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The streets of Edinburgh have for years been synonymous with the sound of the "pibroch", but Bagpipers on the capital's Royal Mile have recently been banned from playing amidst threats of having their instruments seized, or recieving Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (or ASBO's) if they return. City Centre Sector Inspector Bruce Johnston said of the move: "These pipers are regarded as unlicensed trade and are technically buskers. Most of the pipers do not reside in the city centre and they are receiving quite large sums of money from what they are doing. Some of them are coming over from Glasgow, working in shifts and making £80 an hour which they don't pay any tax on so it amounts to quite a good illegal earner."
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Edinburgh Folk Club held it's annual songwriting competition last week, and as ever, saw a packed house eager to hear the latest offerings from the Edinburgh songwriting circuit. John Haldane's 'Fields Of France' performed by Leslie Hale took the top prize, Haldane told the Garden Sessions "...the sentiments are, while not as blatent, similair to what's going on now - men are serving, and not getting treated as they should." John Barrow, who - on top of his work with the Stoneyport agency, Edinburgh Festival's Acoustic Music Centre and various other folkie ventures - was one of the judges at this year's competition. He told the Garden Sessions "...everyone has a song to sing, the question is - are they brave enough to stand in front of an audience, and that's another story." Bob Knight's 'Twa Hearts Entwined' and Hugh Hoffman's 'DIY Song' took 2nd and 3rd place, whilst the audience made their traditional diversion from the judging panel, picking Anne Renshaw's 'The Slender Tree' as their favourite song of the evening.
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Karine Polwart launched her new album 'This Earthly Spell' in the somewhat cosy setting of Edinburgh's Coda Music, the city's only dedicated Folk Music retailer on Friday the 7th of March. The album is the second to be released since the birth of her first son, and follows just 3 months in the footsteps of 'The Fairest Floo'er', released just before Christmas. The chiming opening track of Karine Polwart's This Earthly Spell, a gorgeous vocal setting of a lyric by eminent Scots poet Edwin Morgan, gives way to the steely, swampy "Sorry", whilst the delightful jazz inflected whimsy of "The News" contrasts the anti-nuclear political bite of "Better Things" and the incisive "Painted It White". Unsurprisingly, for a new mum, three songs deal with motherhood. The poignant understatement of "Firethief", which Polwart wrote originally for HIV/AIDS documentary "The Enemy That Lives Within", unravels a mother’s loss; whilst she wrote the tender and delicate "Rivers Run" for her own son. But it’s the eerie and atmospheric parable "Tongue That Cannot Lie" that, most of all, betrays Polwart’s background as a former philosophy teacher, and her ongoing fascination with moral ambivalence. Inspired by the supernatural legend surrounding thirteenth century Scottish Borders poet and prophet Thomas The Rhymer, it also distinguishes her as an ambitious and captivating storyteller.
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