More About
Hilary........
She is particularly fond of singing the songs of James Hogg (The
Ettrick Shepherd) and Robert Burns, and often performs at events with Lucy Cowan
(Director of Pro Corda North) formerly of The International Cello Centre at
Edrom.
She was a member of the innovative group Sangs and Clatter which specialised in
bringing live Scottish music into the classroom.
Hilary has written music for Rowan Tree productions, including The Travels of
Mungo Park. 1995 saw the recording of two new albums in which she was involved,
namely Echoes from a Tower Yarrow Records featuring works by James Hogg and new
poems by Judy Steel, and The Art of Robert Burns (Released 2003 on Scotstown
Records) In 1997 she was asked by the James Hogg Society and
Stirling University to record many Hogg songs for an educational CD.
Aside from the traditional music which she loves, she is an accomplished solo
singer and player of "contemporary" folk music, and would like to perform with a
professional band which specialises in such music. Back in the last few weeks of
2000 and into 2001 Hilary worked in the Big Sky Studios in the Scottish Borders
to produce her first solo CD "Breaking All the Rules" This CD was launched on
15th February 2001 in Scotland to critical acclaim and is available from the CD
Store at www.bigskystudios.com
The CD
headlines Hilary but also features the talents of the following well
known Borders musicians:
John
Wright,
Kenny Speirs, Ian
Lowthian,
Tom Roseburgh,
Lucy Cowan, Elspeth
Smellie, Gavin Dickie, Stewart Hardy, Rosie Bell,
Gavin Dickie, Dave Haswell, Rob Fraser
and four Selkirk Pipers. Steve
Lawrence from Glasgow (formerly of Iron Horse) plays
bouzouki on 2
tracks and Howard Duthie the Edinburgh based freelance accompanist plays
piano and conducts the Portmanteau Singers.
Hilary's second solo album Next Time Around was
recorded in 2006 at Big Sky Studios. This CD was produced by Stevie Lawrence who
also provided a lot of the percussion and strings. The CD was built round a folk
theme producing a "band" feel and included many of Hilary's favourite musician's
and friends. Ian Lowthian (accordion), Iain Anderson Fiddle, Kenny Speirs on
vocals and guitar and Judy Dinning backing vocals. Wendy Weatherby (cello) and
Brian Shields (double bass) provided an intuitive but subtle backdrop to many of
the tracks.
|
