Archive Trails
In January 2011, three bold stravaigers – Alasdair Roberts, Aileen Campbell, and Drew Wright – set forth upon a twelve-week commissioning residency in The School of Scottish Studies Archives at The University of Edinburgh.
This site tracks their progress as they listen to tapes, sift through photos, conduct their own fieldwork and begin to develop new performances from their findings.
On tour October 2011!
Oct 13 : Peebles, Eastgate Arts Centre
Oct 14 : Perth Concert Hall
Oct 15 : Cupar Arts Festival
Oct 16 : Edinburgh, Scottish Storytelling Centre
Oct 17 : Aviemore, Old Bridge Inn
Oct 18 : Tobermory, An Tobar
Oct 19 : Rosehall, The Achness Hotel
Oct 23 : London, Cafe OTO
Oct 28 : Glasgow, CCA
Curated and produced by Tracer Trails.
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© 2011 Tracer Trails
Joseph Briffa (www.josephbriffa.com) is making a documentary about the School of Scottish Studies, and has been filming Archive Trails. Here are some stills from his footage of the final rehearsals, at Kinning Park Complex, before the start of the tour.
Tour begins
The piece that Shane Connolly and I have created for Archive Trails is now as ready as it will ever be, and the tour begins tomorrow in Perth. Last night we staged a trial run-through for a small group of friends and we’ve spent today putting the finishing touches to the piece. I am looking forward to the tour as an opportunity for us to visit some parts of Scotland which are not at all familiar to me, and to revisit some with which I am well acquainted. It will be interesting to see how all of the new work develops night by night, as I’m certain it will. Long hours on the road, no matter where that road may be, are an ideal opportunity for me to think about future projects - in this case, new song work, taking notes for new lyrics and all. My notepad is ready. I anticipate that we’ll see some inspiring sights along the way, and also meet a lot of interesting folks. Perhaps you’ll be one of them.
Alasdair Roberts and Shane Connolly have been building puppets for their reworked and expanded version of Galoshins.
Helmsdale Herring
Another song available to download and this one is very much a direct outcome of the Archive Trails residency; a reworking of Ewan MacColl’s “Shoals Of Herring”.
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Aileen Campbell working on her performance and video, ‘Conversations around a song’.
Black an white ane ti ither mairriet
I recently posted a virtual e.p Rhythm & Song for free download. The recordings have been kicking about for a while and are not a direct outcome of the Archive Trails residency but they illustrate an element of my practice i.e putting traditional folk tunes into new contexts. In this case Scottish folk meets Berlin dub techno via Jamaican DJ culture. I wonder what Hamish would have made of it?
Berrypickers of Blair
A few weeks ago I wrote about my imminent visit to Blairgowrie, home of the fabled berryfields which were eulogised in song by the late, great Belle Stewart. I’d been invited to a berry pickers’ ceilidh in the town hall there, and was interested to find out more about the workforce of today. Well, it turns out that the days when Scotland’s travelling folk toiled there are gone - the pickers nowadays consist predominantly of young eastern European students (which can only be a good thing both for them and for the local community.)
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Simplify Simplify Simplify
“The musician is the document. He is the information itself. The impact of stored information is transmitted not through records or archives, but through the human response to life” Ben Sidran
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Berryfields
Esteemed reader - I would like to draw your attention to a recently released CD on Greentrax Records (CDTRAX9024) in the Scottish Tradition series: ‘Scottish Tradition 24: Songs and Ballads from Perthshire Field Recordings of the 1950s’.
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Belle Stewart sings The Berryfields o Blair, recorded by Maurice Fleming for the School of Scottish Studies in 1954.
