The Making of my Summer Isles Album #8
On Thursday 30th April, I went over to Tanera to get some album photos by local photographer, Peter Haring. We had canceled the session earlier in the week as the weather was so bad but we could not have hoped for a better day on Thursday. There was a good breeze but it was glorious sunshine the whole afternoon. I am very happy with the photos that Peter took that afternoon and they will make a strong basis for the album cover design.
I wrote the final track for the album after Highland Seashore Biodiversity Project commissioned me to write the music for a seashore themed film by Andy Jackson at SubseaTV. I was so happy with the piece that I really wanted to include it on this album and the Highland Seashore Biodiversity Project were thankfully delighted for me to do so. The film is so beautifully shot and it is fanscinating to see the life from our shorelines. The track is called Island Folk after life above and below water and this will be the opening track on the album!On the first day back in the studio we recorded the accordion backing and melody for Island Folk and it instantly became exciting to build on. The next day, talented musician and composer, Hector MacInnes came to the studio to record vocals for Grace Darling, Home and The Island. Hector has just released a new solo album, you can hear his music here.Later in the week we recorded backing vocals for some of the songs. I was delighted that Annie Grace, Jeanna Leslie and Hamish Napier were able to drop by and sing their hearts out on some of the choruses. Island Folk was crying out for a fiddle to play the melody so I asked Mike Vass to pop in. Poor Mike was put on the spot with this difficult fiddle melody in 5/8 but he made it sound brilliant.At the end of this week we recorded Stone and Struggle live with vocal and accordion and then a piano part also and we also recorded the pipes for the Pibroch.Thanks for reading! At this stage, most of the album is recorded other than a clarinet part for Red Throated Diver and Stone and Struggle and the lead vocal for Star of Hope. Find out who I managed to get for this in my next blog!This album was made possible with support from Creative Scotland. 