(The following Trumpeter column originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on June 27, 2007.)
By Linda McLean
My recent solo tour of the UK and Scotland didn’t actually begin in Aberdeen, but it was there that my schedule offered me time and space to breathe in the magical-mystery quality of my journey.
I was taking my songs to places as far from Huntsville, my home base, as you can get and still speak English as a first language.
A few days before, I’d been in the southern coast city of Portsmouth, home of tall ships and pirate mythology; then I was standing in northeast Scotland, on her magnificent purple-hued hills, framed by the ocean, reflecting ancient settlements nestled into the windswept, wave-wracked coastline. How strange, I thought, and miraculous, that I was being invited to share my songs in this historic region.
Years ago, my first time in Scotland, I was inspired to write this poem:
Come with me, we’ll carry our fine selves into those hills,
Far from here, when I tell you of my love you’ll want to stay,
Hidden with me there all the day
Ah those eyes, those eyes on me,
as gentle as these highlands that hold me to the sea.
The feeling behind those words returned while I considered the magic of it all, and the bigger miracle that I had arrived safely, driving alone from gig to gig, left hand shifting gears, up and down the crowded little island, wending my way through cities, towns and villages, circumventing industrial parks on graying stone streets, losing my way, finding it again, along ever more remote roads.
For my Scottish audience, I sang songs of my journey, the roads of the songwriter I travel, that inevitably distill my choices to my most essential one – to write songs that recount this journey we call life. In Aberdeen, as I sang for this audience of native northern Scots and watched them respond to my music with the same honest intensity of my audiences at our local music venues, I experienced a moment of recognition: I felt as at home there as in my hometown of Huntsville.
The magical mystery of my journey didn’t end when I got home; I still look in awe at the view from my house in the woods, still swell with happiness to be welcomed back to my supportive artist-rich community of Muskoka.
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts folks have always been great supporters of my music, and I am so happy to be helping them to kick off a new initiative at the Hideaway on July 28. I’m really excited because I will be performing all the new songs from my upcoming CD, as well as old favourites, and I know I am going to want to try out a couple of brand new songs – only ever played in my studio here by Mary Lake. I also know that the Hideaway is a fun venue to play and, with the incredible musicians in my band, All the Hanks, we are going to have the time of our lives.
A stylish performer, Linda McLean has been earning raves around the world. CBC places her, with Kathleen Edwards and Sarah Harmer, in a “holy trinity” of female Canadian singer-songwriters. The Port Sydney resident has played twice for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts and hosted a CD launch at the Hideaway.
By Linda McLean
My recent solo tour of the UK and Scotland didn’t actually begin in Aberdeen, but it was there that my schedule offered me time and space to breathe in the magical-mystery quality of my journey.
I was taking my songs to places as far from Huntsville, my home base, as you can get and still speak English as a first language.
A few days before, I’d been in the southern coast city of Portsmouth, home of tall ships and pirate mythology; then I was standing in northeast Scotland, on her magnificent purple-hued hills, framed by the ocean, reflecting ancient settlements nestled into the windswept, wave-wracked coastline. How strange, I thought, and miraculous, that I was being invited to share my songs in this historic region.
Years ago, my first time in Scotland, I was inspired to write this poem:
Come with me, we’ll carry our fine selves into those hills,
Far from here, when I tell you of my love you’ll want to stay,
Hidden with me there all the day
Ah those eyes, those eyes on me,
as gentle as these highlands that hold me to the sea.
The feeling behind those words returned while I considered the magic of it all, and the bigger miracle that I had arrived safely, driving alone from gig to gig, left hand shifting gears, up and down the crowded little island, wending my way through cities, towns and villages, circumventing industrial parks on graying stone streets, losing my way, finding it again, along ever more remote roads.
For my Scottish audience, I sang songs of my journey, the roads of the songwriter I travel, that inevitably distill my choices to my most essential one – to write songs that recount this journey we call life. In Aberdeen, as I sang for this audience of native northern Scots and watched them respond to my music with the same honest intensity of my audiences at our local music venues, I experienced a moment of recognition: I felt as at home there as in my hometown of Huntsville.
The magical mystery of my journey didn’t end when I got home; I still look in awe at the view from my house in the woods, still swell with happiness to be welcomed back to my supportive artist-rich community of Muskoka.
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts folks have always been great supporters of my music, and I am so happy to be helping them to kick off a new initiative at the Hideaway on July 28. I’m really excited because I will be performing all the new songs from my upcoming CD, as well as old favourites, and I know I am going to want to try out a couple of brand new songs – only ever played in my studio here by Mary Lake. I also know that the Hideaway is a fun venue to play and, with the incredible musicians in my band, All the Hanks, we are going to have the time of our lives.
A stylish performer, Linda McLean has been earning raves around the world. CBC places her, with Kathleen Edwards and Sarah Harmer, in a “holy trinity” of female Canadian singer-songwriters. The Port Sydney resident has played twice for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts and hosted a CD launch at the Hideaway.
