Music

Bare Knuckle

"Bare Knuckle" is the title of Chris Stout & Catriona McKay's new album. It was released last December to unanimous critical acclaim and the duo has just been nominated for BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2018 (Best Duo category). I've worked with Chris and Catriona for many years but "Bare Knuckle" was definitely the first time I was involved in their project to such extent - from promotional photoshoot to album artwork and promo posters, from filming the title track's music video to covering the album launch at Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my work so being able to oversee every aspect of this album's rollout (creatively speaking at least) was truly rewarding. It's also been an absolute pleasure, sometimes a challenge (I'd never done a music video before) but above all a genuine privilege to work with artists of this calibre who also happen to be really decent human beings. 

ALBUM PROMO

ALBUM COVER

LIVE AT QUEEN'S HALL

CELTIC CONNECTIONS PROMO

FRANCES THORBURN & FRIENDS

Frances Thorburn is a fantastic singer-songwriter and an actress, known to many for her role as Kim Monroe in River City, and a couple of weeks ago she put on a truly splendid evening of music to raise funds for Moe Abutoq, a film director and a friend of Frances who was diagnosed with MS 2 years ago. The illness has been rapidly advancing and its treatment requires travel to Mexico and some £60,000. Frances invited a host of musicians for the night including Martha L. HealyKathryn JosephAngie Darcy and many more. "Celebration of Songs", as the event was called, took place on February 8th at Saint Luke's and featured material ranging from show tunes to Americana, Broadway to Paula Abdul (yes, really). I was lucky enough to be there and capture the night (see images below). If you didn't manage to attend the fundraiser you can still help Moe by donating to the JustGiving page Frances set up: 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/frances-thorburnmoeabutoq.


SOUNDCHECK


CELEBRATION OF SONGS

Nicole Caldwell

You may have seen Nicole Caldwell belting out "Purple Rain" on the X-Factor recently. I've been a fan of her voice ever since I've heard her perform with Soul Nation Choir a few years ago. Being able to finally work with Nicole on her very first photoshoot as a solo artist was a great opportunity. And a lot of fun! The brief was "bohemian/hippie/natural" so off we went last month to Mugdock Country Park (one of my favourite places to shoot) with Caroline Stewart on makeup duties and spent an evening walking about, laughing and talking nonsense. Oh yes, and we took some photos too. Enjoy!

PS. Big thanks to David for all the help!