HEBCELT: FESTIVALS, TOURS AND ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES KEEP DOUGIE BUSY
Interview Release
Hebridean Celtic Festival
Year of Natural Scotland
- Dougie MacLean’s latest project debuts at HebCelt
- First gig for talented ensemble
- Singer plans orchestral recording
After nearly four decades travelling the world as a singer songwriter Dougie MacLean is still finding new musical avenues to explore.
His latest collaborations will see him play for the first time with a nine-piece group – The MacLean Project – which will make its public debut at next week’s Hebridean Celtic Festival, while he is also planning to record an album with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
In the meantime he has managed to find time to tour Australia this year, plan other dates in Scotland, England, the US and Canada later in the year, and work on the programme for his Perthshire Amber Festival.
On a rare break at the home in Lewis he bought 20 years ago, MacLean, 58, said receiving the Radio 2 Lifetime Achievement Award in January has not prompted an easing of his schedule: “Music and songwriting has always been a natural extension of my everyday life, a bit like eating, breathing, sleeping...and I don't intend stopping any of the three any time soon. Likewise music...I'm enjoying singing, playing and writing as much, if not more, than ever.”
The MacLean Project brings together two family groups and some friends – Dougie on vocals, guitar, fiddle, bouzouki and digeridoo; son Jamie MacLean (drums, percussion); Gordon Maclean (bass, vocals) his son Sorren Maclean (acoustic guitar, vocals); Ross Ainslie (whistles, pipes, mandocello); Chris Marra (electric & acoustic guitar, vocals) Laura Beth Salter (mandolin, vocals); Pete Garnett (accordion, harmonium) and Hannah Fisher (fiddle, vocals).
“It started from the unusual situation of two Macleans and their sons - Gordon and Sorren Maclean and myself and Jamie (whose great-grandparents lived on the same part of the west coast of the Island of Mull) all enjoying making music together.
“It seemed appropriate at this time of my life to create an 'ensemble' with a larger group of musician friends who I admire, with that larger group allowing for a huge dynamic range of music and fun.
“The MacLean Project allows us to go from wild rocking bagpipe/fiddle tunes to intricately arranged versions of my songs and melodies. It also allows us all to play whatever instrument feels appropriate.
“The age range is great as well, from talented instrumentalists Hannah Fisher, Laura Beth Salter, Ross Ainslie and Jamie and Sorren – who are in their 20s and 30s - through Chris Marra and Pete Garnett to the 'patriarchs', Gordon and myself. And almost everyone likes to sing so the scope for harmony (which I love) is tremendous.”
The project is an ever-evolving one and, before the first gig is played, MacLean is already looking at how the personnel and sound can change: “I want the line-up to be fluid, adding more or less musicians as the music dictates. Already some other great musician pals have shown an interest in being involved in the ever evolving 'project'. “
The headlining concert at the 18th HebCelt will be MacLean’s first return to the island festival since its debut year in 1996, although having a home in the islands means he is a regular visitor to the area.
“Three of my four grandparents were native Gaelic speakers and I wanted to spend time in a Gaelic speaking community to get an understanding of the sea and the crofting way of life first hand. So when the opportunity arose to come to Riof in Uig (albeit part-time) 20 years ago we fell in love with the people and the place. It's been an enriching experience, a kind of 'inspirational home' for our family ever since.”
MacLean, who is based in Butterstone, near Dunkeld, will mark 40 years as a professional musician next year. In that time he has won a string of honours, including an OBE, Tartan Clef Awards and a gold disc for sales of over 500,000 for his music used in the film, the Last of the Mohicans, including the melody The Gael.
This year he was invited into the HebCelt Hall of Fame, due to his local connection and his support and promotion of the Gaelic language and culture, and he also received the Radio 2 Lifetime Achievement Award which honoured the breadth of his body of work over such a sustained period.
“It is great to get an award and for your work to be recognised by your contemporaries”, he admits. “Almost 40 years of touring and 25 albums means that there are wee things that you've written scattered all across the planet and it's nice to be acknowledged for that.”
The most famous of those songs is Caledonia which is regarded as Scotland’s alternative national anthem has been recorded by hundreds of artists. It was a Number 1 song for Frankie Miller and First Minister Alex Salmond, who chose it to mark Homecoming Scotland 2009, said it resonates with Scots the world over.
It is also a song that keeps giving, having featured in a new beer commercial this year when it was reworked by Dundee-based group Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher who are also playing the Hebridean Celtic Festival.
“I first performed Caledonia in Berlin over 35 years ago”, recalls MacLean. “I remember the audience response at the time being more powerful than normal and it has remained that to this day, which is a wonderful mystery.
“I don't sing it all the time, but when I do I'm very proud of it and what it, as a song, has done.”
After the touring this year, MacLean takes his music in another direction with the RSNO album. He first hooked up with the orchestra a few years ago when invited to guest at Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain's St Andrew's Night concert.
“I'd previously done quite a few concerts with a string section and a couple with full orchestra but that was the first time orchestral arrangements of my songs and versions of traditional songs - by (musician and conductor) Paul Bateman - felt really 'right'.
“Since then I've developed a great relationship with arranger and conductor John Logan and dates for recording and concerts with the orchestra are in the diary. It's another exciting dimension for my music, both the songs and the instrumental compositions will emerge in yet another light.
“For someone who can neither read nor write music it's a wonderful feeling to be involved in the orchestral arrangement of my music.”
The 18th HebCelt will be held from 17-20 July. The line-up also includes Karine Polwart, Darrell Scott & Danny Thomson, Pete Roe, and local artists Iain Morrison, The Boy who Trapped the Sun and Face the West, as well as Dundee’s Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher; Lau, voted ‘Best Group’ at this year’s Radio Two Folk Awards; Orcadian eight-piece The Chair; The Hot Seats, from Virginia; Manchester outfit The Travelling Band; Welsh band Rusty Shackle; Fatherson and The Dirty Beggars and Donald MacDonald & The Islands, from Glasgow, Rose Parade, a four-piece from Ayr and Gria, winners of this year’s One Step Further competition.
It attracts interest from across the world and was recently selected as one of the Top 10 UK summer festivals by influential music publication Songlines for the third successive year.
Tickets have already been snapped up by fans across the UK and Ireland, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America.
For further information contact
John Ross
Lucid PR
01463 724593;07730 099617
johnross@lucidmessages.com
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