I’ve got a love-hate relationship with August. On the one hand, the weather’s been pretty good overall, and everything’s in full bloom, but on the other – you kind of know that summer’s coming to an end, and the green of the trees and bushes is starting to look a bit tired.

We had all sorts of plans to go off in the campervan for another week, but too much going on – never got round to it, but we did manage a couple of nights in Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan, where my daughter Julie has been filming a series on female ghillies for BBC Alba. I still can’t get used to this confident, immensely capable young woman, who seems to have friends and contacts in every town, street and village in Scotland – it seems hardly any time ago she was starting out at primary school….I can’t imagine there’s a prouder dad in the World.

Two really nice gigs this month. We played the Edinburgh Wee Folk Club on the 22nd, which has been running every night throughout the Fringe – an acoustic set, with no PA, amps etc. Run by the irrepressible ‘Paddy’ Bort, it’s a fantastic wee club for enthusiasts, and the programme is truly eclectic.

Last night, we played the Corstorphine Folk Club, at the Dower House, a truly special 16th Century mansion, once inhabited by Bonnie Prince Charlie during his time in Edinburgh. What a great club – always sold out, very professionally run by Ian and Frances Macrae and just a very special place to play. Stevie wasn’t able to do the August gigs, so Cy and I were joined by our great pal Jim Yule, a truly amazing guitarist and a really entertaining character – playing with him is an absolute ball.

One piece of really good news is that my friend Neil Lochiel has managed to secure funding to put on the first Inverclyde Folk and Roots Festival for a couple of weeks in late October/early November. We’ve been booked to appear at the Beacon Arts Centre on Saturday 2nd November, supported by the very talented singer-songwriter Lynnie Carson, so that’s very exciting. I’ll try and post a link on the site, if I can work out how to (!).

Writing-wise, Cy and I manged to finish the latest commission of a few Celtic tracks for TV, and we wrote a song for an album that should (fingers crossed) be quite a big seller at Christmas. Can’t say any more at the moment, but it’s a real fun project, nothing too serious.

Anyway, that’s it for now. No gigs so far for September or October, so it’s time I started sending out a few feelers, I suppose – argh – I hate marketing stuff!

Keep safe

Duncan x