Greentrax Recordings
Greentrax Recordings

1986-2024: Celebrating Scotland's Music for 38 years

Ian Green: 1934-2024

news article for Benefit Concert for Dick Gaughan

Posted: 7th November 2016

Illness has curtailed the activities one of Edinburgh’s greatest performers, Dick Gaughan, but not before some old pals and fans have rallied to help.

A benefit concert on Sunday 27th November 2016 (7.30pm) at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre will feature Billy Bragg, Phil Cunningham & Aly Bain, Karine Polwart and Eddi Reader (plus more friends to be confirmed) and will be compered by Elaine C Smith.

See the event on Facebook and buy tickets from the Festival Theatre.

Billy Bragg, a long-time admirer of Dick Gaughan, has been well known since the 1980s when he burst into a fraught political decade and became very quickly recognised for his songs presenting “the perfect Venn diagram between the political and the personal” (The Guardian).

Phil & Aly have been life-long friends of Dick’s since the 1970s when Aly and Dick were members of the renowned folk group Boys Of The Lough.

Karine Polwart has long been a fan of Dick’s and in the past 20 years or so has become a very well-known award-winning performer.

Photo by Niall Reddy.


news article for October 2016 News

Posted: 13th October 2016

Ian Green was saddened by Angus R Grant’s death. He was a lovely man and a very talented musician.


Greentrax 30th Anniversary – The Special Projects: “Greentrax Recordings are celebrating their 30th anniversary, and during those years have not only released albums by many individuals and groups, but also numerous ‘special project’ CDs. They’re marking their milestone with a low-priced double CD featuring 30 tracks from those project albums, as a fascinating snapshot of their history. These albums include Aly Bain & Friends, Scots Women, Far, Far From Ypres, Gaelic Women, The Scottish Diaspora, the whole Scottish Tradition series and too many more to mention. The artists on the compilation range from Lizzie Higgins to Dick Gaughan, Ishbel MacAskill to Gordon Duncan, Alasdair Fraser to Eric Bogle, Brian McNeill to Siobhan Miller, Tony McManus to The McCalmans - you get the picture. All in all a remarkable collection of material carefully selected and put together by Ian Green, in a varied but surprisingly cohesive listening experience. Pretty good Christmas presents for all your mates, I reckon.” (Bob Walton, fRoots Magazine)

The Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band - Revisited album received an excellent review by Chris MacKenzie in the recent issue of Piping Today (issue 82). There was also an excellent six page feature, consisting of photos, album covers and an extensive interview with Pipe Major Iain McLeod by Andrew Bova.


The recently released album Voices by Eric Bogle with John Munro continues to sell well, as does Greentrax 30th Anniversary Collection - The Special Projects which is currently available as a free special offer with any two other albums from the Greentrax catalogue.


The Great Tapestry of Scotland is apparently in store at present, after an extensive tour of Scotland and beyond, while it is decided where the Tapestry should be on permanent exhibition in the Scottish Borders. The Music and Song of The Great Tapestry of Scotland is a double CD of songs representing many of the panels of the Tapestry and released in association with it.


Greentrax is again sponsoring an award at the Scots Trad Music Awards which this year will be held in the Caird Hall, Dundee, on Saturday, 3rd December 2016. Performers on the night are expected to include the Scott Wood Band, Songs Of Separation, Wilma Kennedy, Halton Quartet, Mohsen Amini, Abercraig (young musicians from Tayside), Tryst (10 amazing pipers), Dallahan and more to be announced. There will also be a late night ceilidh after the Awards until 1am. Ian Green, who missed the last two Awards, due to family illness, hopes to attend on this occasion and meet many of his friends from around Scotland. The nominations for the 16 awards have opened and voting goes live on 1st November. You can find out more about the 2016 Awards and buy tickets (£22) here.


Legend Robbie Shepherd MBE has recently retired from Take The Floor, BBC Radio Scotland’s flagship Scottish dance band programme. Robbie has been presenting the programme since the early 1980s and his wonderful, couthy style of presentation will be greatly missed by everyone on the Scottish traditional music scene. Robbie has received many awards over the years and was recently presented with the Landmark Award by Simon Thoumire of Hands Up For Trad. He is also an author and writer for the The Press and Journal. At the moment Esma Shepherd, Robbie’s charming wife, is in hospital because of a hip replacement which has gone wrong. We wish Esma a speedy recovery and best wishes to Robbie in the future. There is one thing certain - Robbie will not go into full retirement. Ian Green had the pleasure of being interviewed on several occasions by Robbie and always found it an enjoyable and relaxed experience. The new presenter of Take The Floor will be Gary Innes.


news article for Eric Bogle in Edinburgh, Brittany & Ireland

Posted: 5th September 2016

Eric Bogle made a short but very welcome visit to Europe during August 2016, along with John Munro & Peter Titchener.

The two concerts at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, were sold out. The atmosphere in the hall was electric and standing ovations were the order of the day. The Dublin and Belfast gigs were packed and Eric and his two mates thoroughly enjoyed the Irish trip. The trio were guests at Lorient Celtic Music Festival in France.

Eric’s two performances in Ireland were associated with the Battle Of The Somme Centenary commemorations and the Irish regiments who fought in this tragic battle.

See all of Eric Bogle’s current tour dates.

Eric’s latest album Voices is proving to be very popular and sales to date have been brilliant, with increased sale of Eric’s back catalogue albums.


news article for There Was A Soldier at the Edinburgh Fringe

Posted: 15th August 2016

A show called There Was A Soldier takes place at the Edinburgh Fringe on August 16th & 17th.

This is an offshoot of Ian McCalman’s Far Far from Ypres stage project, which came about after the discovery of letters from a WW1 soldier to the late aunt of Liz Reid. Liz and friend Mary Boylan put a version of the show together which was local to West Lothian, using the letters as a starting point, and discovered many local WW1 connections. Ian McCalman’s original script was adapted, with his permission.

Many of the songs are the same, with five original ones, two of which were written by a Broxburn soldier in the trenches, in an old jotter which was sent to his family with his belongings after he was killed - actually really humorous considering the situation.

Taking part in the show are music groups Tryst, Cockleroy and Iolaire, and eleven talented teenagers who sing, play pipes or drum - all being ages with many who signed up for war. One of them, Sam (16), sings Black Is The Sun with such intensity that you’d swear he’d been there and experienced the gas for himself.

“Local history at its best - performers live these songs - moving, uplifting, superb!” (Fiona Hyslop, Culture Minister)

Book tickets at the Edinburgh Fringe website.


news article for Daimh USA & Canada Tour - Summer 2016

Posted: 10th August 2016

Daimh are excited to be heading back across the pond to the US during August. They’ll also be making their first trip to Ontario, Canada.

They look forward to seeing some familiar faces and making new friends!

The band undertook a Scottish tour in June and July. Starting off with some island-hopping, they played the Isle of Skye, South Uist and were one of the very few bands that managed the mythical journey from Lochboisdale to Mallaig for a homecoming of sorts in Glenuig Hall - where they launched their first album Moidart To Mabou 16 years ago! They played a few venues new to them, from a gig on a boat to Scottish Island number 24 for the band - the Isle of Gigha! They finished at the Stonehaven Folk Festival which was recorded for BBC Scotland’s Travelling Folk.

For more information on venues, and the latest dates, see the Daimh official website.