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Tag Archives: Perth


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Can you twang? Can you pick a country blues guitar?

crumb-hurt-2

If you can, head over to our client Marie Marshall’s poetry blog and see if you can put a tune to some words she came up with one night.

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ClareTalking of twanging guitars, It’s festival time here in Scotland, and Paul is out-and-about. If you spot him at The Foodies Festival in Inverleith Park, Edinburgh, or at the International Book Festival in Charlotte Square, or at Edinburgh Fringe events such as Harry Venning’s ‘Release Your Inner Cartoonist’ (the Pleasance, Venue 33) rubing shoulders with ‘Clare’ (see opposite), say hello! The twanging of guitars was what was happening at Perth’s Southern Fried Festival, which took place over the last weekend in July. It is Scotland’s biggest celebration of Americana and regularly hosts musical acts from both sides of the Atlantic. Paul was visiting on behalf of the Scottish review site ‘The Mumble’, and managed to see, and in many cases meet, some really interesting musicians, along with other  festival-goers. There were performances from the likes of Martha Fields, aka ‘Texas Martha’, Black Diamond Express, Yola Carter, Imelda May, Dean Owens, Daniel Meade & the Flying Mules, Amythyst Kiah, Andy Fairweather-Low, and many more.

2016-07-28 09 Southern Fried

One exciting pre-festival event was a press and media briefing, and premier of American Epic, a four-part documentary series which will be shown this coming winter on BBC4 in the UK and PBS in the USA. The documentary, which took ten years research, uses hitherto undiscovered archive material, and documents not only the sudden flood of recordings of blues, bluegrass, and other grassroots music, but the technology that gave rise to it – along with the reason why so much of both the archive and the technology was lost during the Depression and World War 2. Co-writer and producer Allison McGourty was interviewed after the premier, and took part in a question-and-answer session.

2016-07-28 10 Allison McGourty

Allison McGourty interviewed in Perth Concert Hall.

Paul says, “I look forward to this festival every year, and every year it seems to go from strength to strength.” Amongst the highlights for him were “… meeting and talking to Yola Carter and Martha Fields, both of whom were utterly charming… getting to know Marc Marnie, the larger-than-life photographer, who has been photographing musicians since 1977… hearing Imelda May live… eating soul food… chatting to Lloyd Reid about Hofner arch-top guitars…” Some of Paul’s memories of the weekend are captured in the photos here.

2016-07-29 02 Pete Caban

Scottish bluesman Pete Caban

2016-07-29 05 Texas Martha

Texas Martha and the House of Twang

2016-07-29 17 Soul food

Some of the soul food on offer.

2016-07-30 01a Black Diamond Express#

Black Diamond Express.

2016-07-30 15 Yola Carter*

Yola Carter.

2016-07-30 21 Imelda May*

Imelda May.

2016-07-31 01 Yola Carter

It’s Yola’s birthday!

2016-07-31 15 Daniel Meade*

Daniel Meade & the Flying Mules.

2016-07-31 17 Daniel Meade (h)

The Flying Mules’ amazing guitarist, Lloyd Reid.

Images © Paul Thompson / Bookseeker Agency


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August is Festival Month

Bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart at Perth Southern Fried.

Bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart at Perth Southern Fried.

It seems that August is a rare old month for festivals here in Scotland, festivals of everything and anything. Bank Holiday weekend kicked off with Southern Fried in Perth, a celebration mainly of American Roots music, but these days seemingly taking in everything from food to hot rod cars. The gigs at Perth Concert Hall and other venues around the town are pretty darned good – you can read reviews of some of them here, here, and here.

Hot on the heels of Southern Fried comes the Pittenweem Arts Festival. This is another event that seems to have grown over the years. From fairly humble beginnings it now takes over the whole of the picturesque town in the East Neuk of Fife, with resident artists opening their homes and studios for the public to traipse in and out, or renting space in shops, halls, lock-up garages, anywhere. As well as the official venues, a strong ‘Fringe‘ has developed, until it seems as though there is no longer any space left anywhere.

Meanwhile, of course Edinburgh Festival has been getting underway in the Capital, with its own famous Fringe too. By the last couple of weeks of the month the Edinburgh International Book Festival will be full swing in Charlotte Square, with talks, book signings, literary discussions, interviews, and many other events. Bookseeker Agency‘s own Paul Thompson has been at Perth and Pittenweem, and will be at the Book Festival too reviewing some of the events and meeting people, so keep an eye open for him. Check the Contact page on this web site for a photo.

So far the Scottish weather has been fairly kind for festival-goers. Let’s hope that continues.

Hot rod cars at Perth Southern Fried.

Hot rod cars at Perth Southern Fried.

Artists Lesley Haycock and Chloe Brown at Pittenweem.

Artists Lesley Haycock and Chloe Brown at Pittenweem.

Flowers, near St Fillan's Cave, Pittenweem.

Flowers, near St Fillan’s Cave, Pittenweem.

Edinburgh Book Festival atmosphere - queues are part of the culture!

Edinburgh Book Festival atmosphere – queues are part of the culture!