The Catskinners: March 2009

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 20^th 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?”

Wednesday 25 March 2009

New album "Feline Our Way" on the cooker and nice pics from the Star Club

John and I spent the last week cloistered up in the studio laying tracks for a new album to be called "Feline Our Way".

It's a while from completion yet. We need to add some more instrumental parts and re-record the odd bum performance once we've had a good listen to the roughs. There's ten tracks almost completed so far with another four planned, and it'll be a mix of John's own songs and songs from the tradition that we've "skinnered".

Some of it'll have the folk polis apoplectic!

The Star Club floor spot went well last Thursday. We tried out some new stuff that we're putting on the CD and people seemed to like it.

Catskinners skinnering.

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Star Folk Club Thursday 19th March

We're helping out our old pals at the Star Folk Club on Thursday 19th March by doing the opening spot for Steve Turner.

John and I are working on some new stuff and some of that will be geting its first outing that night.

They used to call this floor spotting when I were a lad. It's a good opportunity to try out new stuff in front of an audience, and for young acts it can be good for a bit of exposure and experience.

But it seems it's not a floor spot any more. No sirree. If you believe some of the minor acts around the scene it's "Playing Support", so I suppose we're supporting Steve Turner.

Anyway, whatever you want to call it, Steve's a top notch act and well worth going to see.

The big bonus of course is that you get half an hour of the wonderful Catskinners to kick the evening off so get there early!!!

Wednesday 4 March 2009

A night at Sammy's Monday 2nd March

We did the musical spot at the Southside Writers' at Sammy Dow's bar on Monday night.
The writers meet monthly and there's always a lot of entertaining poetry on offer. We had a great time and a few good laughs.

The MC at Sammys is Gail, who up until a while ago was Ian. This was the first time we'd met Gail since she officially became a woman. I think from that picture John's applied a wee bit of lippy as a gesture of solidarity. It looks good on him dontcha think?

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So who's the Catskinners then?

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