If we define ‘summer’ very loosely as since Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe and I got back from Estonia where we were recording our debut album, it’s been a pretty eventful summer.
We’ve mostly been in the Isle of Man, but still got out and about gigging a fair amount. We kicked it off during the Isle of Man TT with a gig in Ramsey, where we played at The Mitre Hotel , supporting the incredible Francesca May, a local pop musician, and later that week played in The Fyn Bar, a local gin and cocktail bar, with support from local flute superstar and composer extraordinaire Peddyr Cubberley. It’s well worth checking the place out if you’re ever in the Isle of Man, as they often have some incredible live music.
We then took a short trip to the USA and Ireland for a mini-holiday, and to escape the very end of the TT, as it can get quite chaotic with such an increase in population on the island! While we were in Galway, I got to see one of my favourite Irish trad bands, BackWest in the King’s Head pub, and Elizabeth even joined them for a tune!
Since we got back, we’ve been working really hard on getting our album ready – turns out being in the studio is only a tiny part of what goes into a project like this – who knew?! More information on all that in due course.
We were also so excited to finally announce our double tour with Mandotrio, which is coming up very very soon, and tickets are already on sale. We can’t go to Estonia often enough, and there’s nobody we’d rather tour with than Tanel Sakrits, Kristjan Kuusmik and Peeter Priks. Their music is quite different from what we do, but I imagine anyone who’s reading this blog post would really enjoy their stuff (see video).
Summer gigs then continued with a slot at Yn Chruinnaght: Celtic Gathering, where we supported the mighty Mec Lir, with Elizabeth joining the band for their encore. The week continued with a private gig for the closing ceremony of the International Linguistics Olympiad, which this year was held in Castletown, Isle of Man.
I couldn’t let my Yn Chruinnaght experience end just yet though, so I managed to sneak in a fringe gig with Paul Rogers and Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe at The Black Dog Oven in Peel.
Back to album work for now, then, and then I’ll be off to Estonia in a little over a week to teach at Rahvapillilaager Võrumaal.
