Grantown's 'album of the year' celebration
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Strathspey favourite Hamish Napier is celebrating another major accolade after the weekend's Scots Trad Music Awards.
Hamish Napier's superb album The Woods took the top album prize.
He posted: "Some lovely news on Saturday - my third solo album The Woods was awarded Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards.
"Thank you so much to all those who voted for me and to those who have supported me this year by following my music.
"Congratulations to all the other nominees and winners."
Napier added to the good news announcing: "The Woods are expanding further - today I have just released a new digital EP on Bandcamp with several new bonus tracks for The Woods, called The Schawaldouris."
The Schawaldouris, pronounced "shaw-wall-dow-er-is", is a very old Scots word meaning 'wanderers in the woods'.
"Thanks to artist and writer Amanda Thomson (author of A Scots Dictionary of Nature) for telling me about this wonderful word! Humans and the forests evolved together, side by side. We are truly forest creatures."
The EP has nine tracks and features collaborations with some of the Grantown folk legend's very favourite people:
"Two tracks with master Highland fiddle player Duncan Chisholm and Scottish Chamber Orchestra cellist Su-a Lee,
a traditional story from brilliant Scottish storyteller David Francis, accompanied by a soundtrack made from a montage of half a dozen tracks from The Woods. Arranged and remixed by the amazing Andrea Gobbi, two of my own recent poems, four very atmospheric woodland sound samples captured by nature sound recordists Pete Smith and Peter Stronach. A song thrush, a roe deer, an owl, a robin and the patter of raindrops on the forest canopy at dawn.
"I would love to hear your thoughts on this EP. It is only available on Bandcamp, because they are the good guys that look after us musicians."
The weekend's Scots awards were broadcast in a vibrant programme put together and aired exclusively on BBC ALBA. Hosted by Alistair Heather and Mary Ann Kennedy, award winners were announced along with specially-recorded music performances from some of traditional music’s top luminaries, including The Iona Fyfe Trio, Project Smok, Deirdre Graham, Jarlath Henderson and Karen Matheson as well as Phil Cunningham and many more.
The event had been set to take place in Dundee’s Caird Hall but with live music and event restrictions in place for the foreseeable future, Hands Up for Trad worked to support artists and provide an alternative platform, culminating in two special programmes of Na Trads on BBC ALBA.
Joy Dunlop presented the inductees to the Hall of Fame on Friday evening, followed by the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards themselves on Saturday. The awards will be shown again on BBC ALBA at 9pm on Saturday 18th December and will be available on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days.
