@michael-marra
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From the Perthshire Advertiser - A review of the Perth Theatre gig with Mr McFall's Chamber -
From the Edinburgh Guide - Review of Queens Hall Gig
You Can Take The Boy Out of Dundee.. ... Rob Adams Review
From the Scotsman - Jan Fairley's Review
From Musical Criticism.com - Peter Cudmore's review
From the Dundee Evening Telegraph
The cream of Dundee’s music talent will be joined by acts from across the UK at a benefit concert for the victims of the Haiti earthquake disaster being held in the city next month
The Tele, sister paper The Courier and venue Fat Sam’s are organising the gig for February 20.
Acts scheduled to appear include Michael Marra, members of The View and The Law, Luva Anna, The Hazey Janes, Boogalusa, The Lost Todorovs, Gavin McGinty and Sheffield band Dead Like Harry.
Tickets will be on sale at Groucho’s from 10 am Friday 05 February 2010 and more acts will be announced in the coming days.
Angus Robb, of Fat Sam’s, said, “Obviously, this is a massive tragedy and the appeal for donations is one that everybody feels they want to contribute something to.
“We at Fat Sam’s feel we are in a position to help by offering the club to host a large-scale event and with our and the Evening Telegraph and The Courier’s contacts in the music business, we are confident it will be a great event and one where we can raise a significant amount of money to help the Oxfam appeal.”
In 2005, a similar gig organised by the Tele and The Courier raised more than £10,000 for the victims of the tsunami disaster and it is planned that this year’s event will be bigger and better.
The European Union estimates around 200,000 people lost their lives in the earthquake last month, with a million more made homeless by the disaster.
BBC 1 Scotland are repeatingt the 2002 "A Cottier Saturday Night" as their Burns
Night programme on Monday 25 January 2010 at 07.30pm. The show is hosted by Michael Marra and features Eddi Reader, Rod Paterson and Christine Hansen. A cracking thirty minutes it is too!
If you are out at a Burns Supper on Monday night you will be able to view the programme on the BBC iplayer at -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qcj2x/A_Burns_Night_Celebration/
or download it to your PC.
From this week's Rosshire Journal -
Loch Brrom Blethers
A WEE Home from Home last Saturday in the hall was excellent, and there were a number of us there who had been there twenty-one years ago. I hope time was as kind to us as it was to Frank McConnell and Michael Marra. Michael's voice just goes on getting better and better and Frank's dancing and agility was just superb.
In 1988, at the time of Ullapool's bicentenary, Michael wrote the song Under the Ullapool Moon - he subsequently recorded in on his album On Stolen Stationery.
He told me at the weekend that the Scottish jazz singer, Sylvia Rae Tracey (daughter of jazz great, bassist Ronnie Rae) has also recorded it on her album Up From the Skies. A glowing review states "she brings together the work of some of her favourite artists, chief among them Michael Marra (whose acerbic yet tender Under the Ullapool Moon brings Loudon Wainwright's Central Square Song to mind)".
Michael is busy rehearsing for his part in Plan B's production of A Wee Home From Home which is due to start a lengthy tour of Scotland and North England on 04 November 2009. Catch the show if you can as Michael sings all the songs live and it is a brilliant piece of Dance Theatre.Check out the website dedicated to the show.
Exclusive Mother Glasgow Download
Michael will resume his solo musical performances with a gig at The Tin Hut at Gartly on 13 December 2009. Check the Events Calendar for more information
Sinsheen are Christine Kydd and Barbara Dymock. Each a fine singer in her own right, 'Lift' is their first CD as a duo. Christine and Barbara have built a reputation among roots music lovers for originality, virtuosity and the livliest of live performances. Combining power, passion and pedigree, they contrast superb harmony vocals with light instrumental and percussive backing. The CD, which was produced by Michael Marra, features a great set of Scots songs and there's good, informative sleeve-notes to the album too! It includes a version of Mr Marra's Mother Glasgow soon to be heard in it's original context when the Plan B's new production of A Wee Home From Home starts it's Scottish tour. Also pleased to see that the CD cover photograph is by Andy Hall who with painter Francis Boag has a wonderful new book out, titled The Mearns Distilled it is well worth searching out.
For more information on Sinsheen check out their website at -
You can also hear tracks from the new CD and check out their forthcoming tour dates at -
New Eilidh Mackenzie's new CD " Bel Canto" on the Macmeanmna label has a couple of contributions from Michael Marra. On track one Michael narrates a passage from Bel Canto the Ann Patchett book which inspired Eilidh to write the songs for the album. On track five he performs the vocals on "You Misunderstand Me" assisted by Eddi Reader. The Cd is available as a download from Gaelic Musi c . The CD proper is released on 01 November.
This from Eilidh Mackenzie'a myspace page
The songs on the new album, Bel Canto, which follows the story of Ann Patchett's award winning novel of the same name. "Chan eil cuimnh am" features my sisters Gillian and Fiona Gress on backing vocals; Gentle Kisses has the wonderful Anna Meldrum on lead with me on backing and Reidhphort, written for my Uncle Kenny, is sung as a duet with the fabulous James Graham. I hope you all enjoy them.
During the making of the album I was surrounded by the most talented and enthusiastic bunch of musicians possible. Brian McAlpine, Ged Grimes, Gordon Gunn, Chrisitne Hanson, Allan Glenuig Macdonald, Terry Small, Elizabeth McCormack, Michael Marra, James Graham, Anna Meldrum, Gillian Mackenzie and Fiona Gress Mackenzie and Eddi Reader. What a complete treat for me....
We headed down to Glasgow for a fairly intensive recording stretch with Mark Freegard at 3kyoti in the best bit of town. The food round his studio is the best...highly recommended - and he's a great guy who made the time in the studio an absolute pleasure. He recorded and mixed the 14 tracks and then we took it to Calum Malcolm, our trusted master, to finish.
Bel Canto (published 2001, Harper Collins) is a beautiful novel and weaves its way through the universal themes of love and music, identity, communication and language. I took the story and transferred it to Gaelic Scotland. Once upon a time there was a girl who swallowed a bird...and to hear the rest you'll need to read the novel and listen to the CD......
Just a wee bit of information about the "Numbers" CD produced by and featuring Michael and the guys from the Noranside Songwriters Group and now available for your listening pleasure. The 11 track album is the culmination of the work Michael has been doing with long term prisoners at HMP Noranside, Angus. Michael has been taking the songwritng group once a week. The best of the songs along with an unreleased song of Michael's " Eternity Has Just Begun" are featured on the album. The track listing is as follows -
29 addresses
don't go away
enternity has just begun
let me out
the man in black
buckfast blues
forever is you
what you've got or not
better days
the holy city
wheels
Sadly due to bureaucratic reasons the album cannot be made available for sale however musical1.com have stepped in and the songs can now be heard at a dedicated website. Visit numbers to hear all the songs which are available as streaming mp3's.
Enjoy