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The Guardian newspaper ran a blog on Saturday, that, without paraphrasing, Folk Music, once thought of as parochial, is now cool. Thats as may be, but who gets to decide, and aside from that, I don't think its stretching anything too much to say that folk music has been "cool" in Scotland for a long time at least for a significant minority of people. Maybe something gets to be classified as hip when it starts to enter the consciousness of a more mainstream audience, but then by definition it has stopped being hip or cool long before that point as for anything to get anywhere near that level it has to be adopted by "the man" first, man!

Heres the real truth from my point of view, anyway. Folk music in Scotland has never been hip or cool, but by the same hand has never not been hip or cool...I don't think Ive ever been to party where someone hasnt sung a song that would be associated with folk music for instance the ubiquitous Wild Mountain Thyme or Caledonia, or maybe a less welll known regional song, which would suggest that folk music has always had a mainstream adoption, which of course it has although, there has been a stigma in the past with confessing to a liking of folk music or being a folk musician. This seems to be gone for the time being, but I think what the Guardian blog refered to, wouldnt directly be folk music itself, but the songer -songwriters working within the folk umberalla, including the excellent Alasdair Roberts.

So is folk the new Americana and Americana the new britpop which was the new grunge which was the new indie rock etc etc etc etc, that its officially OK to enjoy. Who cares?

Frailing Banjos

After toying with the banjo for the last couple of years, i recently decided to get into a bit further and bought a Gold Tone frailing banjo at palm guitars in Amsterdam. This decision was taken while I was on a recent Dutch tour playing guitar for singer-songwriter, davie Lawson. I found myself in Amsterdam with a day off, and what better way to spend a day off in Amsterdam than to have a few beers at Mulligans Bar. Whilst in Mulligans, I got talking to fiddle player, Siard De Jong, who was getting a tenor banjo imported fro him by Palm guitars so I went over the canal to have a look and buoyed on by half a dozen pints of continental strength beer felt the courage of my banjo convictions like never before and bought a Gold Tone OT-800.

Anyway, the point of this isnt to boast about a new instrument but mention the best music instruction site i've ever found on the web. I often look around at other peoples instructional sites (as I have one of my own!) and found a site run by banjo player Tony Spadarro called Rocket Science Banjo. On Tony's site, you can download a 300 odd page PDF of very detailed instruction on all points of playing clawhammer banjo, which is enhanced by audio and video tutorials. And the charge for all this...nothing... There is a button to donate $20 to the site at the side of the page which I decided to do as everything is of such a high standard, and in return for this I got a personal email from Tony and several hundred more tunes and instructional notes. I'm just trying spread the Rocket Science banjo word...

Potted Heid

So it all ended in tears on Sunday night for the Netherlands, our Dutch friends and by default us too. You couldnt help but get dragged into the final watching with Dutch friends, particularly when they've bought you orange T-shirts and matching sun glasses, and when Spain scored, I really felt it at least for a few minutes anyway. Interestingly it seemed that most Scots had adopted a team for the final, with the majority supporting Spain, perhaps proving that there is no real thing as neutrailty in football or perhaps proving that a quick trip to Ladbrokes or William Hills gives watching a game a little bit extra.
Speaking of the World Cup and sporting events in general theres been a few more cuts to arts funding in Scotland, probably not unrelated to the impending Commonwealth Games....I like sports and big sporting events. A lot, but there has to be a balance and unless I have this uttelry wrong, which can never be discounted, there is more to a balanced society than just high end sporting events. I've read a lot of things before the World Cup started on a similar subject given how much South Africa had to spend to get its stadiums and everything else up to Scratch, and here's an article on the subject from a new online magazine, Aberdeen Voice focussing on the North East, of which our friend and North-east music legend Fred Wilkinson is involved. I played in a couple of bands with Fred when i lived in Aberdeen, not least the eclectic and off the wall Potted Heid, named after a north east delicacy of potted sheeps brains...almost makes deep fried mars bars seem haut-cuisine

BBC Radio 6

Its a little bit old news by now, but the BBC have decided not to get rid of BBC6 music (hypebot Music Blog). The decision to axe a popular and innovative radio station seemed very strange at the time, especially when you consider that the vast bulk of the BBC televisions programming seems to be endless soaps and reality shows. So there we go...a rare vote for common sense, and if Scotland could just get it together to qualify for the next world cup things would be looking good. We at Doghouse Roses HQ can't help but be a bit jealous of the scenes from the Netherlands last night as they reached they're first world cup final in over 30 years, but its a bit gaulling to think thats its highly unlikely that we as Scottish supporters will experience what it feels like to progress to the latter stages of the world cup. We will, however be watching the final on Sunday with our Dutch friends, Matthijs and Rachelle, which is pretty close and if the BBC can make a U-turn on axeing radio 6, then perhaps hell can freeze over and Scotland qualify for the World Cup finals or even (maybe pushing a little bit too much here) for the knock-out stages. We await the weather forecast patiently

Skerryvore

Went to see traditional / rock/ country band Skerryvore last night, as the O2 Abc in Glasgow. They are a young band who run their own record label, book their own shows and very nearly sold out the 1250 capacity venue. Normally a six piece of guitar, accordion, fiddle, pipes, drums and bass, they were joined on keys by Alan Scobie who recorded and produced the new Skerryvore album (and the new Doghouse Roses record too!) as well as a brass section and a bit of a pipe band. I heard a bit of the Heartbreakers (tom Petty's band) in the way they play and a really lazy comparison is an early runrig but you can check them out at the Skeryyvore Website, and more about Alan's studio at the Blue Productions website. As of today (Friday 2nd July), Skerryvore's next few gigs are Dunoon, Scotland tonight, The Isle of arran, Scotland (3rd), Shanghai (China!!!!) 5th, before T in the Park festival next week....who says bands don't work like they used to...

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