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Michael's first ever performance in Oldmeldrum Town Hall with its unique village hall piano[ some notes were missing] which added to the fun.

also gives you an opportunity to hear Michael debut: a number of songs which went on to become firm favourites on his setlist.

Michael provides his distinctive vocals as a guest on other folk's albums.

pulls some of these performances together.

This radio broadcast features Michael and brother Christopher performing as a duo. First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland

[size=14] shows that unique chemistry only reserved for siblings. The Stanley Brothers, The Everly Brothers, Charlie and Ira Louvin, The Delmore Brothers etc.[/size]

Michael's debut album released on Polydor and now a bit of a collector's item along with the two singles released off the album, The Midas Touch/Sleepwalking and Hooky's Little Eyes/Foolish Boy. Plus some other artistes covers of songs from The Midas Touch plus tracks from Michael's unreleased Polydor album
produced by Mike Vernon.

The album is dedicated to Alice

http://www.musical1.com/uploads/1/midas-touch- album.jpg" alt="img" title="img">

http://www.musical1.com/uploads/1/midas-touch- album.jpg" alt="img" title="img">
Have a listen to

Rehearsal tapes and studio demos from the Skeets Boliver years with Michael Marra, Christopher Marra, Stewart Ivins, Angus Foy, Peter McGlone and Brian McDermott

url=http://www.musical1.com/play.php?mode=radio&id=29][color=orange]The Skeets Boliver Years[/url]

The answers to the lyric quiz set by Mary Masson -

1. By his side his adze and compass - The Lonesome Death of Francis Clarke - Posted Sober 2. On the dark side of Dunoon - Big Wide World Beyond The Seedlies - The Mill Lavvies 3. Due to isotopes of Thorium and Alpha types of ray - Silence - Silence 4. Deeved about the life they choose - Niel Gow's Apprentice - On Stolen Stationery 5. Will you breathe our air and witness our efforts - The Angus Man's Welcome to Mary Stuart - Gaels Blue 6. I'd rather be in Elgin, it's a better class of cold and wet - I Don't Like Methil 7. The best laid plan between Men and Mice - Pius Porteous - Posted Sober 8. Stalwart and brave Caledonian Hotel - Under The Ullapool Moon - On Stolen Stationery 9. Batten down the four leaf clover - Like Another Rolling Stone - On Stolen Stationery 10. That the gowd in the tike has taen a thin disguise - The Bawbee Birlin' - On Stolen Staionery 11. He takes a deep breath and he seethes - Beefheart and Bones - Pax Vobiscum 12. Let them gather up their brows and their old wives tales - Chain Up The Swings - Pax Vobiscum 13. The leaves kept falling before they were due - Dear Hank Williams - Pax Vobiscum 14. I want to dance with Jimmy Howie in the pale moonlight - Frida Kahlo's Visit to the Taybridge Bar - Posted Sober 15. They very seldom jump over the moon - BSE or Cows Don't Eat Sheep 16. Peace on earth and earth on piece - Baps and Paste 17. Did you think it was the quality or preference of beer? - The Homeless Do Not Seem To Drink In Here 18. I'd wheel my wheelbarrow up Kilimanjaro - If Dundee was Africa - The Mill Lavvies 19. His fingers painting what his soul receives - Schenectady Calling Peerie Willie Johnson 20. I'd sing a song of Thomas Paine - If I was An Englishman - High Sobriety

Michael's first album on Gordon Stevenson's Eclectic
label.(Gaels Blue was later to be re-released on Eclectic.) Contains Hamish, Niel Gow's Apprentice, Like Another Rolling Stone and Hermless.

Catch up on


Thanks to Willie Payne Cafe' Vandona,
Agnes Murray, Alfred Bremer, Joyce Philbin,
Atari Computers, M Stumble, Zug, Kevin,
Grace, Mary Beveridge (West Coast Rep),
NJ Marra, Margaret Reilly, Graham Lynn,
Val Johnston, John Harvey, Niel Gow,
Pat Santos, Lengeling and Adam, All coal
miners everywhere, M'lach and the Feral Cat,
Many thanks to Rod Paterson, Dougie MacLean
and Alison Burns.
Special thanks to Gordon Stevenson,
Peggy Peace and Kevin Murray.
Musicians Michael Marra, keyboards, guitar,
Fender bass, percussion and vocals.
Kevin Murray, keyboards, guitars, mandolin
and percussion.
Dougie MacLean, fiddles.
Alison Burns vocals, Rod Paterson vocals.
Front cover illustration
"Clayton Mcore as Richard III' by M Marra.
Sleeve design by Pat Santos/Gordon Keir
Layout by Gordon Keir
All songs written by Michael Marra
except where stated.
Additional Keyboards Gordon Keir


Of these 800 the last 43 were the best

A magical tour of America heralds a new album from Michael Marra. This was the byline used by Sunday Times journalist Ian Black back on the 12 May 1996. The new album was Pax Vobiscum

 Three weeks ago the fickle finger of fate reached out, tapped Dundee singer/songwriter Michael Marra on the shoulder and handed him a giant lollipop in the shape of an all-expenses-paid trip to America. It was his first visit and one he has fantasised about since he can remember. Marra's musical roots are intertwined with rock, country, jazz and accordion bands, as well as his own working-class background. His gritty voice and unforced delivery blend with his broad Dundee accent to create a blunt honesty, combined with colourful language - songs much beloved by American country fans and not a few Scottish folk fans. Marra is 44 and very much a cult figure on the verge of national fame. He's played a range of music for which the word eclectic isn't broad enough, from early Dundee rock legends Skeets Boliver to recently touring Europe with Deacon Blue. He acknowledges his American influences and hopes to get another album from the experience of his magical freebie. "Where I grew up, what you learned at your grandfather's knee was Elvis songs off the radio. It was an unusual thing to happen." Unusual but true. At school, the children collected pennies for "the black babies in Africa", says Marra. "It was called the Holy Family and when you had collected 2s 6d you got a picture of them and you got to give them a name. We called all of ours Elvis. I think of them sometimes, all these guys in Africa called Elvis..." Marra has a wealthy fan, a man whom he had never met, called Roderick Cameron. He's originally from Glasgow, but now lives and works in California. He served his time as a toolmaker at Rolls-Royce, studied engineering at Cambridge and then emigrated to America where he designs and builds things like the University of Mexico City. "He likes my songs for one reason or another," says Marra, "and he wanted to make a journey with me to show me what he calls 'the soft underbelly of the real America'. He paid for the ticket and I flew out to San Francisco where he collected me. Then we spent two weeks at a different motel every night rehearsing with these two other guys he'd brought along. We finished the trip back in San Francisco and I did a solo gig and one with the guys." Where did he go? "All over the place. I did a gig in Mendecino - one of the Byrds, Gene Parsons, was it. He played the drums for Randy Newman - one of my heroes. That was fabulous." Energy and excitement pour from Marra's mouth, his normally laidback crinkly eyes shining with remembered joy, as he relives the trip. "Unbelievable, eh? We went to the Grand Canyon, to a wee town called Lone Pine, and then up into the mountains to a ghost town called Bodie, a wee mining town. It was really wonderful. We learned a three-part harmony for a song called Grand Canyon Line, one of the few songs that Burl Ives wrote, and we sang it going down the Grand Canyon. And we sang Route 66 going down Route 66. It was just what every Scottish laddie wants." They took a day off on Cameron's 59th birthday when he took them to Las Vegas. "The Man from Kansas (one of his musician companions), he said, when he saw me watching the people pouring money into the machines, 'That's how the Mob likes it, a quarter at a time'." The Man from Kansas was a language learning experience for him. "He would say things like, 'I'm as jittery as a seven-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.' Maybe Roderick hired them to teach me American." He's going back to America as soon as he can. "I know I'll need to do a thousand wee gigs but I'm game for that." His new album, Pax Vobiscum, is out at the end of the month. Copyright The Sunday Times May 1996