Phyllis's Scotland                    

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Friday, September 15, 2006

Heather and I get set up and an amazing group of talented and award winning students sit captured by the stories. The staff is wonderful and a photographer shows up for pictures.

I have underestimated the power of the songs and stories – this is a group of ages from around 6 years to 12 – they all seem entranced.

                                             
       Miming the actions to Pioneer                              Signing the map of Scotland                                Amelia and her friends with me
                Women's Week                                             to go back to Canada

We scurry about to pack our props and head out to The Red Barn. I’ve been looking forward to this. Red Barn was a connection from Anne Pack and then they gave me Ciaran and Heather’s names as contacts. All were recording at Red Barn at the time.

                               
         Outside The Red Barn                                           Grist wheel at Red Barn                                       Inside the Red Barn

Nestled in a country estate, this old ‘red barn’ is fully renovated to house the studio. I enjoyed listening to Anne, Heather and Ciaran on CD and the vocal centred style caught me ear. As well as an engineer, Stuart plays keyboard and bass and lays down these tracks on my song “There’s A Place” . Gillian is a talented harmony singer who gives me several tracks of different voices including a couple bars of “scat”. Heather and Anne add their voices to the chorus. What a moment to to take home!

                                                              
                                                                                                                          
 Gillian, Stuart, Anne and Heather

 

Stuart, adding the actions
to his stories

 

Stuart and Gillian play parts of a 15 minute epic song produced at Red Barn with Jim Malcolm. Based on the famous poem Tam O’Shanter, Stuart acts out part of the story.

We are all entertained by Stuart’s klipe – so here’s one for you:

A young snake comes home in tears and says to mommy snake

“Mommy, the snakes next door won’t let me hiss in their pit”

“Never mind them, son” says the mommy snake, “Why, I remember when they didn’t have a pit to hiss in”

The Red Barn – http://www.redbarn.co.uk/

Another sample of Scottish talent and hospitality.

Heather and I leave for Dunkeld to meet Pat and Richard for the evening.

Heather is a great driver. She is also grrreat at problem solving all the little quirks we have encountered during our time together.

Dunkeld is another village of stone, hedge and hospitality.

We have a drink and are entertained by Jim Malcolm – a Red Barn client (Tam O’Shanter) in the beer garden, beside the beautiful River Tay. The organizers are fund raising and gathering signatures on their petition to save a piece of land destined for development, called Rehallion. (probably not spelled properly)

What a beautiful evening.

Richard says he has seen a plaque on a building nearby that mentions a Canadian.

We go exploring.

                                                         
                               
           Anne and her mini                                                 Pat, Richard and me – Dunkeld pub

 

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