Emily Smith, Robyn Stapleton, Jamie McClennan, Ali Burns, Wendy Stewart, Aaron Jones and Claire Mann are all giants of the Scottish traditional music scene – and they all just happen to be from Dumfries and Galloway.
Between them they have received many top awards for their work and are considered by the industry to be amongst the best traditional musicians in Scotland.
It is, therefore, fitting that a song project of such major historical significance as Macmath: The Silent Page should be placed in the care of these well-respected industry experts.
The feet of Thornhill’s Emily Smith have rarely touched the ground since she won BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year back in 2002.
Since then her clear and enchanting voice has won her a clutch of awards, has allowed her to tour the world several times, produce six albums, has made her a favourite on BBC Scotland Radio and TV and has secured her performances with top international folk music personalities.
She said: “In my years of looking for traditional songs in Dumfries and Galloway, I had to really dig for them.
“It’s wonderful to suddenly find a whole list of them in the Macmath volumes.
“I have great respect for the Scottish songwriting tradition. The older the better for me. The Macmath project has found a new set of never-before-seen versions of traditional songs from this region and I’m so excited to be part of the group that is bringing them back to life.
“What’s the point in having lyrics on a page when they are never heard?”
Singer Robyn Stapleton is Stranraer’s golden girl.
She was BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year in 2014, was Person of the Year at this year’s Dumfries and Galloway Life Awards and was nominated for Scots Singer of the Year at the Trad Music Awards. She has performed live on BBC TV. Robyn is described as having one of the finest voices in Scottish music.
On June 1 she releases her highly-anticipated debut album, Fickle Fortune, on Laverock Records and will be touring Scotland in May and June.
Robyn said: “When I was first handed over Macmath’s songs and saw there were just fragments of some of them, I really didn’t know how this was going to go. I have a lot of experience with traditional ballads and some of these songs have to be studied and learned very carefully to get the best from them.
“I’ve really enjoyed the process of working on this project and have risen to the challenges of bringing these songs back to life.
“I think we have succeeded in keeping the balance between staying true to the songs’ original intentions and making them enjoyable to the listener.
“We tried a few out at a gig in the Swallow Theatre on Thursday night and the audience loved them.”
Robyn is looking forward to performing Macmath for the first time in her home town. She said: “It’s going to be a great concert and I’m really pleased that people at home are going to hear these songs first. I’m really looking forward to the performance and hope that people of all ages and musical tastes will come out on Tuesday, 26 May, to hear us.”
Originally from Newton Stewart, Moffat-based Aaron Jones acquired his love of Scots trad from the Edinburgh music scene. He is a professional musician who has toured the world many times, performed on over 80 albums and is much in demand as a session musician.
In 2005, Aaron won Instrumentalist of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards and works with musicians all over Scotland.
Aaron, who will play bouzouki in the concerts, is a very enthusiastic member of the Macmath project group.
He said: “When I heard the Macmath manuscripts had been discovered, I was really excited.
“When Ali offered me the opportunity to work on the project, I was dying to see the songs and really hoping to find new works.
“Every traditional musician in the country is desperately looking for new material, so we hope that these songs that Macmath so pedantically recorded will be sung and performed for many years to come.
“We are all truly enthusiastic about these songs and are trying very hard to be true to the original versions while still engaging the listener.
“To think that these beautiful works were stuck in a bookshelf, unheard and unsung, for almost a hundred years is quite a thing.
“Knowing that these lyrics were penned in this region puts Dumfries and Galloway firmly on the traditional Scottish music map.”
Claire Mann, also from Moffat, is a music teacher for Fèis Rois, a Scotland-wide programme of music tuition in local authorities which celebrates the music and song culture connected with the Gaelic language.
Claire will be playing fiddle, flute and tin whistle for the Macmath performances.
She said: “Our job was to look through some of the songs in the volume and piece them together by finding the correct lyrics and melodies out of all the different versions in the Child collection. The research has been very time-consuming, but well worth the effort.
“This is such a unique collection and it is an honour and privilege to be working with some of Scotland’s best trad musicians.”
New Zealand-born musician Jamie McClennan has many strings to his bow. He is a performer, composer, teacher, producer, agent, graphic designer, chef and coffee fanatic.
Jamie has many years’ experience as a touring musician, playing in line-ups ranging from surf bands to pipe bands to traditional bands.
His debut album In Transit is a collection of tunes he has written over the years travelling and touring around the world.
Jamie said: “The Macmath project is obviously deeply rooted in its connection to Dumfries and Galloway and it’s great to be able to highlight this wealth of fantastic songs from what I’ve often found is quite a forgotten area of Scotland.
“The songs we decided to focus on have really grown legs over the course of our meet-ups and rehearsals and it’s really down to the collection of musicians involved in the project who have put an incredible amount of their own time into researching the songs and writing new music.”
Leading Scottish harper Wendy Stewart is a critically-acclaimed, world class performer. A well-respected and popular harp tutor, Wendy has recorded three solo CDs and produced three books.
She said: “I’m so delighted to be involved in this amazing work to revive a wee bit of local song collecting that has a much wider significance in Scottish culture today.
“Rehearsing and arranging such songs from Macmath with such wonderful singers and musicians has been a real joy and Ali Burns’ long-held ambition to bring the collection alive is well and truly bearing plentiful musical fruit.
“I feel honoured to be part of a team, helping to bring these unknown gems to a wider audience, especially in our home of Dumfries and Galloway.”
Award-winning songwriter and workshop leader Ali Burns, who spearheads the Macmath project, said: “What is most remarkable about the collection is just how local it is to Dumfries and Galloway.
“Macmath’s Grandfather had bought Airds of Kells by Loch Ken in 1826 and the whole family spent much sociable time there together. Mary and Jean Webster – William’s Mother and Aunt – were renowned singers and the songs they sung were learned from local people – the woodsman, nursemaid, kitchen maid, a local fisherman. These songs were written down by Macmath along with notes of the names and sometimes small details about the singers.
“I can’t stress how exciting it is to be singing these songs back to life and what a unique and precious piece of local heritage we’re working with. It’s the singer’s equivalent of finding a trove of buried treasure.”
The project has been commissioned by the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival and the songs will be performed for the first time at the Ryan Centre, Stranraer, on Tuesday, May 26 before moving to the Buccleuch Centre, Langholm, on May 27 and joining a number of other performances at the festival’s grand finale at the Easterbrook
Hall on Sunday, May 31.
Further information on the project can be found at www.macmathsilentpage.com
Tickets for all performances can be purchased from the Midsteeple box office, Dumfries, tel: 01387 253383 or from the venues.
Group photo: On their way to Stranraer: The Macmath musicians Robyn Stapleton, Ali Burns, Claire Mann, Wendy Stewart, Emily Smith, Jamie McClennan and Aaron Jones. Photo by Colin Hattersley.
Bridging the traditional music gap: Claire, Ali, Jamie, Robyn, Wendy, Aaron and Emily. Photo by Colin Hattersley.
