7/6/08
The summer gigs kick of next weekend, with 2 festivals that I'm playing with Paul Tracey on acoustic guitar. The first, on Saturday, in Middlewich, England and the second in Galway, Ireland on Monday night. Its then back to Scotland for the start of the summer tour with Gaelic singer Joy Dunlop, which starts in Blairgowrie on the Thursday night. It would be great to see folk at some of these gigs, so please help spread the word- details on the gigs page.
We had a great night playing to a near-capacity audience through in Torphichen, West Lothian last weekend. There are some videos up of the gig (with myself on harp, Paul on guitar and Andy on double bass) on youtube that you can watch HERE.
2/5/08
I've several gigs coming up soon, including two next week. The first, in The Wighton Centre, Dundee, is a short 30 minute solo concert next Thursday lunchtime (7th May, 1.15pm). Its free so it would be lovely to see some friendly faces at it.
A couple of days later, myself and guitarist Paul Tracey will be travelling up to perform a concert at the Old Brewary in Cromarty. We're really looking forward to
this as we've been told by lots of other musical friends that its a great place to play.
23/1/08
A belated Happy New Year to you all. Things are very busy right now here in Glasgow, with Celtic Connections, the huge winter festival that takes place each January for 19 days. I've already had a gig ... Harp Heaven, which featured 12 of the best harp players on the Celtic Music scene. It recieved fantastic reviews, including a 5***** star one in todays Scotsman. Read my blog HERE to see them.
Yesterday I played a great lunchtime concert at the Black Box in Belfast (lots of folk came which made me very happy) so big thanks to the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival for inviting Paul and myself to play.
Tomorrow I'm playing a few sets at the Iain Anderson in Conversation lunchtime show at Celtic Connections, before flying out to Germany on friday for a gig.
9/11/07
CIRCA COMPANIA...
Karen Tweed warmly invites you to an extraordinary performance of music and dance at the Sage Gateshead this Sunday (11th November) at 8pm. This is the premiere of "Circa Compania" - a circle of Karen Tweed's friends.
Hailing from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Finland the 14 woman will take you on a musical journey, exploring musical cultures, musical genres, interactive movement and traditional craftsmanship.
Featuring...
Karen Tweed: accordion /
Anna Pack: Accordion and dance /
Anna Esselmont: fiddle and song /
Francess Watt: flute and song /
Kerry Fletcher: dance /
Su-a Lee: cello /
Sandra Joyce: bodhran and song /
Muff Lucas: harp /
Rachel Hair: harp /
Maisie Greenwood: fiddle /
Laura Bell: Saxophone /
Shona Harper: dance /
Amy Thatcher: accordion and dance /
Marion Gobel: cello /
8/9/07 Videos on tube....check them out HERE including performaces with Irish harper Laoise Kelly, Canadians The Mcdades and Irish group Grada.
Laoise Kelly and many other harpers will be gathering on Sat 22nd Sept, at Dáil Éireann, to publicly demonstrate the strength of their opposition to the destruction of historic cultural sites at the Tara/Skryne Valley as a result of the current route of the M3 motorway, through County Meath, Ireland. Tara was the gathering place for thousands of harpers to 142 kings, and the harp was an integral part of the ancient Irish parliament at Tara.
Find out more about joining them (with or without harp) HERE and sign the petition onine HERE.
3/8/07 Check out the photo page for the gallery from my latest tour...The Woven Strings Tour, with fab musicians Sarah Naylor and Douglas Millar
29/7/07
Tomorrow a new compilation "Folk Rising" is released by Proper Records. I'm overjoyed to have one of my album track (Maries Tune) on it alongside some great other young folk artists from the UK and Ireland including Teada, Tim Van Eyken and Shona Kipling& Damien O'Kane. It can be bought from various places including HERE at Play.com.
I've just returned from a fantastic Scottish "Woven Strings" tour with fiddler Sarah Naylor. It was a double header tour which saw us both perform solo (and accompanied by Douglas Millar) and together. It was a great success, with packed audiences (several sell-out nights!) and we were over-joyed with the reception we received. Needless to say, we'll definitly be back on tour again in Scotland next summer! Tour photos will be up soon.
15/7/07
I'm a featured artist at Scotloads right now. Its an internet download site here in Scotland, run by a great team in the Highlands. Check it out HERE. You can also download my album from the site.
I'm about to go off on tour with Sarah Naylor and Douglas Millar on our double-header "Woven Strings" tour. Check out the dates on my gigs page and also the tour mini-site which can be reached from the front page of my site.
19/5/07
I'm down in England, near Stafford playing at the Wheaton and Aston Folk Festival. Its been great so far, and thankfully the rain hasn't dampened the spirits of all involved.
I'm off to Switzerland next week to teach and play at the Celtic Days Harp Festival (links on gig page).
I've updated the photo page to in include a gallery of the St Patricks Day Celebration Tour. There'll be more galleries appearing soon!
1/5/07
I've had a busy few months... more gigs in Denmark and France, as well as a 10 day tour of Germany and Switzerland, alongside the McDades from Canada and fellow Scots, Canterach. It was lots of fun...and we even had 5 days of snow! I'll get some photos up soon, but there are various other sites with photos/videos etc of the German tour. Tobias one of our sound engineers has done tour blog (in German) with lots of photos on it. Visit it HERE. I've also done a quick blog on my myspace page which has videos on it, as well as a link to some of the photos the McDades took. Click HEREto see it.
I'm home in Glasgow for a couple of weeks before heading down south to play at the Wheaton and Aston Festival and then over to Switzerland, to teach and play at the Celtic Days Harp festival.
First though, I've a solo concert on May the 13th at House for an Art Lover. This is a beautiful venue (Mackintosh designed) to play and I'm very excited about it.
23/2/07
There's a video uploaded on Youtube of me playing an encore set with Irish group Gráda after our double header gig at Loppen, Copenhagen. Watch it HERE. Thanks to Stine and Stinne for taking it and uploading it.
30/1/07
Hi there and a belated Happy New Year!
Things are very busy here in Glasgow right now as we're in the middle of the Celtic Connections festival. I've had 2 main-stage gigs so far... one where I was playing with Feis Rois and the Celtic Connections Orchestra (in Martyn Bennets MacKays Memoirs) and my solo concert at the Piping Centre.
This coming Saturday I'm playing in a new composition by Mark Sheridan called "Landscapes", at the Strathclyde suite. I'm also playing the festival club on thursday night.
Once the festival finishes I'm off to Belfast to support Mary Black, and then to Denmark where I'm colaborating with pianist Michael Rose for a double header with Irish band Gráda. 12/12/06 I've a 3-page feature in this months "Living Tradition" magazine. I was interviewed by Debbie Koritsas, and the article charts my development as a musician from my days of studying music to the release of my new album. 28/11/06
Be sure to listen in to "Travelling Folk's" joint BBC Radio Scotland (92-95fm) and BBC Radio Ulster (92-95fm) live concert broadcast, this thursday (30th) between 8-10pm. The program is celebrating St Andrews Night, and the musical and cultural connections between Scotland and Ulster (Northern Ireland). I'll be performing a solo set and joining forces with Tyrone uilleam piper, Jarlath Henderson, for a set specially arranged for the night. Also performing are Beoga, Session A9, the Nuala Kennedy Band and the Mick West Band.
21/10/06
Keep your eyes posted for me in various traditional music publications.... the Irish Music Magazine (November issue) has a 2 page feature written by John Brophy, following an interview I had last month in Dublin. The Welsh folk Magazine "Taplas" also has an interview with me and "Folk on Tap" (South of England) has an interview with Lauren McCall and myself, following some gigs we both did back in April.
"Hubcaps and Potholes" has also been getting some great reviews, so be sure to check them out on the review page.
I've just returned from a weeks rehearsing in Denmark with pianist Michael Rose. We're working on a new collaboration, and have some gigs next year, including a tour of Germany. See the gigs page for more details.
1/9/06
I've had a busy few weeks, starting off with playing up at Speyfest in Fochabers...a fantastic festival! My gigs went really well and seeing as I was playing several times I managed to stay for the
weekend and enjoy the beautiful sunshine, fantastic music and great company. Thanks must go to James Alexander and the organisers who made me feel so welcome.
August also meant the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was in full swing, and I played my own concert, organised by Andy Caskie (thanks!) at Palmerston Place Church. There was a great audience and I managed to get Douglas in to join in on a few sets on the piano.
Next weekend I'm playing at the Isle of Gigha Music Festival... its a bit of a road trip, but Douglas is driving so I'll be able to relax in the car for once!
"Hubcaps and Potholes" is now availble to buy in the shops, here in Scotland, and I just returned from Dublin yesterday, where I met with Claddagh Records, who are distributing it in the shops in Ireland... it should be in the stores in a few weeks.
I also managed to combine the trip with an interview with the Irish Music Magazine, which should be published in the coming months.
15/8/06 My new album "Hubcaps and Potholes" is album of the week right now on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal. They'll be playing tracks from it everyday on "Caithream Ciuil" between 2-4pm.
You can listen again at ... www.bbc.co.uk/caithreamciuil
Hi everyone. I hope you like my new website, designed by the multi-talented Iain Hutchison (he also engineered my album!).
The launch of the new site coincides with my new solo album... "Hubcaps and Potholes", which you can now buy online, direct from me, through the shop link. I'm really pleased with how the album has turned out. There are 11 tracks, 7 of which are solo harp, 3 where I'm joined by Douglas Millar on piano, and one with flute player Peter Webster. We had a lot of fun recording it, so I hope you all like it!
I've a few gigs coming up (check gig page for more details), but I'm very excited about Speyfest this weekend. I've several gigs at the festival, including one where I get to support Mercury Prize winner and folk singer, Kate Rusby. Its sold out now, but there are still tickets available for the other gigs.
