The Maggie MacInnes Trio
Celtic Connections Festival, Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Maggie performs material from her previous six albums and currently-in-progress seventh, including a few Scots songs, accompanied by Brian McAlpine (piano/accordion) and Anna Massie (guitar).

To book tickets click here: www.celticconnections.com

Anna Massie
Equally at home as accompanist or melody player, Anna Massie is one of Scotland’s foremost guitarists. A skilled multi-instrumentalist, she also excels on the fiddle and mandolin. As well as being a member of Blazin’ Fiddles and The Unusual Suspects and working in a duo with the fantastic Mairearad Green, the past few years have seen her perform with her own band, Kate Rusby, Karen Matheson, Capercaillie and Eddi Reader. Three time nominee for Best Instrumentalist at the Scots Trad Music Awards (2005, 2008 and 2010), she is a talented musician and “another wonderful example of how youth embraces and refreshes traditional culture. Excellent." Graham Radley, Netrhythms. CONTACT: info@annamassie.com

Brian Mcalpine
Brian has now appeared on more than 40 albums and performed with many fine musicians including The Chieftains, Ry Cooder, Session A9, 2004 Gaelic singer of the year Maggie MacInnes, 2010 Gaelic singer of the year Eilidh MacKenzie, The Pearlfishers, Iron Horse, Ray Wilson,The Unusual Suspects Alyth and Jerry Lee Lewis among many others.

Working as Musical Director, Brian has had great success with the ambitious 'Flower of the West' at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 'The Gordon Duncan Memorial Concert', as Scottish MD with Indian Master musician Trilok Gurtu for the opening of Perth Concert Hall and most recently MD with Karine Polwart for 'The Scottish Songbook' concert at Celtic Connections 2010 featuring Session A9 as the house band and appearances by Ricky Ross, BA Robertson, Michael Marra and king Creosote.

Highly regarded as a writer, arranger and producer, Brian has worked on music for theatre, TV documentary, commercials and most recently was Musical Director/ Composer for the feature film 'You Instead' shot at T-in the Park 2010 by David MacKenzie

The Carrying Stream Festival, Edinburgh
November 10, 2011
Oddfellows Hall – Malones Irish Bar, Forrest Rd, Edinburgh
Tickets: £15:00, £12:00 (conc), £10:00 (members)

Maggie will be part of a concert to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the First People’s Festival Ceilidh (in which Maggie's mother, Flora MacNeil, took part). Maggie will be performing along with Phil Cunningham, Sheila Stewart, Jean Redpath, Margaret Bennett, Jock Duncan, Scott Gardiner, Steve Byrne, Lucy Pringle & Chris Wright, Donald MacKay, Talitha MacKenzie.

www.carryingstreamfestival.co.uk

Blas Festival
September 10, 2011
Strontian
www.blas-festival.com

Maggie will be performing The Seedboat with Colum Sands on Saturday 10th September in Strontian as part of the Blas Festival 2011

The St. Mungo Festival
Multi-Cultural Gala Concert
January 8, 2011 • 7.30pm start
St. Andrews in the Square
Glasgow

The festival takes the theme Mungo's Bairns and explores what it means to be Glaswegian. For more information visit www.stmungofestival.com

“The Seedboat sails from Barra shore, young Donald’s gone to Newry
And though he swears a swift return, till then she’ll miss him dearly...”

These lines are from a beautiful bitter-sweet love song that has inspired two musicians from either end of The Seedboat’s voyage to embark on an exciting new journey of music and song. The song is one of the great treasures of the Scottish Gaelic tradition and now, some two centuries after it first saw light of day, it sails again as Maggie MacInnes and Colum Sands invite you to find a seat amidst the cargo of clàrsach, guitar and a bi-lingual blend of songs old and new celebrating the musical bridges between Ireland and Scotland.

A new CD of the music from the show will be released in August on Colum's record label, Spring Records.

Maggie's most recent CD
A Fàgail Mhiughalaigh (Leaving Mingulay)
is now available from the Recordings page via PayPal

In 2007 I was asked to provide music for a documentary being made by MNE Media and commissioned by BBC Scotland, all about the island of Mingulay. The island lies about twelve miles south of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and was last inhabited in 1912. I was delighted to get involved in this project as I have close family connections with the island and have always had a fascination for the place. My great-grandparents on my mother’s side, Michael Gillies and Cairistiona Gillies née MacNeil, were from Mingulay and some of my granny’s siblings were born there before the family moved to Barra in 1883.

Maggie's great granny, Cairistiona Gillies née MacNeil

The Mingulay side of my family has always been rich in music, song, stories and folklore and so it was with particular interest that I looked more closely into the lives of the people on the island. Their struggle to survive in such a remote, windswept, beautiful but harsh place in a fast changing world supported only by their strong sense of community and their faith, is a powerful and moving story.

The music on this CD includes some of the music from the documentary (called “A Fàgail Mhiughalaigh”) which has, with the kind permission of MNE Media and MGAlba, been added to, re-arranged and re-mixed. I have also added some entirely new tracks.

Ruins on Mingulay

Maggie pictured in the ruins of the old church, which was
the only two story building on Mingulay