer, Allan McGlone, is making a previously unreleased concert recording from the Bonar Hall in Dundee in 2000 and an unreleased collection of studio recordings from the 1980s available as part of the catalogue, which also includes the three EPs Marra recorded at An Tobar on Mull and his magnum opus, Posted Sober. amazon.co.uk
FROM February 4 until March 12 every exhibition space at both the Maclaurin Gallery and Rozelle House in Ayr will be filled by paintings by Alexander Goudie and his son Lachlan.
Currently the 54 paintings illustrating Tam o'Shanter by Alexander Goudie are drawing visitors interested to see the artist's noted interpretation of the iconic poem.
From February 4 the only two galleries not populated by witches, warlocks, wizards and the hapless Tam will be filled with paintings by Lachlan Goudie, Alexander's son.
themaclaurin.org.uk
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