Blas Festival -Scottish Highlands in September

[Dagger Gordon]

Perhaps some of you might like to know about Blas which is a festival 'Celebrating The Highlands' from 4th -12th Sept.

Strong line-up with the gigs happening all over the Highlands in small halls, giving you a good excuse to check out some neat wee places you might not think of going to otherwise.

I'm doing 4 gigs with my youngest son Neil who is nearly 17 and plays fiddle and piano as part of a show called Family Ties. The idea here is that father and sons perform, and the line-up on this is Gerry and Donal O'Connor, Duncan and Iain MacGillivray, Calum Alec and Seonie MacMillan and ourselves. Plenty other things worth seeing.

http://www.blas-festival.com/artistes.html

[Ed Lee]

Can I sneak in here since I do have a Scottish heritage (Clan Douglas) and ask what instrument it is, strung like a mandolin with a long neck, a round body and said to be tuned an octave lower than a regular mandolin. I saw one of these purchased at a Scottish Game (VA) here in the U.S. Just curious. Ed Lee

[Dagger Gordon]

It sounds like an octave mandolin, which many bands use nowadays. Also often called a bouzouki or a cittern.

There is in fact a section here on Mandolin Cafe called CBOM (cittern, bouzouki, octave mandolin) which deals with such instruments.

They are not really traditional Celtic instruments but were introduced to Irish music in the late sixties/early seventies and have spread from there.

There was a good programme about this a few years ago on Irish TV, which talks about how the bouzouki was introduced and its role in modern Irish music. Here's a link. Worth watching. Don't be put off by the Irish language.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...53361287&hl=en