Clunie Music - What's New?

Spring 2011

2011-04-07T11:44:00.001+01:00

Hi Folks,

Yes - it is Spring! Jacynth and I returned from snowy Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago and we can tell you this is Spring! It feels lovely and warm at 11 - 16 degrees after a month of freezing and below freezing temperatures. To be fair - we were snug and cozy inside on most of the snow days and travelling to gigs on the others so we have nothing to complain about. In fact we welcomed the snow when we first arrived as we had a wonderful rehearsal week with friends in Rhinelander, north Wisconsin, and had opportunity to see deer, squirrels and birds close to the house for food and Jacynth got to go snow shoeing across the Wisconsin river. (see pic). We also learned the art of stump fiddling and Daryl with his stump fiddle proved a very popular addition to our concert in Eagle River!

Our Wisconsin tour, organised by friend and storyteller Colleen Sutherland, was one of the best we've had. We sang for retreats, library concerts, house concerts and worship services - every one different and each one well attended. Colleen had her birthday on St Patrick's day and we took her to a party at St Brendan's Inn, Green Bay where I played bodhran with the band and Jacynth danced a hornpipe around the tables! We even featured on the television news that night - well,we caught a glimpse of yours truly for a nano second! Earlier in the week we met Northern Irish musician Ian Gould in the same venue and Jacynth was invited to sing her St Brendan's song in St Brendan's Inn!

The bonus of these tours is connecting with friends again and meeting new ones for next time round. This time we met friends we were not expecting to see and had some special times on our days off. Friend and musician Gloria Hays organised our final house concerts in Beaver Dam and Madison and we spent our last afternoon jamming with some amazing African musicians after our last house concert.

We left Wisconsin just as the red winged blackbirds were arriving. Next time we hope to return in the summer (2012). Meanwhile we're waiting for the next Caim door to open ... there are possibilities of California and Florida, maybe even Canada again....

At home in Scotland I'm planning a solo set with guitarist Shaun Craig - actually that should be duo shouldn't it? We performed a floor spot in Ciaran Dorris' gig at Quarter acoustic music club the night before Caim left for Wisconsin and hope to be back there for our booking in the winter. Meanwhile Ciaran and I continue to tour all over Scotland for Music in Hospitals. As soon as I had recovered from jet lag we had a great tour as far north as we could get - up to Wick and Thurso in wild and beautiful Caithness. Ciaran would have swam to Orkney if he could!

Finally a quick mention again of my late husband Al's CD "Full Vision". All of you who ordered copies should have them by now. If anyone else is interested in buying a copy they are available through this website http://www.cluniemusic.com/ or direct from me at cluniemusic@hotmail.com .

God bless & Happy Spring!

Heather

Thailand 2010

2010-11-30T12:35:00.011Z

Hi everyone,

It seems strange to be about to write about Caim's time in Thailand while outside my window everything is white and freezing and it's snowing heavily. It was winter in Thailand too but each day was dry and sunny reaching a temperature somewhere in the mid twenties centigrade - it's all relative - the locals were wearing their winter coats!

We began our time in Thailand stepping into a night of "winter" warmth at Bangkok airport and staying at Bangkok Christian guesthouse. That was a welcome oasis in a long journey - two flights and 7 hours in Dubai airport. Still an overnight bus journey to go though before our first destination, the border town of Mae Sot. This was where we were based last year for our day trips to Mae la refugee camp and also where I met Peter Willis, Chairman of H2O (Help to orphans) - a meeting which resulted in this second visit to the border.

At first it was deja vu as we were given the same hotel room and met up with friends made last year at corner cafe. The first few days back in Mae Sot were more than just a much needed respite from travel though as we met up with a teacher from Scotland, Karen, and a writer from Ireland, John, who took me out to Sky Blue migrant school on the edge of Mae Sot - a school for migrant kids living with their parents on a rubbish dump. These are Burmese refugees who have found a little work being paid to scavenge on the dump for recyclable materials. The school was impressive - growing their own vegetables and mushrooms and catering for 100 students of mainly primary school age. Jacynth and I arranged with Karen to return to this school and several others in our last week in Thailand after our visit to Umphang orphanage which was the main reason for our visit to Thailand this time.

Jacynth had hoped to follow up on a hostel in the refugee camp that we had visited last year but had to be satisfied with wrapping Christmas presents for the children in the camp at Partner's office instead. Foreigners were not being allowed into the camps due to unrest caused by the impending Burmese elections.

So - we travelled to Umphang the following week through some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Thailand. The journey took about 3 hours - there is a shorter route but it crosses into Burma at parts and isn't safe for travel.

I put up on my facebook page that I left my heart in Umphang Orphanage - and I did! The generous hospitality and friendship we received from Orphanage parents Esther and Gum-San was only part of it. We were accepted into a loving Christian family - there's no other way to put it. These kids that have been through so much - abandoned, orphaned, beaten in some cases, homeless, escaped from a war zone - each one had a story - they were some of the most loving, well behaved, well adjusted children I've met in my life. They are told that the orphanage is their home, that they are part of a family and the other children are their brothers and sisters. The older ones look out for the little ones, they all help with chores around the place and they all have fun! I watched some old pieces of tubing being turned into hula hoops one morning but the best was when Jacynth opened up the brightly coloured parachute we'd brought for them and everyone ran round and round in a huge circle with it shrieking with laughter, Esther laughing the loudest!

So why were we there? At first we were only needed each evening after school homework had been done (the older children attend the nearby Thai government school). We taught some of our songs and a little dancing - a prayer dance called "gifts" and the Scottish "Gay Gordons". Then the children had a couple of days holiday from school and teaching became all day except for a rest time in the early afternoon - the hottest part of the day. Esther needed Christmas songs and ideas for a nativity play for both the older children and the little ones - so Jacynth worked hard with each group separately. Designing costumes for the nativity was not one of her better skills but she had a go! A young man, Moses, from the nearest refugee camp stayed for the week to help us interpret but also to learn from us as he would then come back for Christmas and carry on preparing the children for the nativity event. Moses also taught the older children a rap dance to Jingle Bells which was strange to hear on the warm night air the first evening we were there. I bought a Christmas CD of Boney M on Amazon while I was there so they could have "Mary's Boy Child" for their dancing too.

Saturday evening we were all invited to a man's house the other side of Umphang and Jacynth and I were asked to give a concert. All the children came and to our amazement they sang along with everything that they had learnt from us - these are kids who do not speak a word of English. Doubt if I could have learnt one of their Karen songs so quickly - I'm having enough trouble learning to say good morning in their language.

Sunday, we sang in the worship service. There is no Christian church in Umphang so Gum-San has had a bamboo church built in the grounds of the orphanage for the children and staff but also for folk from Umphang village. Best church service I've sang in for a while!

Monday came and it was time to return to Mae Sot - with half the orphanage with us! Esther and Gum-San and the girls piled into the back of the truck we were travelling in so they could have a night at an orphanage in Mae Sot and take one of the older children for a clinic visit there. The boys and two workers stayed behind - their turn next time. So we travelled those magnificent mountains again to the strains of Gum-San playing the harmonica we'd brought him.

I found it hard to re adjust to life in Mae Sot after our time in the country at Umphang. We'd left Mae Sot the previous week just as thousands of refugees had been fleeing into the town over the friendship bridge border. Apparently we'd missed a week of unrest with journalists all over the place while we'd been safe in the hills. Everything was quiet again though when we returned and it was time to concentrate on some more children in the migrant schools. We also sang for some students learning English at the friendship library run by Burmese buddhist monks near the Burmese market in Mae Sot and so you don't think it was all work and no play - we were invited to a night of Thai dancing one evening.

Our final destination before flying back to Bangkok was a bus journey and stop over in Chiang Mai where we were scheduled to give a fund raising concert for a new church building at Nu Poe refugee camp - the same refugee camp near Umphang where our helper at the orphanage,Moses, came from. After the concert we were treated to an evening at the water festival which was happening in Chiang Mai at the same time. The floats on the river were spectacular but the hot air lantern balloons floating all over the night sky were magical.

Next destination for Caim is Wisconsin and possibly also Florida and Kansas in Feb/March 2011. We are of course looking forward to this tour and meeting up with friends made on previous tours to the US but I hope we get a repeat visit to Umphang. I'm writing a brochure to raise funds for various needs they have - their own transport mini bus, more land and buildings so they can bring more children into their family, a braille teacher for a partially sighted boy they have with them etc. If you would like a copy of this brochure emailed to you please email me at cluniemusic@hotmail.com

Deep peace this Christmas season. Stay warm!

Heather

PS Almost forgot - Al's CD is finally at the printers - expected any day now.

Autumn 2010

2010-09-24T13:31:00.005+01:00

Hi all,

Somehow I've jumped from Spring to Autumn this year. Been a bit busy with moving house recently - I don't recommend it to anyone!

You may have noticed that the Ciaran Dorris/Heather Innes page is no longer on here - Ciaran is doing just fine with the release of his new CD, "Home", on Greentrax coming up on October 1st. He and I still work together for Music in Hospitals but as these are private concerts there is no point in us having a duo page on here any longer.

My move to the big smoke has been partly to concentrate fully on music again. The plan is to approach folk clubs and small venues as a solo singer with a back up guitarist and a new development in the pipeline is the possibility of a Celtic band with some new music friends I've just made. Watch this space lol

Meanwhile Caim continues as always. Our next visit to Thailand is very close now - we leave on October 31st and will be there till November 22nd. This time we hope to return to the refugee camp we were at last time and re connect with friends we made in Mae Sot but our main reason for returning has been an invite to an orphanage run by H2O (Help to Orphans) in Umphang. We hope to stay there for a week at least of our visit and on our way back to Bangkok we have been invited to sing and fund raise for a church in Chiang Mai.

For most of the past year we have been fund raising in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland through concerts and presentations about our last trip. Folk have been very generous - we have also had some additional donations from friends (they know who they are) and we would like to thank everyone for their support.

Apart from our Thailand fund raising events Caim have sung at a couple of concerts in Milton Keynes and caught up with good friends there and we are now sending emails back and forth to friend and storyteller Colleen Sutherland in Wisconsin, USA who is organising a tour for us of libraries, churches, house concerts etc. We plan on being in Wisconsin March 6 - 21 so if anyone is interested in having us sing please let me know and I will pass on your contact details to Colleen.

Immediately prior to our Wisconsin visit we hope to finally return to our friends in Florida for a week, maybe two. Our Canadian agent Ian Davies is arranging this one - again please contact us if you have a venue you'd like to hear us in.

That's about it for now - next time we will have Thailand news and photos for you.

Thanks as always for your support for mine and Caim's music.

God Bless

Heather

Spring 2010

2010-03-22T18:07:00.004Z

(Photo: Spring sunset from my cottage)

It's so good to be able to title a blog as Spring! Caim were in Oxfordshire recently for a fund raising concert in Deddington and spring was definitely in the air down there with new born lambs, daffodils and crocuses everywhere. We're still at the snowdrops and crocuses stage in Scotland but we're getting there.

Just as well for Ciaran and myself - we didn't cope with the last burst of winter weather up here very well. When the snow re appeared it came with a vengeance and despite weather warnings (which no-one believed) Ciaran and I found ourselves stranded in Inverness where we were on a music in hospitals tour. All major roads and train routes out of Inverness were blocked and Ciaran eventually made it back to Glasgow via a long, slow journey down the east coast while I had to wait in Inverness even longer for new tyres to arrive for my car which had had a flat in Kingussie. Thanks to the music in hospitals team in Edinburgh though we only missed one gig - they worked hard for us finding new concerts in Inverness to replace the ones we couldn't get to in the snow.

Caim's Milton Keynes Burns weekend at the Well at Willen was postponed due to the winter weather and will now be a workshop and ceilidh at the end of May instead. We're planning on a possible fund raising concert or two en route in Norwich.

Several extremely successful fund raising concerts for Caim's next Thailand trip were also organised by Jacynth in Northern Ireland in February and we have now booked our flights to Thailand and will be back in Mae Sot and also visiting Umphang orphanage November 1 - 22nd. Thank you to everyone who has supported us in this venture so generously.

Caim's USA tours are now going ahead in 2011 - Florida and Wisconsin, back to back, to save a double trip across the pond. We hope to be in Florida late February/early March and to be in Wisconsin for a couple of weeks including St Patrick's Day. For those of you on my facebook page you will have gathered that I had quite a St Patrick's night to recover from in Scotland this year - back to work in 2011 - ah well!

On a final note it's that CD of Al's again - yes, I've proof read the cover notes and "Full Vision" is finally on it's way to the printers!

As always - thanks for your support for our music.

God bless

Heather

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-02T17:04:00.003Z

Stranded by snow and ice and finding myself with a few days free over the New Year holidays, I've been checking Caim's myspace site and this one to see if updates are needed. Hadn't realised it's been so long since the last newsletter blog.

The run up to Christmas was manic with Music in Hospital tours and concerts almost every day for Ciaran and myself and culminating in our annual Firefrost Christmas day gig at the Winnock Hotel, Drymen, Loch Lomond. This year we had our Christmas dinner there - and very nice it was too!

Jacynth and I continued our fund raising for our next Thailand visit with a joint concert at Blairgowrie Library in November with Kate and Ciaran followed by a session at the Meikleour Inn near my home. The following day Jacynth, Kate and myself provided the music for a meditation day in Dunblane. We love this use of our music and it was a bonus when Alex Holmes from WCCM organised a surprise (to us!) donation for Caim's Thailand venture.

Also during Jacynth's stay in Scotland we visited Murthly primary and arranged for a day's workshops and concert at the end of January - again as part of our fundraising but also to create awareness for the school children here of the lifestyle of the Karen children in Thailand. Caim will be hosting other fund raising events during that week and I will travel to Belfast in February for a week of fund raising there also.

On the appropriate weekend in January (nearest to January 25th of course) Caim are singing for a workshop and Burns concert at one of our favourite venues - The Well at Willen, Milton Keynes. Apart from Holy Island - the community at the Well is where it all started for Caim's music.

For our overseas travel this year our friend and agent in Canada, Ian Davies, is trying to arrange our postponed Florida tour for March and we hope to travel to Thailand in November. For all our friends in Wisconsin, Colleen in Seymour has offered once again to organise a tour there too - but that will be Spring 2011.

Finally, I seem to be always apologising about Al's CD. I've been the hold up this time as more finance was needed than we first thought. However, I am travelling to Yorkshire this month to get the project finally underway at Right Real Records. Thank you to all of you for your patience - I've heard the end result and it is worth waiting for!

Happy New Year and new decade everybody!

Heather, Jacynth, Ciaran and Kate.

Autumn/Winter 2009

2009-09-04T10:37:00.005+01:00

Hi Everyone,

Time for another update.

Jacynth and I have had a rest from international travel this past few months and our visit to Florida has been re scheduled for Spring 2010.
We did have a weekend away though to the peaceful grounds of Stirling University for the Scottish WCCM (World Community for Christian Meditation) annual gathering in June. We were worked very hard if you consider singing for several meditation times a day, a concert and music for Mass but the whole experience was so relaxed and enjoyable it didn't feel like work to us. I could have stayed there forever!
September 19th we will be singing for meditation again, this time at Spittalfield Village Hall for a few hours - once again working with WCCM Regional Coordinator for Scotland, Alex Holmes who will be speaker for the morning.
After this our thoughts turn to Thailand once more as we head to Dundee in the evening of Sep 19th for a concert to fund raise for our next visit to the Karen children in February 2010. This time we will be singing at an orphanage for Karen refugees at the invitation of Christian Organisation H2O (Help to Orphans).
And so the season of fund raising events to help us on our way back to Thailand begins! Planned events in Scotland include a pub quiz and library concert and I've contacted several primary schools in my local area for help with fund raising events and hopefully to establish contact between Scottish school children and the Karen children in the orphanage.
Caim have also been back in Redbarn Studios again - this time for a CD to consolidate the best tracks from some of our earlier CDs which we won't be re pressing. We've included our DVD "Healing God" on the same CD and a new track by songwriter Bobby Lokat entitled "Will You Grow". Caim's debut live performance of "Will you Grow" was so well received by folkies at "Four Fools Festival" in Lancashire in June that we decided somewhere on the M6 on our way home to make it the title track and to have Bobby provide the cover artwork for the CD. For those folkies who liked Bobby's version of his song when we played it to them, Bobby sings as Caim's guest on our version too, so you get the best of both worlds!
Ciaran and Heather have been seeing a lot of each other in recent months as Music in Hospital concerts and tours have continued to come in for Scotland.
Add Kate Kramer to the duo and you have Firefrost and we will be gigging for what has become a fun annual event at Winnock Hotel on Christmas Day.
For those of you waiting patiently for my husband Al's CD please accept my apologies for the delay. It is now ready for production and we will be pressing the CD during October and emailing everyone as soon as it is ready for posting out to you. It is worth waiting for!
Thanks as always to all of you for your support of our music.

God bless

Heather

Caim in Thailand

2009-05-23T14:31:00.017+01:00

Sitting at my computer in the quiet Scottish village where I live it’s strange to re live Caim’s recent experiences in the refugee camps in Thailand through our respective journal notes and photos. To help me re visit the past few weeks, I’m playing a recording I made each day of the Karen children singing to us in their wonderful Karen harmonies.

The following is a summary of notes both Jacynth and I made in the form of a diary each day.

Thursday May 7th.
After travel, which ended with a 6 hr bus journey and a day for orientation, we had our first day in the camp. Our visit was hosted and organised by Deborah from Partners Relief and Development, an international Christian organisation with a base in Mae Sot. (www.partnersworld.org)

An hours drive from Mae Sot and past two Thai army checkpoints, the first sight of the camp was amazing - hundreds and hundreds of bamboo stilt houses - light brown, crowded up and down the foothills of a huge very green tree/palm covered mountain. We drove in along one-car width tracks - sometimes dirt and sometimes concrete. One of the boys from the hostel met us at the main gate to guide us - there are no road names and all the houses look very alike!

Most of those we will visit this week belong to the ethnic Karen tribe. Some of the children are orphans and others have been sent out of Burma by their parents so they can have an education. Many of the schools in the Karen villages back in Burma have been destroyed.

People in the camps are not allowed to go out - can't get work or further ed. in Thailand, so they do appreciate new faces and strange language. We had a really good translator today. We introduced ourselves with a map to show Scotland and Ireland. Learning Irish dance steps was our icebreaker - worked very well - even with 40 or so aged from 5-20. Most joined in very enthusiastically, especially the older boys.

They also enjoyed our songs - some to listen to and some to join in with - a mix of Irish and Scottish traditional songs and prayers plus Head & Shoulders with actions which the little ones found hilariously funny. Their joining in included one boy on guitar who accompanied “Coulters Candy” perfectly. Later he studied Heather's bodhran carefully (see picture) and will probably make himself one.
The children also sang two worship songs for us in Karen. Many of the Karen are Christian. We danced the Gay Gordons (see picture) and finished with a lullaby and Deep Peace, to calm us for lunch - but spoiled the calm by giving out little gifts - pencils, balloons, pictures and postcards.
We were served with rice and several accompanying tasty dishes - eating by ourselves, the children and housemother eating afterwards. We had some conversations after lunch and then drove back to Mae Sot.

A swim and shower refreshed us ready for an evening meal in a little restaurant just outside our hotel. There, as well as delicious food, we had long conversations with an Australian journalist who spends much time in Karen villages in Burma and with a young Burmese man who is working in Mae Sot. He has a Thai ID card so can live in Mae Sot, but is registered in the camp and is there some of the time, so he can apply through UN to be resettled in another country.

Fri 8th May

Today we were in a school high up the hill, which was quite a climb. One of the children took it upon herself to hold Heather’s hand when she was having difficulty with her arthritis. The little girl was amazing and Heather wished she could take her with her everywhere - she knew just what to do and preserved her dignity.

Sat 9th May
Another hostel in this camp of 60,000 people. Again around 40 6-20 year olds for whom we did a similar programme. This group were very good singers so we added in a song from Africa, a round in Irish and our peace chant - Jacynth was very moved by having them join in it. In this hostel there was only a tiny concrete platform for dance. A circle dance to Gifts, one of our prayers, worked very well - with a couple of groups of volunteers. Interestingly, the older boys were the most keen to take part - also when we did the 2 hand reel and the Gay Gordons - the majority were happy to clap along and to laugh at the dancers - great fun had by all. We had a little more time to talk, via interpreter, to one teenage girl. She is 16 and has lived in the hostel for 3 years and has no family. It wasn't the right opportunity to probe more deeply. Partners workers have told us that the children don't tend to show negative emotions and what we saw was smiling, giggling and laughter - plus the odd yawn. When they sang for us they raised the roof, it was good to hear.

This hostel has no electricity so it's early to bed - dark before 8 - and up at 4 for an hour's worship, then the fetching of the days water supply by bucket, from a standpipe. On to cooking, washing by hand, harvesting bamboo, adding bamboo walls or re-roofing with fresh palm leaves -- many tasks to keep the houses fit to live in.

Sun 10th May
Today we worshipped at the Mission School church. Reaching it was an adventure. A steady climb up the mountain, weaving between bamboo houses, over boulders, tiny bamboo bridges, mud patches, past two corner shops, a pig pen and a ball court (a Karen game like volley ball, but with head and feet - not hands) - all the ground dried mud. What a luxury to find a stretch of concrete path!

We arrived just after the start of Sunday school and were enthralled by the sight of a dozen or more little girls in their Sunday dresses - white, hand woven, with coloured edgings. These are for young girls, unmarried and who don't have a child.

One tiny girl sitting behind us put out her hand to touch Heather's wavy hair.
Several small dogs wandered up the aisle, sniffed Heather's drum and wandered off again.
The church was quite large, with half walls topped with mosquito screens, a high roof, a low platform, and communion table and was very light/bright. There were flower arrangements especially for Mother's Day. Also on platform, the band instruments - drum kit, keyboards, guitars etc.

At Sunday School we taught the Gifts dance, Boat Blessing, Christ Child's Lullaby and sang several other prayers. Again they were very good singers.
The service began at 11 and ended (with the 3-fold Amen!) at 1:30.
Everyone was in their Sunday best - a lot of sarongs, Karen shirts and some beautiful tops.
We were able to join in the opening choruses even though sung in the Karen language which included "This is the Day" and "From the rising of the sun" - also hymns later in service - 19th C staples, "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "Thou whose Almighty word" -those we didn't know we could hum along to. The singing was very hearty.

We shared a bit of our journey as Caim and sang several prayers. Then it was on to the readings, including Pr 31 re women, prayers, 2 sermons and a presentation of gifts to mothers. Earlier in the service a middle-aged laywoman came to the front and cleaned two chairs, which she set in front of communion table. Two young men invited the two oldest mothers (83 and 78) to come and sit there and young girls brought them posies to pin on and a gift each. All the mothers/married women received a posy on arriving at church and a gift later in the service. Heather qualified thanks to her stepdaughter, Kiera.

When church was over we really were ready for lunch, which was provided in the main schoolhouse. What a spread - plates of rice, delicious salty soup, tasty meat dishes, a veg one and a whole small fish. The headmaster, the pastor, one of the male teachers and our translator, also male, sat and ate with us. That gave us the opportunity to talk - an opportunity totally lacking at other meals. This room had open shelving laden with textbooks, which looked as if they’d seen much service. Jacynth was also interested to see several microscopes - taking her back to her scientific days. On the way out Jacynth photographed a pile of enormous Woks - they are cooking for upwards of 40 for every meal.

The journey downhill was accomplished safely.

Who did we meet?

History teacher. Been in camp 3 yrs. He talked about how lonely the children are, because they don’t have outside contact. He explained that, because there is little work, young men particularly start drinking and that leads to fights.

Our translator for the day - has completed Bible School. His father has a Thai passport and lives in Mae Sot, but he and his siblings must live in the camp and hope for resettlement or a change in the fortune of the Karen nation.

A 20 years old man. He has been in camp 3 years. His family is here. They all had to flee their village when it was destroyed, walking for days through the jungle, avoiding landmines and attacks by the Burma Army till they gained the relative safety of Thailand. He is studying engineering - year one of a three-year course. When finished he hopes to be resettled in one of the receiving countries – i.e. Canada, USA, Australia or Norway.

Mon 11th May - our day off.

We enjoyed the pool at Centara Hotel - like tourists.

Visited the Moei Market at the Friendship Bridge - bridge across to Burma. You can go into Burma (500 Bhat visa) have a look in the town on the other side and then back to Thailand - new 15-day visa. That's how some people lengthen their stay. The market was good - food, electronics, carved goods, precious stones, jewellery and clothes. We picked up a few bargains here.

We did in fact have an evening concert at a school in Mae Sot - a school for children of migrant workers. About 100 children, aged 5-20 were there. They enjoyed singing with us and for us as well as some of them dancing. When they sang, it was in age groups - the tiny ones did an action song, then the middles and finally the choir, which was very good. The headmistress, who trains the choir, wants some more church songs in English for the choir - another thing we'll be happy to follow up. They sing 4 part pieces. It was a pleasure to hear them.

A chance to try Heather's bodhran and to listen to the tuning fork were highlights for many of the kids.

Tue 12th May
Our last day in the camp.

On the way we stopped at two of the gates so one of the Partners workers, could deliver hygiene packs for each child that Partners supports. The packs contain toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, washing powder - and maybe more that we've forgotten. - Enough for 3 months. Packs for 30 or 40 children in one large bag are very heavy. Boys from each receiving hostel came to carry them up the mountain - some took bamboo poles out of a fence and suspended the bag on them - a very effective method of transport. A caregiver from each hostel also had to come and sign the paperwork associated with this provision.

Another strenuous climb, up steep parts with no steps and across muddy gullies brought us up to our destination where we were welcomed with hot coffee, very sweet.

We moved into the church for our singing and dancing. It is a Karen Baptist church. This was a big group - maybe 60. The boys sat on one side and the girls on the other. They were more reluctant to dance - just a few participated. Their singing was so good that we did Peace Chant and Sanna Sannanina. They go in for choir competitions in the camp - and usually win. We had lunch in the middle of the programme - a great spread - beef curry, boiled eggs in a tomato sauce, steamed sliced potatoes and a veg/fish dish - served with rice. - Very good. During lunch Jacynth had a look at their hymnbook. It looks like an Alexander's Hymn Book - 4pt music and Karen words. Familiar hymns and tunes - Thou Whose Almighty Word, When He Cometh, tune Duke St used for a hymn we didn't know.

At the end of our afternoon session, the children and young people came forward one by one to receive their gift and shook our hands - Karen style - thanking us and offering God's blessing.

We were relieved to be led down by a different route - much better, with steps on some steep parts. This brought us not to the gate, but to a gap in the fence, but not far from the truck. On the way Jacynth talked to H a young woman who looked about 17. She's been in the camp for 3 years. Her 2 brothers and her sister are also in camp. Their parents are living in Karen state and have sent their family to the camp in Thailand to be safer and to receive an education.

One other day Jacynth spoke with a young man, L - maybe in his 20s who is studying nursing. She wondered how this could be and asked Yim from Partners who translated for us on several days. She explained that there are clinics and a hospital in the camp, to provide some health care. Acute and intensive care facilities are not available. If someone is so ill that they need these, that will be taken to Mae Sot (1 hour) to a particular clinic (not the hospital) and receive treatment there. One family member can go and stay with them. No one else can go and visit, as they can't leave the camp.

Wed 13th May
An hour’s drive to the south of Mae Sot – through luxurious green countryside, with banana palms, coconut palms and rice fields, brought us to a hostel at a school for children of migrant workers. These parents are mostly in building trade or sewing in sweatshops. Some children's parents are in Burma.

As we walked through the grounds - so spacious in comparison to the camp - we saw artwork the children had done over the weekend, with a student group from Chiang Mai - a rainbow and a mural with creation - a thanksgiving.

The church was beautiful - roof painted light blue and with patterned blue tiles on floor and ceiling.

Again boys and girls sat separately. Though at first reluctant, when urged by the teacher who was translating for us, everyone took part in the dances - with much laughter during the Gay Gordons. This was the one place where they seemed not to have prepared a song to sing - but they did sing two pieces - and sang well.

There is a weaving shop on the grounds. The looms are underneath the stilt building. The treadles are bamboo poles and the roller at the back is hexagonal and open - see photo. They use cotton, which grows here, and we saw a spinner at work preparing the bobbins for the weavers. Her spinning wheel - part of a bicycle was very effective. The colours are beautiful and patterns intricate in the cloth for sarongs, shirts, blankets, skirts, dresses, bags.

Evenings at Coffee Corner

Then there were all the people we met in the evenings – at our hotel or at our coffee shop restaurant nearby. It was like a little United Nations – Marco from Finland and living in Africa, Steve from Australia, folk from the US now living in Chiang Mai, Dan from Oz, Po Thai born and bred, a Vietnamese-American evangelist, Peter, English, now living in Finland, Johnny born in Burma, with some Nepali roots, Paul from England and ourselves from N.I and Rhodesia/Australia/Scotland. We learned a lot from listening and talking.

Marco has funding from a charity in Finland. He’s talking with people in one of the smaller camps.

Steve came as a volunteer – teaching English in a college in one of the camps. Now, a couple of months on, as the college hasn’t got enough Karen English teachers, he’s going to work at the college for a year.

Dan, a journalist, has been interviewing and writing about the situation of the Karen for several years. (http://www.danielpedersen.org/) We learned much from him. Along with his wife, Po and waiter, Johnny, he provides all sorts of help – we called their restaurant the one stop shop – for good food, great conversation, massage recommendations, lifts on a motorbike, internet access, library, hand-made Karen goods, advice on where to buy anything from cigars to tapes, help with booking hotel in Chaing Mai…

Peter started an orphanage for children out of Burma in Um Phang – 4 hr from Mae Sot. The funding comes mainly from Finland and Peter visits several times a year.
He is chariman of Christian organisation – H2O – Help to Orphans.

There are so, so many things to learn - we've come home still only knowing a fraction! We’ll be reading and surfing the web to keep up with it all. We do hope to return in 2010.

One book, which is very good – giving some history and also detailing on-going humanitarian work – is “A Land Without Evil”. The author, Benedict Rogers, is a journalist now working for Christian Solidarity Worldwide and is the person who originally inspired us to go on our journey.

Thank you to all of you who helped and supported us in our fund raising last year to make this trip possible – we couldn’t have done it without you!

Heather & Jacynth.

February 2009

2009-02-09T11:32:00.004Z

Hi Everyone,

A new year and some exciting adventures ahead. Though Ciaran and I feel we've had enough excitement for a while after struggling by train and car through the recent snow blizzards to reach hospital gigs in the north of Scotland!

Jacynth and I have been busy fundraising since the last blog - sponsored sings, dance workshops, ceilidhs etc. Ciaran helped me with a sponsored sing at the home of Margaret Gillies Brown which turned into a hilarious concert of 2 hours and 40 mins while we sang every request imaginable until we reached our target of 50 songs. All of this has been to raise enough money for Caim to go to Thailand to sing at the Burmese Refugee Camps. (Ciaran said he did it to get rid of me for while!) We now have well over £1000 raised and are ready to go whenever the partners of CSW say they are ready for us. This will most likely be now in our autumn, after the rainy season has passed in the Thai jungle.

Meanwhile we have a month's tour planned for April in Wisconsin, USA (see www.cluniemusic.com and www.myspace.com/celticcaim for gigs) and another US tour in Florida in September/October.

June 14/16 weekend Caim have been invited to sing a bit nearer home for a World Community of Christian Meditation (WCCM) conference in Stirling University, Scotland.

I've been back in Red Barn Studios again, this time with poet and author Margaret Gillies Brown
to record a selection of our songs and poetry from our performances at the A.K. Bell Library Theatre, Perth in recent years for the Perth Festival of the Arts. Our CD "Coming Home" we hope to have on sale at our next performance "Blow the Wind Southerly"on May 28th, 2009.

The master copy of my late husband Al's CD "Full Vision" is now with me and being checked for last minute alterations before going to be pressed. Thank you to everyone who has supported this project by pre ordering. "Full Vision" is available from Chris Clayton at Right Real Records in Rotherham. For the full address see the last blog. It is sounding really good and hopefully will be a good fund raiser for Habitat for Humanity. Al's "Valley of Love" which is on the CD reached no 8 in the US Christian and Gospel Charts. (Caim reached no 6 - sorry Al!)

As always - thank you for your support of our music. Hopefully we'll catch up with you somewhere on tour this year - catching up with friends on our travels and making new ones is what we enjoy most.

Deep Peace

Heather

The Last of the Summer

2008-10-10T11:05:00.004+01:00

Caim decided to prolong their summer by travelling to Ontario, Canada for the last week in August and not content with glorious sunny days at the Muskoka Lakes tried for even more sunshine in Florida the following two weeks.

Canada was catch up time with our agent Ian Davies and family in London, Ontario and then a week with Ian at his family cottage at the Muskoka Lakes. While there we sang at Bannockburn Presbyterian Church, one of Muskoka's summer churches.
One of the highlights of our visit was an unscheduled private tour of Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, a rehabilitation facility for injured and orphaned wildlife. Over 1000 animals per year are helped at the sanctuary - some, who can't return to the wild for one reason or another, stay "on staff" to help rehabilitate newcomers while as many as possible native animals are prepared to re enter their natural wild habitat. This is no zoo - each animal has as much space as he or she needs - in some cases, like the wolves and bears, acres of bushland and forest that they can shelter in and hide from prying eyes.
Holiday and rehearsal time over we headed to Florida via a long day in Newark airport through a missed connection. Our Amtrack rail journey to Tampa was cancelled due to huricane warnings on the route to Florida through North Carolina so we hired a distinctive little orange chevrolet car which our host family in Tampa thought was "cool". Nothing else was cool though - we had achieved our summer - 95 degree heat!
As always one of the perks of Caim touring is making new friends and visiting old - in Tampa and in Gainesville, this was still the case. Lots of singing to do but also time to socialise and sightsee.
In Gainesville we returned to the very first venue we had sung in in 2001 - the university chapel. This time with a new minister - but still a Rev Nancee! Our Habitat for Humanity fund raising concert was a great success there, largely due to the publicity work of Habitat organiser Peg Iwata who did a wonderful job for us in a very short period of time. Thanks to Peg. Habitat Alachua are also helping with sales, not only of Caim CDs but with my late husband's forthcoming CD "Full Vision". This was special, as Al had helped with the building of a Habitat house in Gainesville and had his own fund raising concert for Habitat when he was last there in 2003.
Plans are already underway for return visits by Caim to Canada, Florida and also North Carolina in October 2009.
Meanwhile our friend Colleen Sutherland is working hard for us in Wisconsin, USA and bookings are starting to come in for our tour with Dunkeld poet, Kenneth Steven, in April 2009.
Closer to home, Ciaran and I have a couple of Music in Hospital tours coming up in the north of Scotland and in Ciaran's native Belfast. Ciaran and I will be joined by Jacynth of Caim for our concerts in Northern Ireland next month.
The weekend prior to the start of the Belfast tour Jacynth and I will be singing at a fund raising concert in Devon for Christian Solidarity Worldwide. (See above photo - villagers fleeing attacks from the Burma army)If you live anywhere near South Brent please check out the details on our gig page and support this event. We're still hoping to travel to Thailand in the early part of 2009 to sing at the Burma Refugee Camps and I'm busy organising a fund raising ceilidh in my village and a Caim concert at St Catharine's Centre, Blairgowrie for the end of November.

If you'd like to support Habitat for Humanity by ordering Al's CD "Full Vision" please send a cheque for£10 UK, $15 USA or $20 Aus and make your cheques payable to Al Ponting Charity Account, c/- Right Real Records, The Studio, 32 Browning Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire. S65 2NS. UK. We'll send you a 3 track preview EP "Part Vision" free of charge until "Full Vision" is released.
If anyone wishes to donate to Caim's tour of the refugee camps please make your cheque payable to CSW Refugee Camp and send c/- Jacynth Hamill, 101 Galwally Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland. BT8 6AG.

Finally - Caim's single "Healing God" has reached number 6 in the US Christian Country and Gospel Charts while Al Ponting's "Valley of Love" is close behind us at number 8! How cool is that!

Till next time....Heather

Summer/autumn 2008

2008-08-14T11:45:00.005+01:00

Hi everyone,

I've just returned from Right Real Records after an amazing weekend with Chris putting together Al's music for his memorial CD "Full Vision". This will be available for Christmas we hope. If you would like to pre order your copy (£10 UK, $15 USA, $20 Aus.) make your cheques payable to Al Ponting Charity Account, c/- Right Real Records, The Studio, 32 Browning Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire. S65 2NS. UK. and we'll send you a 3 track preview EP "Part Vision" free of charge until "Full Vision" is released. All profits from AL's music are being donated to Habitat for Humanity.

Meanwhile - Al's single "Valley of Love" went straight into the US Gospel and Country charts at no. 25!

Caim's single "Healing God" had reached no 12 position in the same charts the last time I heard.

Caim will be soon on the road again in Canada and in Florida. We leave August 28 and are looking forward to catching up with all our friends as well as singing in Muskoka Ontario, Gainesville and Tampa. Our gigs are listed on both our websites at http://www.cluniemusic.com/ and www.myspace.com/celticcaim

I mentioned in the last blog about Caim's interest in singing for the folk in the Burmese refugee camps in Thailand. Emails have gone back and forth from us and Christian Solidarity Worldwide and we hope to be singing for a few fund raising concerts throughout the UK from October onwards. We'll keep you posted as these come in. Meanwhile I hope to run a fund raising ceilidh and Caim concert in Perthshire when Jacynth is over here in November to raise funds for our forthcoming trip to Thailand with CSW in February 2009. If anyone wishes to donate to our tour of the refugee camps please make your cheque payable to CSW Burma Refugee Camp and send c/- Jacynth Hamill, 101 Galwally Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland. BT8 6AG.

That's it for now - I'm posting a pic in memory of my cat Twilights who sadly died this week.

As always - thank you for supporting our music.

Heather

Summer 2008

2008-06-19T12:13:00.008+01:00

Hi everyone,

Finally I can stop long enough to write this and catch up on all that's been happening.

On the last blog I posted a photo of Auld of Clunie Farm. Since then I've downsized to a great wee cottage in a nearby village along with my cats Twilights and Hope. (See posted photo) Sadly one of my goats Paloma died while I was in the US but Rishlin is happily ensconced in her new home - a farm near Stirling where she shares a field with some pet sheep and a horse. I've had reports of her wandering to neighbour's farms to say hello!

Caim

We have had an exciting year so far. We toured Wisconsin in the Spring, which means Wisconsin under several feet of snow! Our friend and storyteller, Colleen Sutherland, organised great gigs for us in a variety of libraries which was interesting for me as I work as a relief library assistant in Perthshire when I'm off the road. We were also privileged to sing to patients in a hospice outside Madison and we returned to Cup O Joy, Christian coffee House in Greenbay for another concert with harpist Jeff Pockatt.

Leaving Wisconsin we travelled to North Carolina to meet our my space friend Suz. Suz gave us a fabulous week of sightseeing, meeting her family and sampling a different eating place each mealtime. We did a fair bit of singing too in her church, at a school for orphaned children and in Asheville. We hope to be back! Thank you Suz!! (The photo posted above is the view from Grandfather Mountain near Blowing Rock, North Carolina)

Our next visit to Wisconsin which will take in Missouri and Michigan, including Sault Ste Marie with Dunkeld poet Kenneth Steven, is being planned by Colleen for April 2009.

As I write, Jacynth has just left my wee cottage for Belfast after a Caim mini tour in England, taking in a church near Uttoxeter, a couple of birthday parties and the reason for the tour - a Caim ceilidh and singing at worship for the Community of Aiden and Hilda's weekend retreat at Redhill Christian Centre, Stratford upon Avon.

At the latter we heard a talk on Burma from Ben of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and two Burmese Christians, which sowed the seeds into each of our minds for Caim to become involved somehow with the refugee camps on the Thai/Burmese border. We have since emailed Ben and will be discussing with him Caim fund raising concerts for the camps and perhaps travelling to the Thai border and singing to the refugees there. We are excited about the possibility of using our music in this way and will keep you informed, especially as we may need to raise funds for our travel to Thailand.

Meanwhile next on our agenda is a return visit to Muskoka in Canada at the end of August and on the same trip, as we have airmiles to use up, to Florida for the first two weeks in September. Looking forward to catching up with friends and sunshine on that one! Our visit should coincide with the release of Caim's single "Healing God" to the Christian media in the States. At concerts we will have the single for sale along with our first DVD.

Heather Innes

Margaret Gillies Brown and I gave our third annual performance of poetry. prose and song at the A.K. Bell Library Theatre for Perth Festival of the Arts at the end of May and are now working on next year's program.

A highlight for me was singing a couple of songs during the program with Seoirse O Dochartaigh from Donegal. Seoirse and I recorded the songs while he was here at Red Barn Studios for a forthcoming CD from Margaret and myself which will be available next year. I began my folk singing career in a duo with Seoirse called Donegal Folk Weave which later became the Dulaman band. It was wonderful to sing together again and we are thinking about a joint Scots/Irish Gaelic project for the future.

Heather Innes & Ciaran Dorris

Ciaran, Kate Kramer and myself toured for the Council for Music in Hospitals in Guernsey in January/February where we all had our first taste of Spring weather for the year. Leaving the snow and ice of Scotland behind we stepped out of the airport to warm air, daffodils and birdsong. The longer the tour the better as far as we were concerned - actually it was 2-3 weeks. As in all our touring, friends made on these trips are the highlight and we look forward to returning and renewing the friendships.

Ciaran and I continue to gig regularly in Scotland for Music in Hospitals, including the occasional few days tour to Aberdeen. Ciaran has a great radio program of his own in Glasgow every Sunday between 5pm and 7pm. Have a listen to him at http://www.celticmusicradio.net/

Al Ponting Music

Finally, I have had a listen to Al's single "Valley of Love" at Right Real Records Studios and am really pleased that the choir backing is as Al would have wanted. The release date through Christian radio in the States is very close. (See www.CMPMagazine.com ) Meanwhile, "Valley of Love" is being sung by other Christian singers in Yorkshire.

I will be travelling to Right Real Studios in August to work with Chris on Al's CD "Full Vision" which will be available from http://www.cluniemusic.com/ , proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.

That's it folks! Thank you as always for supporting our music.

God bless

Heather

New Year 2008

2008-01-05T13:42:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone!

Clunie Music are beginning the new year by signing up all our artists to The Musician's Network, who will be handling all our bookings from now on. Caim and Al met with Debra Carey and Ben Edom who run The Musican's Network, a few years ago and recognised then their business and computer skills. Debra and Ben travelled from the Scottish highlands all the way to Holy Island shortly after to play harp and guitar for Caim at the launch of Caim's "Creator of the Tides" CD. They also gave Caim an excellent contact for our Australian tour 2003 - the Celtic Tearoom in Queensland where Debra and Ben had been living before settling on the west coast of Scotland. I came across one of their booking websites recently while researching a project I had in mind to sing at weddings with a variety of backing musicians, emailed Debra and away we go! Hopefully this will mean more work for all of us.

Heather Innes

I came across a wonderful gig for Christmas day - singing carols to folk eating their Christmas dinners in a hotel at Loch Lomond. I asked Ciaran and Kate Kramer (fiddle) to join me and thoroughly enjoyed my day, especially as our audiences in the three restaurants in the hotel were all eager to sing along.

Christmas Day started me thinking I'd like more of the same so I've spoken with a few musicians who are now on stand by to form a band or duos with me when bookings come in for weddings, corporate events etc. and I can also sing solo for wedding services.

Margaret Gillies Brown and I have had the first rehearsal for our next annual performance at Perth Festival of the Arts. This year it will be "Out of the Westland" with songs, poetry and prose from the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides. As always at the A.K.Bell Library Theatre, 2pm Friday 30th May, 2008.

Ciaran Dorris & Heather Innes

Since our October tour and Ciaran's John Denver Tribute concerts we've been mainly concentrating on our Music in Hospitals work with 10 Christmas party concerts in a row immediately prior to Christmas. We're kind of glad to have sent Rudolph and his reindeer buddies back to Lapland for a well earned rest!

We travel next to Guernsey for 2 weeks of hospital gigs followed by a Burns Supper in Birnam when we return.

Caim

After over a year of planning, Fr Gregory and Br Barnabas from the Julian Order in Wisconsin, USA finally arrived at Edinburgh airport in November to be met by Jacynth, also flown in from Belfast, as I was somewhere on the M9 behind a huge traffic jam and accident. Eventually I joined them for breakfast at the airport then we all returned to Auld of Clunie where they had dreamed of visiting for so long. In between leading retreats with Caim, recording meditations at Red Barn Studio, having a photo shoot for Caim's next CD and accepting invitations to several social outings Fr Gregory made special friends with all my flock of 60 hens and my two goats Paloma and Rishlin. They loved the extra attention and food! Br Barnabas meanwhile enjoyed a 6 mile walk from Dunkeld to Auld of Clunie alongside Loch of the Lowes which was particularly beautiful at that time of year. He also travelled by train to a priory near Elgin for a special retreat of his own.

The beginning of December found Caim and the monks on route to Norwich via Holy Island. Fr Gregory discovered a great new toy - the sat nav - which he discovered could speak to us in several different languages! Julian's Church in Norwich was a wonderful venue for a day long retreat with Fr Gregory and Caim and then a Caim concert in the evening. There was a little difficulty with the heating for the concert but the beauty and accoustics in the little church more than compensated. Fr Gregory was a hardened honorary Scot by then (one o' Jock Tamson's bairns!) and acclimatised to the cold having experienced Alyth Episcopal church, Perthshire with no heating the Sunday before!

2008 has quite a bit in store for Caim in the early part of the year. We are in the studio at Red Barn in January to put the music to our CD with Fr Gregory. We hope to release the CD in the States when we travel to Wisconsin and North Carolina in March/ April for a concert tour of a number of libraries in Wisconsin, a return visit to the Cup O Joy Coffee House in Greenbay and a special visit to our Myspace friend Suz in North Carolina who is busy organising concerts for us in her part of the world. (Find Suz on our friends list at www.myspace.com/celticcaim)

That's it for now. The snow is melting outside and I'm sure there's more to come but it's a new year and Spring is on its way!

Till next time.

Heather

Sad News

2007-10-27T11:44:00.000+01:00

October 2007

Since our last Clunie Music blog in August my husband Al Ponting died peacefully on September 1st, 2007 from heart failure. He had been in hospital for a week following a sudden stroke and renal failure at the end of August.

I said in the last blog that Al had been to Right Real Records studios to record his songs and these will be made into a CD of Al's music early next year - all profits going to Al's favourite charity Habitat for Humanity.

Al's song "Valley of Love" was played at his funeral which was a wonderful celebration of Al's life with 100 friends from far and near. Chris Clayton from Right Real Records sang a special song for Al, "Goodnight", on the day and I led Al's favourite Gospel hymn "Amazing Grace".

"Valley of Love" has since had a Gospel choir backing added to the track which Al always wanted and it is to be released and promoted as a single throughout the Christian media in the States very shortly.

Ciaran & Heather

In October Ciaran and I made our long awaited visit to the Tump Folk Club in Brinklow and Seaford Folk Club on the south coast of England. We had two great gigs with very friendly and responsive audiences and hope to return to both sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, Ciaran has been having fun with his John Denver tribute concerts in Scotland. I was in the audience for the Perth concert and enjoyed the music and banter from the other side for a change.

We are both pretty busy with Music in Hospitals concerts and tours now in the lead up to Christmas and looking forward to warmer weather in our two week Music in Hospitals tour in Guernsey at the end of January.

Caim

The "Save Tara" concert in Derry, Northern Ireland that Caim took part in was different and a lot of fun. We surrounded this with our first music in hospitals concerts which seemed to go well. Sidney the snake was a particular favourite with everyone.

Meanwhile we've been enjoying preparing music and poetry concerts with Dunkeld poet Kenneth Stevens. Hopefully we'll tour these in Canada and the States next year.

November will find us in Milton Keynes for workshops and a concert and then providing the music for retreats in Scotland and Norwich with USA priest, Fr Gregory of the Order of Julian of Norwich. We'll also be back in Red Barn Studios again for a joint CD of music and meditation with Fr Gregory.

On the horizon too is another tour in Wisconsin, USA in March 2008. This time our travels will feature a number of library concerts so check out our gig page for that one if you live nearby.

That's it folks till next time!

Deep Peace

Heather

August 2007

2007-08-07T13:27:00.000+01:00

Hi Everyone,

Well we've landed - we're finally all back home at Auld of Clunie after our July travels. Our cats Twilights and Hope, baby chics Honey and Chirpy (Mumbles sadly didn't make it), goats Rishlin and Paloma and our many hens and cockerels were looked after well in our absence by Lorna and Ann from ACE's (Animal Care and Exercise Service) http://www.aces06.co.uk/ I think our menagerie are looking forward to having all that attention again the next time we go away!

Caim and Al travelled to Yorkshire as planned in the middle of July. Al stayed warm and dry and had a blast recording several of his songs in Chris and Ian's Right Real Studios. He will be returning to the studio in September to hear a Gospel choir add harmonies to his tracks!

Jacynth and I were not so warm and dry walking through muddy fields and cow pats to reach a set of standing stones in the Yorkshire countryside to film part of our DVD. Despite the weather conditions it was a lot of fun though. I especially enjoyed singing to an audience of curious swallows ducking and diving around the stones. We'll let you know when the DVD is ready.

Caim also travelled to London for a day at the end of the week for Jacynth's audition for the Council for Music in Hospitals. Jacynth introduced the audition panel to her hand puppet, Sidney the performing snake, and we were in - especially when Sidney tried to take a bite from the lunch belonging to a man on the panel. We've heard since that our audition was successful.

Before and after Yorkshire I travelled to the Isle of Skye for two week long Gaelic song workshops. The first with Cathy Ann McPhee and Kathleen MacInnes and the second with Christine Primrose. I now have 72 Gaelic songs to look at over the winter and choose from for our Caim repertoire and for next year's concert with Margaret Gillies Brown. We worked hard!

I'll be catching up with Ciaran again at some hospital concerts in Glasgow and Dundee this week. Check out his myspace site - www.myspace.com/ciarandorrismusic for his latest gossip.

Our other myspace sites are: www.myspace.com/heatherponting (Heather Innes)
www.myspace.com/celticcaim (Caim)
www.myspace.com/Alponting (Al)

Till next time...

Heather

2007-07-10T14:27:00.000+01:00

July 10, 2007

Hi Everyone,

Ciaran and I are back from our travels to Northern Ireland. We had 6 really good days of concerts in Nursing Homes, hospitals and the Northern Ireland Hospice in Belfast - 2 a day.

Completely outwith our control, Ciaran's dad was back in the hospice for respite care the week we were there so Ciaran found himself entertaining not only the day hospice patients but also his dad, family and relatives as well. To add to the mix, just before the concert began we were greeted by the Northern Ireland representative for the Council for Music in Hospitals, who we work for, who had come to check us out! (http://www.music-in-hospitals.org.uk/ and http://www.musicinhospitalsscotland.org.uk/) Thanks to Ciaran's professionalism and helped by Jacynth who had come along to add a little Irish dance to the mix, the concert went extremely well.

Our travels took us through Glasgow airport both ways but thankfully not on the day of the terrorist attempted bombing.

Earlier in the month Caim sang at Tchai -Ovna in Glasgow to a select audience. Tchai-Ovna's hospitality to us must be noted especially their dessert menu which was to die for! What was that cake called again Jacynth?

Jacynth helped with harmonies for my concert with Margaret Gillies Brown the following evening at the Birnam Institute. I thoroughly enjoyed singing at this one - the acoustics were excellent - no need for PA.

To finish off our short Scottish tour Caim sang at morning worship at St Catharine's, Blairgowrie and for a very special communion service at St Ninian's, Alyth where all of us experienced a unique quality of peace and the presence of God.

Coming up this month Caim are giving a workshop and concert at Scargill House, Skipton, Yorkshire for their summer festival and then travelling on down to Rotherham to film our DVD to go with our new Right Real Records Single "Healing God". Al will be travelling with us and recording a couple of singles of his own songs "Valley of Love" and "Man on the Corner" with Chris and Ian at Right Real Records. Sadly Al's band Freedom Place have disbanded but something new is afoot.

I'm also looking forward to two week long Gaelic song workshops this month at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on the Isle of Skye with Cathy Anne McPhee and Christine Primrose and hopefully researching songs for the 2008 Margaret Gillies Brown and Heather Innes performance for the Perth festival of the Arts - "Out of the Westland".

Meanwhile Al and I are snatching precious minutes of sleep here and there in between hand rearing three little baby chics (Mumbles, Honey and Chirpy) abandoned by their mother at Auld of Clunie Farm.

Till next time.

Heather

May 2007

2007-05-26T14:25:00.000+01:00

Photo: Margaret Gillies Brown and Heather Innes.

(Photo taken by June Kettles. www.junekettles.co.uk)

Hi everyone,

Well - I found my way back here! Starting to get the hang of this now.

May began with Caim visiting Rotherham in Yorkshire for 5 days to record at Right Real Studios with Chris and Ian. We put down vocals for three potential single tracks, developed our friendship with Chris and Ian and with Chris' family and enjoyed a couple of evenings at the home of Right Real artist Su who makes a mean curry! We hope to be back in the area in July to record a DVD for one of the tracks and for my husband Al to record a couple of his own songs for the Right Real label. Al is very excited about this as he will finally get the gospel choir backing he's always wanted on his song "Valley of Love" (It just so happens Chris directs The United Gospel Choir in Rotherham!).

Ciaran Dorris and myself have been busy with Music in Hospital concerts. We had a two day tour to Aberdeen the day after I returned from Rotherham and then several days here and there in Ayrshire and Glasgow working with fiddler Kate Kramer in our Firefrost trio.

Ciaran was a great help in my library theatre concert with Margaret Gillies Brown a couple of days ago. He played guitar for most of my songs and then finally agreed to finish off our afternoon by singing a song himself from our joint CD "Waiting for the Calm". Like last year, I thoroughly enjoyed this gig with Margaret and it turned out to be a very successful event for a second time - the theatre being almost full and the audience being very responsive to Margaret's stories and poems and my singing. The highlight of the afternoon though was when I was told by a friend that there was a rumour going round the folk scene that Ciaran and I were married! First that my husband Al and I had heard of it - or Ciaran for that matter - though as they say in these parts - we dinna muckle mind!

So - onto June when Al's band will play their first wedding gig, Caim will be in Scotland for another show with Margaret Gillies Brown plus an evening at the Tchai Ovna Tea House in Glasgow and Ciaran and I will be on tour in Northern Ireland for a week for Music in Hospitals.

See you then!

Heather

April 2007

2007-04-22T11:10:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

I've finally managed to work out how to do this - putting up a blog is a lot more complicated with Google it seems. Hey I can put up a photo now though.

Caim have had a few things going on this month. We accepted a booking in the lovely town of Beauly near Inverness to help raise funds for a new charity BACCAS. (Bowel and colon cancer awareness). The evening was in the form of a cocktail party in the local hotel and was very well attended with over £1000 raised to launch the charity. The acoustics in the room were excellent so we had fun and Jacynth was asked for a repeat performance of her Irish dancing.

When Jacynth was in Scotland for our gig in Beauly, we took the opportunity for a photo shoot with friend and local professional photographer June Kettles (www.junekettles.co.uk) The weather was amazing for this time of year with lots of sunshine so June had plenty of scope for outdoor shots at Auld of Clunie and Clunie Loch. I tried to initiate Jacynth in the art of feeding our 40 hens and cockrels but they were a little camera shy that day. Not so my goats, Rishlin and Paloma, they're anybody's if there's food on the go! (Photo above)

Now we're looking forward to our recording week with Chris and Ian at Right Real Records in a couple of weeks and the release of our first single to the Christian media in the States.

Meanwhile, also in May, (May 24th) Ciaran Dorris will be helping poet Margaret Gillies Brown and myself with our gig at the AK Bell Library Theatre for the Perth Festival of Arts. Ciaran has kindly agreed to play guitar for one or two of my songs but he may be persuaded to sing one of his own songs at the end of the concert. I've discovered that he has a wee fan club here in Tayside who have heard our CD "Waiting for the Calm" and would like to meet Ciaran in person and hear him sing.

In June Jacynth will be back in Scotland again for a Caim gig at Tchai Ovna in Glasgow's West End (June 21st) and to join me and Margaret Gillies Brown for our Heather and Red Rowan Berries emmigration concert at the Birnam Institute. (June 22nd)

That's it for this month folks. Hopefully I'll be able to find my way into the blogger again in a month's time!

Heather

2007-03-09T14:31:00.000Z

March 2007.

Caim have exciting news after their visit to Right Real Records Studios in Yorkshire. We have signed to the Right Real Records label and look forward to recording two singles in May this year for release to Christian radio stations across the US. We're really looking forward to this project with Chris and Ian of Right Real Records and to possible Right Real events and tours in the future.

You'll find Right Real Records at their My Space website - there's a link on the Caim pages of www.cluniemusic.com

Other great news for Caim is a distribution deal with Decani Music. Find our latest CD "God of the Elements" at www.decanimusic.co.uk

Tracks from all the Caim CDs and Heather Innes and Ciaran Dorris' CD "Waiting for the Calm" can now be purchased as MP3's at www.scotloads.co.uk as can tracks from my Fellside release "Coaineadh, Songs from the Heart". That was a surprise - I didn't know there were still any copies out there!

And of course all Clunie Music artist's CDs can also be purchased from the CD shop at www.cluniemusic.com

Caim's Jacynth Hamill has been busy having some of the music she and a couple of other writers arranged and/or wrote for Caim published in a "Celtic Hymn Book" Melody Edition. All the music for the hymnal was selected by Ray Simpson and Published by Kevin Mayhew publishers. www.kevinmayhew.com

Al's band "Freedom Place" had their debut gig a week ago at the Forest Hills Hotel, Auchtermuchty. It was in effect a practice gig at a farewell party for Ian's nephew who is leaving for a new life in Australia. (Ian is lead guitarist for Freedom Place). The band played for two to three hours, folk were up dancing and my Aussie hat complete with hanging corks went the rounds after said nephew participated in an Oz sobriety test. (don't ask!).

Freedom Place next gig is for a wedding in Edinburgh in June. Well done guys!

That's it for now - thanks for checking out our music.

Heather

Help needed from Caim supporters

2007-02-03T13:34:00.000Z

Just a quickie.

I've been updating our Caim site at www.christianbands.com and notice that we have no visitors to that site because nobody knows we're there! Please also visit us there and record your visit - it all helps.

Thanks

Heather

February 2007 update

2007-02-03T12:19:00.000Z

Hi,

I'm a bit late with this one. Been waiting for confirmation of some dates.

Caim have a couple of events with poet Kenneth Steven in the pipeline. The one confirmed at the moment is 'Wildscape' Kenneth Steven and 'CAIM', Scargill House, Kettlewell, Skipton, North Yorkshire. (ph 01756 760234) 15 - 18th October. £164.

"With the starkness and wildness of the dales landscape as the backdrop, consider your relationship with the earth through the medium of poetry, prose and music. The course offers opportunities to explore the sculpting both of songs and poems through workshop sessions, culminating in a concert melding poetry and song. Who is leading it? Kenneth is a widely published poet, children's author and translator. He is an occasional broadcaster, using the airwaves to evoke a passion for the forgotten'wildscapes' of our land. CAIM are musicians who take the Celtic world's creativity as their source of inspiration. Who is it for? For any who are keen to engage with the inspirational landscape through word and song. No previous experience of creative writing necessary."

Sounds wonderful! I'm hoping that Caim's music workshops don't clash with Kenneth's poetry workshops so I can be at both!

Progress is being made between Right Real Records and Caim. Jacynth and I will be travelling to the Right Real Records studio at the beginning of March to meet with Chris and Andy and discuss the possibility of releasing a couple of Caim singles to the US Christian market with their recording and promotional expertise.

Jacynth's distinctive voice was heard recently on BBC Radio 4. I checked the BBC website and decided it must have been a repeat of the "Something Understood" program that was first aired in March 2006. The producers selected Jacynth's track Psalm 139 from Caim and Robert Jonas' CD "New Life From Ruins".

I start rehearsals this month for two upcoming shows with poet and author Margaret Gillies Brown. In June we're at Birnam Institute with a repeat of last year's performance on emmigration for the Perth Festival. Before that May 24th at 2.30pm we're back at the A.K. Bell Library Theatre with "The Wind in their Hands", looking at well known Scottish women writers of the past through poetry, prose and song. This is also a Perth Arts Festival event.

Meanwhile I continue to dabble in a little freelance writing and have had another article accepted for publication in The Scots Magazine about Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye where I've been learning Gaelic in weekend and summer schools and distance learning and also Gaelic song from the wonderful Christine Primrose.

Ciaran and I are looking forward to our tours later in the year and continue to sing in concerts for the Council for Music in Hospitals meanwhile. Ciaran is also busy promoting his solo album "Chasing dreams down a dirt road". Check out your copy at www.ciarandorris.com It's been well worth waiting for.

Finally, Al's band "Freedom Place" are stepping up the pace of rehearsals for an audition this month and gigs in the near future. They are now a full 5 piece band with vocals, drums, keyboard, accordion, lead guitar and bass.

More next month. Thank you for supporting our music.

Heather

December update

2006-12-11T10:38:00.000Z

Caim's dates for autumn and winter 2007 are filling up. Wonder what we'll be doing in Spring and Summer!

In addition to our 10 day retreat tour with Wisconsin monk Fr Gregory OJN in Scotland and Norwich our Well at Willen dates have been confirmed and we'll be giving a workshop, concert and singing at a church service at the Well, Milton Keynes November 10 and 11 2007.

I met with poet Kenneth Steven this weekend. A meeting which coincided with Santa and his reindeer coming to Dunkeld - real, live reindeer I'm talking here - it was very exciting! Kenneth is still negotiating with his publisher for a CD of his poetry including Caim providing some of the music. The CD is to have a Celtic theme.

Meanwhile Kenneth and Caim will be giving workshops and a joint concert at Scargill Christian Centre in Yorkshire, October 2007.

Emails and Mp3s have been flying back and forth through cyberspace between Caim and Right Real Records who are interested in promoting Caim's music. We like their ideas very much so may have news of a new Caim release in 2007!

Ciaran and I have a week of Christmas parties to sing at for the Council for Music in Hospitals this week - St Andrews and Aberdeen today. It's a busy time for all the Music in Hospitals musicians. Ciaran still awaits the launch of his wonderful CD - hopefully copies will be available at his web site www.ciarandorris.com before Christmas.

Ciaran also has a web space at www.myspace.com and Caim has finally taken the plunge with a My Space site of our own http://www.myspace.com/celticcaim Please visit us there!

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year season.

Deep Peace

Heather

Clunie Music Newsletter

2006-11-16T16:50:00.000Z

Clunie Music Newsletter. November 2006.

As I haven't sent out a newsletter since last year I'm going to begin these monthly epistles by trying to cover 2006 up till now. After this I'll add significant events each month which will be easier for me and better for you.

Heather Innes

The solo event of the year for me ended up as another duo ! I was booked along with local author and poet Margaret Gillies Brown to sing at the A.K.Bell Library Theatre in Perth as part of the Perth Festival in May. Well - Margaret didn't sing, but she told stories in prose and poetry of her emmigration adventures to Canada as a young wife and mother. I backed these up with songs accompanied only by the enthusiastic audience and later with stories, songs and a poem of my own about my own emmigration adventures to Australia as a child and teenager. Margaret had requested Caim's song "Deep Peace" as a grand finale to the afternoon and Jacynth kindly travelled all the way from Belfast to sing it with me.

Our show titled "Heather and Red Rowan Berries", far from being the one off we thought it was going to be was presented again in shorter version a few weeks later at a meeting of PEN - Poets, Essayists and Novelists - at Margaret's home. The complete performance is to be repeated in June 2007 at Birnam Institute and Margaret and I have been invited to return to the A.K.Bell Library Theatre May 24, 2007 with a new show in poetry, prose and song, "The Wind in Their Hands" about remarkable Scottish women of the past. A bonus for me in all of this has been Margaret's friendship and encouragement about my own writing, especially poetry. I've had a poem accepted for D.C.Thomson's "Fireside Book" 2008 which was a surprise and an article published in The Scots Magazine in July this year.

Ciaran Dorris and Heather Innes

Again for most of the year Ciaran has been in the studio putting the finishing touches to his solo CD. He has a great website of his own well worth checking out www.ciarandorris.com.

We see each other on a monthly basis to sing in hospitals and nursing homes for the Council for Music in Hospitals and we had a mini tour in June to Warwick Folk Club and Four Fools Festival in the north of England. I thoroughly enjoyed singing in the same concerts as Niamh Parsons who I had met 20 years ago in Belfast. I've always admired her singing and variety of song material. She meanwhile was impressed that Ciaran was so amenable to changing keys to suit my voice in each song. He had to be! I'd lost my voice completely the week before and could only sing certain songs in a low key all weekend.

September found Ciaran and myself touring the north east of Scotland with a Canadian singer/songwriter Phyllis Wheaton who we'd never met in our lives before! Actually I'd met Phyllis one week earlier and toured with her to the Isle of Mull so I had the advantage! The whole enterprise happened through the internet. We were recommended to Phyllis by Red Barn Studios where we both record, she listened to our music on our website and emailed us. She was on a mission to bring her songs and researched archive material about a Canadian World War 1 soldier David Argo, back to the North East of Scotland and in particular to his family and namesake alive today, his nephew David Argo and daughter and son in law Helen and Rob. Read the whole story and see the pics in Phyillis' Scotland Journal on her website www.phylliswheaton.com We had fun!

2007 Ciaran and I will join with fiddle player Kate Kramer for a fortnight in Guernsey arranged by the Council for Music in Hospitals. Later in the year we will be at the Tump Folk Club (October 4th) and Seaford Folk Club (October 5th).

Caim

Two exciting possibilities have opened for Caim this year. The first is the chance to be on a CD with Dunkeld poet Kenneth Steven and we've had a couple of meetings with Kenneth so far to work out the logistics of this. Kenneth's poetry and our music could work very well together. If you like our music and you like poetry you will like Kenneth's style - have a look for his books "Columba" and "Iona". He is also a fine novelist and Jacynth and I have carried his Highland Trilogy around the world with us. (We often share books on tour as we seem to have the same taste.)

The second is an email connection with Right Real Records, a Christian company interested in our music and preparing an MP3 of their ideas as I write. Watch this space!

August and September Caim travelled to Canada and Wisconsin USA. We had some unexpected adventures in Canada including a trip on the Canadian Pacific Railway to Montreal. The gig at the other end was cancelled but we had a wonderful evening with a friend living on the Richelieu river and a great trip back to Toronto with a new young friend (younger than us!) Sam who kept us entertained with stories of his life for the whole 5 hour journey. We even ended up in the same taxi afterwards by complete coincidence and decided we would keep in touch by email. I'm on the lookout for a Scottish castle to fulfill his dream.

We were very well looked after in Toronto by our friends David and Zsuzsa Wilson. I hadn't seen David since he was my first guitarist in the Sunflower Folk Club in Belfast in the 1980's so we had a lot of catching up to do. Turns out that Zsuzzsa is a great Roy Bailey fan!

Our agent Ian Davies, his wife Kay and 20 month old daughter Julianna invited us to their holiday cottage at the Muskoka Lakes for the next week and while there we sang at Muskoka Place Gallery and also Bannockburn Presbyterian Church. A week of sunshine, song and getting to know Julianna - what more could we ask?!

In Wisconsin we were met and taken care of for the first couple of days by singer and hammer dulcimer player Gloria Hays. Gloria and I toured together in Wisconsin and Scotland in the early nineties and it was wonderful to be able to sing in the hospice where she works. Sr Annice McClure came to mine and Gloria's house concerts in Wisconsin and has stayed in touch all these years through my mailing list. She arranged our final weekend of concerts in Green Bay, Wisconsin and travelled the length of the State to collect us and make sure we arrived safely!

We sang at a house concert in Sr Annice's housing complex in Green Bay followed by an amazing night at the Cup O Joy Christian Coffee House the following evening. For wandering Christian minstrels the Cup O Joy is not to be missed. We were offered the best in sound and lighting and backstage comfort plus a packed house. The audience were one of the most friendly we've experienced yet and we have had a lot of friendly audiences in our travels. I was most impressed by the folk selling our CDs after the concert - they knew better than me which of our concert songs was on which CD!

2007 Caim hope to return to Canada, both to Muskoka and possibly also to Western Canada again where Phyllis has offered to help us with venues. We enjoyed a great tour there in 2003.

Australia is on the back burner - we're just waiting and hoping...

The last week of November 2007 we'll be providing the music for retreats in Scotland and Norwich led by Fr Gregory OJN, a Wisconsin monk of the Order of Julian of Norwich.

And in the near future a concert to launch our new CD "God of the Elements" is being planned for the Well at Willen, Milton Keynes.

Freedom Place.

Al Ponting's new band Freedom Place seems to grow every time I go to a rehearsal. Starting with the three core members Al himself (vocals and rhythm guitar), Rob (keyboards), and Ewan (bass and guitar) they have now added Ian, an amazing lead guitarist, and will be meeting drummer Pete at their next rehearsal.

With music ranging from Al's own songs to a variety of cover songs the band describe themselves as rock, ballads and blues. They recently recorded a demo CD at Red Barn Studios and are ready for gig invites and particularly fund raising concerts for Habitat for Humanity.

We'll keep you updated.

That's it till next month - thanks for checking out our site and our music.

Heather

Welcome!

2006-10-17T17:10:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Clunie Music blog. Here you will find our monthly newsletter and updates on our forthcoming gigs and reviews of our past performances.