Music
For a great selection of rootsy, lyrical songs inspired by Fife, check out the excellent debut album released today by The Johnstown Flood, aka Dunfermline singer songwriter Stuart Bell. Chasing September’s Tail combines country, folk, blues and Americana and even a touch of ragtime on Brandy Alexander (listen below), a stand out track which sets Stuart’s deeply romantic lyric about a night out with his wife against a lovely, woozy tune
A great music event next week for Dunfermline when legendary songwriter and long term Glen Campbell collaborator Jimmy Webb comes to the Carnegie Hall. Even better, he is supported by David Scott of Pearlfishers. It promises to be a superb night of storytelling and song and it’s a good excuse to post a clip of Galveston which, along with Wichita Lineman, is one of Webb’s finest. The show is at
So exciting to hear a young local musician producing something that’s properly fresh and original. Just listen to the superb, shimmering funk of this virtuoso solo project by Dunfermline’s own Jamie Cooling. Shades of Lewis Taylor combine with Jamie’s own heartfelt idiosyncrasies to create a perfect summer vibe. Classically trained Jamie is off travelling the world with his guitar at the moment, but this is what he has to say
Great new tune from Dunfermline band Franco the Mighty. The band, Michael Williamson on vocals and guitar, Gregor MacEwen on bass, Scott Anstruther on lead guitar and Adam Law on drums, have just recorded a cracking new five track demo which you can listen to below. You can also check them out on Facebook and Twitter.
Gorgeous live classical music on Thursday 21 July as the Chamber Philharmonia of Cologne perform a repertoire of Vivaldi, Bach, Rossini, Paganini and Mozart in the atmospheric setting of Dunfermline Abbey. The show starts at 7.30 and tickets are available from the the Abbey and the Tourist Information Centre in Dunfermline .
On Friday 24 June, Dunfermline band Dancing on Tables have their biggest headline show to date at PJ Molloys – before heading to Glasgow for the opening night of King Tut’s Summer Nights 2016. The band, whose members are Robbie McSkimming Callum Thomas, Hamish Finlayson, Gregor Stobie and Michael Waterworth, recently won Best Live Music Act at Dunfermline Press Awards. Tickets for the Dunfermline gig are £5 and are available
Today is the birthday of the great Ella Fitzgerald who managed to progress from an orphanage, by way of being a teenage lookout at a brothel and a Mafia numbers runner to being the undisputed First lady of American song. Ira Gershwin said, ‘we never knew how good our songs were until Ella Fitzgerald sang them.’
Tae Sup wi a Fifer is a superb series of shows brought to the Adam Smith Theatre by acclaimed Fife musician James Yorkston. On 9 April the show, in an amazingly good line up, features the magnificent Linton Kwesi Johnson, still going strong at 63, and recent winner of the Scottish Album of the Year Award, Kathryn Joseph. Tickets cost £15 and are available here.
Based in cafes in and around Dunfermline town centre, Cafe Music Live provides a friendly and relaxed live music environment for young performers. The concept is the brainchild of local live music organiser Jonathan Cairney who, as a teacher and a musician, was keen to provide both a platform for younger performers and a destination for young music fans. The ‘tea-time’ gigs are free and will feature vocalists, solo musicians,
The weather outside this morning seems to call for this sublime piece by Estonian composer Arvo Part, played here by Nicola Benedetti who describes it as ‘simplicity at its most genuine and most moving.’ The image above, also titled Speigel im Spiegel, is by German artist Christine Gehrke.
