Maggie Adamson

Maggie Adamson is a fifteen-year old fiddler from the Shetlands. She has a wonderful gift and already plays the fiddle like a professional.

Enjoy Maggie and Brian Nicholson playing ‘The President,’ composed by J. Scott Skinner. Maggie was only thirteen when she performed this.

She maks the fiddle greet.

The English American. A novel by Alison Larkin.

I met Alison on March 30, when she was performing her comedy routine and reading from her novel of the same name, ‘The English American.’ Alison was performing as part of a fund-raising for PACT.

‘The English American’ comes from Alison’s own experience of being born in USA, and adopted by British parents (English mother, Scottish father.)

As a Scot and an adoptee, I related to so many of the witty observations Alison made in the novel. I want everyone to buy this book, so I won’t give away the plot, but I have a few teasing comments to tempt you.

Pippa (the heroine) grew up with a father who enjoyed Scottish country dancing.

I loved the description of an evening of dancing in the local village hall. One character says, “I’ll tell you the secret to Scottish dancing.”—”You need to count, you see. I still count, even though I’m an expert.”

Yes! We Scots count the steps at the dancing. “ROUND for eight, BACK for eight! 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-TURN!”

But the book’s main purpose is to talk about the adoption experience, for all concerned. I need to talk about my feelings about this in another blog.

But, in the meantime, we’ll dance. Set to your partner, pas de basque and turn!

Alison uses ‘pas de basque,’ but I grew up with the spelling of the step ‘pas de bas.’ We pronounce it ‘paddyba!’ This is just more to talk about!

Sir Jimmy Shand, MBE

Fowk fa ken me weel, will nae doot be wonerin fit wye I’ve nae mentioned the late Sir Jimmy Shand.

Sir Jimmy Shand would have been 100 years old on Monday, January 28th.

There have been many celebrations, including Robbie Shepherd’s “Take the Floor,” which was broadcast on Radio Scotland on Saturday, February 2nd.

This programme will be available on the Internet for the rest of the week.

Robbie Shepherd and his Doric Column

Thanks to a fellow W.A.G. (Wee Annie’s Gang), who emailed me the information, I can listen to Robbie Shepherd’s Doric Column on an Internet podcast. I also listen to his 2 weekly shows, ‘Take the Floor,’ and ‘The Reel Blend,’ in which he presents the best in Scottish dance music.

‘Take the Floor’ airs on BBC Radio Scotland on Saturday evenings and opens with the  reel, ‘Kate Dalrymple.’ This reel opened the programme when I listened to it in Scotland, over 50 years ago. Obviously, Robbie wasn’t the presenter then!

So, between listening to Los Dos Andies, Mack‘n’Ross, and now Robbie, I get as much Scottish music as I want.

If you’ve never heard a Doric Column before, go to the Press and Journal website for a list of podcasts and download the latest Robbie Shepherd offering.