Alasdair Roberts revives Galoshins: tour

Subject: Alasdair Roberts revives Galoshins: tour
From: GUEST,tracer trails
Date: 11 Oct 11 - 10:24 AM

Hi there - I hope this announcement might be of interest to some readers in the UK.

Alasdair Roberts (Drag City/Navigator) and Shane Connolly have created a new interpretation of the Scottish folk play Galoshins based on material unearthed during a residency in the School of Scottish Studies Archives.

See them on tour this month! Details as follows...


Tracer Trails presents
ARCHIVE TRAILS:
New music & performances inspired by
The School of Scottish Studies Archives

with
ALASDAIR ROBERTS and SHANE CONNOLLY
WOUNDED KNEE
& AILEEN CAMPBELL

www.archivetrails.com
www.tracertrails.co.uk

----------

On tour October 2011!

Oct 13 : Peebles, Eastgate Arts Centre
Oct 14 : Perth Concert Hall, Norrie Miller Studio
Oct 15 : Cupar Arts Festival
Oct 16 : Edinburgh, Scottish Storytelling Centre
Oct 17 : Aviemore, Old Bridge Inn
Oct 18 : Tobermory, An Tobar
Oct 19 : Rosehall, The Achness Hotel
Oct 23 : London, Cafe OTO
Oct 28 : Glasgow, CCA


This month, see three very different musicians performing new work inspired by an extraordinary sound archive in Edinburgh.

Alasdair Roberts (Drag City / Navigator Records), Wounded Knee (Benbecula Records) and Aileen Campbell spent three months in residence in the School of Scottish Studies Archives this spring, devising new performances in response to the School's vast collection of field recordings of traditional songs, tales and oral history.

Alasdair Roberts takes a natural and wonderful step forward in his practice as a songwriter and composer with a new multidisciplinary performance based on the folk play Galoshins. Galoshins was once performed by groups of children around Halloween or Hogmanay in the Borders and Central Scotland, but the custom died out in the early 20th century and today the play exists only as a few recordings of reminiscences and a handful of textual accounts. Alasdair's Galoshins is an amalgamation of texts, a patchwork piece incorporating the elemental 'script' of the folk drama, the catechism of a diabolic initiation rite, a wonder tale and several Scots ballads and songs performed on guitar, accordion and hurdy-gurdy. Alasdair has collaborated with drummer and puppeteer Shane Connolly (www.sokobauno.com) to bring the play back to life with fantastical costumes and puppetry - a very exciting departure for this internationally acclaimed folk singer and songwriter.

Meanwhile, Aileen Campbell and Wounded Knee have each found themselves entranced by the conversations between fieldworkers and contributors captured on tape in the Archives. Aileen, an improviser and performance artist, has challenged herself to perform publicly the normally private task of song-learning, while experimental vocalist Wounded Knee invites us to play fieldworker to his 'informant', exploring his personal, 21st century repertoire of songs and stories and following his own Archive Trail to the darker corners of the catalogue, through folk revivalism, popular song, and the language and lore of east coast fisheries.

Expect a phantasmogorical interweaving of song, drama and story, and some diabolical happenings!


For more information:
www.archivetrails.com
www.tracertrails.co.uk

Subject: RE: Alasdair Roberts revives Galoshins: tour
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 11 Oct 11 - 11:38 PM

Should be worth a look. Nowhere near enough for me, alas.

I was lucky enough a few years ago to see Stan Reeves' presentation of "Galoshins" at the Edinburgh Festival. Of all the shows on the fringe that year, it's the one I would have picked to see (I used to play music for various Mummers' plays with the Cod End Mummers of Fleetwood, Lancashire) and by coincidence it was the one thing that my Edinburgh host had booked for us. Their play provided a context and setting for an internal performance of this Scottish version of the mummers' play.

Any chance of a video/audio record of the performances being made?

Ross

Subject: RE: Alasdair Roberts revives Galoshins: tour
From: GUEST,tracer trails
Date: 12 Oct 11 - 04:13 AM

Hi Ross

Yes, Ali consulted Stan Reeves about his reworked script for the play. Unfortunately I never saw Stan's revival, but I wish I had - I've seen photographs, and the costumes look tremendous.

We're going to make a professional audio recording of the performances which I hope should eventually see a release, and a slightly more slapdash video recording that may not. I'll post back here once I know what's happening with those.

Thanks,

Emily / Tracer Trails