So who's the Catskinners then?

The Catskinners are a folk band from Glasgow who perform a variety of material from the tradition and contemporary sources, as well as original songs written by John McCreadie.

Working on the principle that there is more than one way to perform a song, (hence the name) we have a flexible and adaptable approach to the music where, (depending upon the venue) we can alternate between big orchestral sounding arrangements to intimate moments where we and the audience become close confidantes. We’re able to adapt the complexity of how we present each show to best fit the performance space.

We cover a huge range of styles, including jazz/folk fusion, blues, shanties, traditional ballads, Americana and English chanson using acoustic and electric guitars, various drums and other percussion, concertina, melodeon, harmonicas, and a Roland guitar synthesiser which lets Kenny Caird conjure everything from piano to saxophone to big orchestral backdrops from his guitar.

Similarly we draw our material from a wide range of sources, including the Tradition, Robert Burns, and 20th century writers and poets such as Alistair Hulett, Henry Lawson, and Guy Clark, with a number of John McCreadie’s own songs peppered through the mix.

The current line up is:

John McCreadie: Guitarist, Singer, and Songwriter. Formerly of Diggery Venn, Radical Road, and the Govan Spoonful, and an established solo performer and festival compère, John’s involvement with Scottish folk music spans several decades.
He has a considerable reputation as a songwriter, and his songs have been covered by some of Scotland’s great singers such as Arthur Johnstone, (Doomsday In The Afternoon), and Sheena Wellington (Where Are You Now My Son?)

Kenny Caird: Multi-instrumentalist and Singer. Kenny plays acoustic and electric guitars, guitar synthesiser, chromatic and octave harmonicas, anglo concertina, and button accordion.
With a background in blues rock, Kenny came to the folk scene in the early 1980s after hearing a Dick Gaughan record and deciding he wanted to be part of this music. His use of synthesisers and electric guitars bring a certain unorthodoxy to some of the Catskinners performance.

Trish Caird: Percussionist and Singer. A relative newcomer to the world of performance, Trish has developed her skills at various singers’ sessions around Glasgow before joining forces with Kenny and John. Her percussion playing occasionally raises eyebrows among the traditionalists of the ethnic drum because of her love of using domestic utensils such as pastry brushes as drumsticks. Trish’s attitude is “If it works, why not?”

Book the Catskinners for your club or festival!

For bookings or any other queries:

Ken: 07570829683
John: 07796005934

catskinner@keromail.com

Listen at our Reverbnation Page and become a fan!

http://www.reverbnation.com/thecatskinners/

Visit our forum!

http://catskinners.myfastforum.org/

Sunday, 30 November 2008

The Johnny Cash Fulsom Prison show


The Johnny Cash at Fulsom Prison Show was last night at the Glasgow Media Access Centre.

Andy Brammer from Wakefield came up and delivered a narration and sang a selection of Johnny Cash songs. We were the backing band, and we did a few of the songs ourselves. That's Andy on the far right of the pictures.


The audience were very appreciative and we had a rerr wee night.

We'd only met Andy on Thursday and there was hardly any rehearsal time so it was real seat of the pants stuff. Great fun though.

Big thanks to GMAC and the SWP for hosting the event.
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Monday, 24 November 2008

Wobbly Songs - Fanning the flames of discontent.

The Glasgow Songwright festival is running in January 2009, again in parallel with Celtic Connections.

As a part of this we'll be putting on our Wobbly Songs show on the Sunday 18th of January in Dow's in Dundas Street.

This was pretty successful last year especially in the light of John taking ill and Steven Clark going on holiday, so we had to do the thing with just me and a bunch of press-ganged pals at no notice, and no rehearsal time. It was a big busk.

It's a testament to the talents of Jim King, Jim McKenna, and Dave Featherstone that we carried that gig off and people generally agreed it was a good show.

Well Songwright have asked us to do it again, which is nice, so we'll try to make sure John's there and we have a complement of guests joining us.

Detils of timing and tickets will appear on the Songwright website in due course.

Ken.
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1968 Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison event

We're playing a fundraiser for Cultures of Resistance on Saturday 29th November at the GMAC cinema in Glasgow.

This is down to Ally Hulett reccommending us to Andy Brammer who's organising it.

It's a night of songs and narrative celebrating .................

Johnny Cash.

Erm.

I was never that fond of Johnny Cash and as a result his music largely passed me by in my journeys with the muse, but I'm a trouper (translate as musical whore) and I'll have a go.

John has no trouble with this. His house is wall to wall records and cds and there's some Johnny Cash stuff in there - and he knows the songs. (If you know John you'll understand why I'm not surprised he knows these songs.)

However, getting involved with this has made me have a closer look at Cash and his work. A lot of the songs are good political statements.

It didn't occur to me that he was a bit of a lefty. Well you live and learn.

Timing, ticket prices etc TBC

More later

Ken
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