Here are finalists in the 2009 Hands Up For Trad Awards – either from Argyll or with a strong connection to Argyll’s traditional music scene. Voting for them – now -  is a great way to show appreciation and say thank you.

MG ALBA’s Hands Up For Trad Awards are unusual for music awards in that they not only recognise the musicians involved, but the communities, individuals and venues who normally work hard behind the scenes. These people are as responsible as any others for keeping the ‘flame’ of traditional music alive, and for increasing the appeal of the music to a new generation.

There are awards for Club of the year, Venue of the year and Community Project of the year. A new, and overdue, category this year is for Music Tutor of the Year. Up and down the country there are professional and amateur musicians who are developing both adult and young players. Without these tutors’ inputs and commitment high profile events such as the Mod, the Highland Games competitions, Celtic Connections and masses of community events would not be sustainable – so it is good to see them in the limelight.

Back in 2005, the Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop took the Community Project of the Year Award. Let’s see if we can get Argyll’s core finalist – the Inveraray & District Pipe Band – into a winning position this year.

• Inveraray & District Pipe Band – is in the Best Scottish Pipe Band category. By now everyone should know of their unprecedented succession of 3 World Championship titles in 4 years of competition – with a new young band and reconstituted after a lapse of 70 years by Pipe Major Stuart Liddell, winner of the recent Glenfiddich 2009  Solo Piping Championships (the World’s), so there’s no question of their stellar merit. But they’re up against the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band – a good band which will be campaigning for support in the face of Strathclyde Police management’s current intention to shut down the band. Our view is that Strathclyde Police earns the highest revenue in the country from speeding fines, many in situations close to entrapment so they can afford their first class band and Argyll can help to campaign for that. But let’s keep our eyes on the prize and vote for an Argyll band which, on merit, has the strongest case of all in terms of straight achievement.
• Fiddlers Bid, the band with Chris Stout and Catriona McKay who have appeared in Lochgoilhead and Cairndow, have theirlatest release, All Dressed in Yellow, up for Album of the Year.
• Mairearad Green is up for Composer of the Year. She has performed locally with the Anna Massie Band. Her tunes are rapidly becoming popular on the session scene and some have been recorded by other bands. “Dram Behind the Curtain’ was recorded by Eddi Reader in 2009. Mairearad’s Celtic Connections ‘New Voices’ commission ‘Passing Places’ -  a musical and filmic journey through the spectacular scenery and cultural riches of the Wester Ross Coigach peninsula - earned her a standing ovation from the audience and a five star review from The Scotsman.
• Lauren MacColl, who has brought her band to Strachur, is up for Instrumentalist of the Year. She won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2005 and two years on released her debut album ‘When Leaves Fall’, named ‘Classic Album’ of Celtic Connections festival 2008. Her second album ‘Strewn with Ribbons’ was released to critical acclaim in 2009, a recording of music researched from old Highland Collections married with her own tune writing.
• Brechin, O’hEadhra, MacGregor are in with a shout in the Folk Band of the Year. Lochgoilhead visitors, they blend some of the finest musicianship and singing to come out of Scotland in recent years. They draw on a wealth of tunes and songs from the Gaelic and Scots traditions, are acclaimed composers in their own right and loved by audiences for their witty and entertaining live performance.

Visit the Hands Up For Trad Awards Voting page in a Hands Up For Argyll spirit.

Mark Morpurgo, Folk and Traditional Music Editor

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