Saturday 15 November 2014

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance..........possibly

,Bought two albums this week, although "album" is possibly an anachronism. Let's just call them "downloads" , after all with a finite amount of room aboard. It's just music to my iPad.
I was and I am not ashamed to admit it looking forward with huge anticipation to Pink Floyds new Album ,record, release or whatever, The endless river. Of course being a diehard fan I opted for the deluxe all singing and dancing version which I actually downloaded courtesy of our hosts at the B&B in Horwich. It was however several days later that I actually listened to it.
However in the meantime I had also downloaded an album record or whatever by an obscure Scottish musician called Mike Vass, the music in question is called " In the wake of Niel Gunn"


Mike unfortunately became quite ill after being bitten, and contracted lymes disease. After his recovery he undertook a voyage following the voyage of Neil Gunn in 1937. This trip of Neil's with his wife is the subject of his book ' Off in a boat' which is a very honest and often amusing account both of a not very experienced sailor and the west coast characters of half a century ago, a sort of Para Handi meets Whisky Galore. It kickstarted Neil's literary career and he went on to become a successful novelist.
Although not well known outside his native land Neil Gunn is widely appreciated in Scotland.
Mike Vass apparently composed most of this music on the recreation of Neil's voyage and is a mix of modern and traditional musical styles, if you ever sail the west coast this is the soundtrack. Trust me.
£22,000 of Arts council grant well spent! There are numerous sites a Google search will throw up but it is especially worth finding the you- tube videos of the trip.

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