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I am a musician, artist, writer, researcher, history geek and lover of stories.
Home for me is the Highland village of Evanton, just north of Inverness on the shore of the Cromarty Firth. I am happy to have returned to live and create in the Highlands and am constantly inspired by the landscape, history and culture of the area. I developed a love of music and dance from a young age, and the local feisean provided me with the opportunity to nurture this passion. I attended the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music and later the University of Limerick, Cape Breton University and the University of the Highlands and Islands. I’m lucky to have been a founding member of the band The Outside Track, with whom I have toured extensively. The Outside Track combine Scottish, Irish and Cape Breton traditional music and songs and have toured throughout Canada, USA, Germany, France, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, UK, Ireland, Australia and India. The band won ‘Best Group’ category in both the Live Ireland and ‘Tradition In Review’ awards and won the German Radio Critics’ Prize for the album’ Flash Company’. I also have the pleasure of working with Irish concertina player Caroline Keane, with Scottish Borders singer and fiddler Lori Watson, and with Scottish Highlands and Islands band Beira. I’ve also had the opportunity to collaborate with French /Irish/Scottish fusion band Voyage de Nuit, with Norweigian accordion player Hilde Fjerdingøy, Swedish musicians Anna Lindblad and Adam Johansson and several others over the years. I am also an artist and writer. I have continued throughout my touring career and nomadic living to create art and write inspired by travel and experiences. I recently completed a MLitt in Highlands and islands Culture that reengaged a love of archive research in several subjects. I have been able to work as a freelance researcher for several small heritage and folklore projects. I have also been slowly working on “Everything Worth Seeing”, a narrative non-fiction work retracing Sarah Murray’s 1796 journey through Scotland (recently long-listed for the Nan Shepherd Prize). I create art in various mediums but works mainly in linocut prints and am currently combining my passion for Scottish history and linocut printing; Creating a series of prints inspired by Scottish women. Several of this collection were commissioned for a recent exhibition in Stirling’s Tolbooth Arts Centre called ‘A Tale of Tolbooth’. |