Alright! Austria here I come! I’m thrilled to announce I’m one of the artists on the 19th Celtic Summer Nights tour. So far there’s 12 dates around Austria, Italy and Switzerland in June this year. The fantastic Scottish guitarist Ron Jappy will be playing with me for this tour and we’re very much looking forward to meeting the fab Irish …
Spotted in the press!!
Excited to be in the national newspapers today! The Times, the Herald, the Metro and the Edinburgh reporter. Fantastic photos by Neil Hanna to celebrate the launch of the Edinburgh International Harp Festival 2017. The Rachel Hair Trio will be performing there and I’ll be teaching a Scottish Harp Course. See you at the Harp Festival???
Galicia bound!
Galicia!!! Two weeks till we play there with Festival de Ortigueira! CANNOT WAIT!!! The food, the wine, the music, the people…. LOVE Galicia!! More info here:http://festivaldeortigueira.com/gl/blog-item/rachel-hair-e-ron-jappy-de-escocia-no-ciclo-festival-no-teatro
Back to the frozen North… Rachel Hair Trio in Norway again
We’re heading back to the land of the fjords tomorrow, Norway, with the trio. We’ve 21 concerts in local schools, around the north of More og Romsdal and the first few days we’ll be based in the beautiful city of Kristiansund. After that we’re deep amongst the fjords where the temperature will be WELL below 0* brrrrrrrrrrr….
Ah wow! Scots Trad Awards nomination!
Aw wow, so I’m proper chuffed to announce I’ve been nominated for Tutor of the Year award at the Scots Trad Music Awards organised by Hands Up for Trad! Thank you so much to all who nominated me. It’s now down to the public vote so if you fancy lending me your vote, I’d be very grateful. You can vote …
Rachel Hair Trio @ Noia Harp Festival, Galicia
The Rachel Hair Trio are heading out the stunning surroundings of the town of Noia, in Galicia, North-West Spain. We’ll be playing at the Noia Harp Festival in a few days time, on the 3rd of August, and I’ll be teaching a Scottish Harp workshop during the day. More info in the gigs page!
An Chúirt Chruitireachta, the International Harp Festival, Ireland
I’m honoured to announce that I’ll be performing solo at the wonderful An Chúirt Chruitireachta, the International Harp Festival, in Termonfeckin, Ireland later this month. I’ll be playing alongside Janet Harbison, a harper I’ve admired since I was a youngster, and in the days that she was the director of the Belfast Harp Orchestra. Can’t wait!
New sheetmusic book – Claasagh volume 2.
Over the past few months I’ve been busy collating and writing arrangements of tunes from the Isle of Man, both old and new, and finally I’m excited to finally release my second volume of “Claasagh – Manx music for celtic harp”, ready for you to buy via the website shop. The first volume of Claasagh contained only traditional tunes, but this …
Deutschland
I’m uber excited to say that I’m returning to Germany in a few days time to teach and perform at the wonderful Harfentreffen festival. I first taught and performed at the festival a few years ago so I’m so pleased that I’ll be able to catch up with old friends, and hopefully also make some new ones! I’ll also be …
At last … a gig on the Isle of Man!!
It’s been a long time coming, but at last the Rachel Hair Trio have arranged a concert on the Isle of Man. We’ll be appearing at the Peel Centenary Centre, this coming Saturday (3rd October), at 8pm. Support will be from the fantastic local fiddler, Isla Callister. Tickets cost £12 and can be bought on the door or online at …
15th June … OFFICIAL ALBUM RELEASE DAY … AT LAST!
Finally, after many months in the making, I’m pleased to announce that the new Rachel Hair Trio album, Trì, is officially released! Jenn, Cammy and I are really chuffed with the record, so we really hope you enjoy it. If you want to listen to it, there’s a wee soundcloud section on the homepage of this site where you can listen …
the next stage… Distribution and PR
Greetings from a very wet and windy Oban! I’ve been here to adjudicate the clarsach (Scottish harp) competitions at the Oban Mod. I’ve a wee bit of waiting till my lift back to Glasgow, so I thought I should take the chance to write a blog. As I type, I’m surrounded by beautiful Gaelic acapella harmony singing as the choirs …
New website coming soon
Keep your eyes peeled as over the coming weeks a new website for will be revealed… in time for the launch of the new Rachel Hair Trio album “Trì”.
Trì pre-order open!
Pre-order for the new Rachel Hair Trio album “Trì” is now open on the shop page. When you order you’ll soon be emailed a download link to 2 of the tracks. Pre-ordering will allow you to have the actual CD 3 weeks in advance of it’s official launch date of the 15th of June AND there’s lots of great goodies …
PPL + ISRC + EAN + PRS + MCPS + AP2 = STRESS LEVEL RISING!!
WARNING… this is a long blog but HIGHLY recommended if you’re a self-releasing CD artist…. If you’re self-releasing an album, and you’ve finished mixing it, you’ll soon realise it’s very easy to get overcome with the amount of abbreviations you have to deal with…. PPL, ISRC, EAN, PRS, MCPS AP2. For those of you’ve who’ve been through it before I …
New album “Trì” complete
The new Rachel Hair album “Trì” is now complete! Pre-orders will begin on the 1st of May so be sure to get your order in then…
Budgetting… arghhhhhh!
Budgetting. Argh. It’s a scary word, but my goodness it’s essential to budget things when recording and releasing an album, especially when you’re self releasing. We’re 2/4’s of the way through the whole process now and I’d say about 2/4’s of the budget has been spent. I knew roughly how much I wanted to spend on this album, partly through …
Mix, mix, mix
So the next stage of the album is complete… mixing! We’re mixing with Iain Hutchison at Glo-Worm Studios. I’ve known Iain for 14 years now. We both studied Applied Music together and he was in my group of friends at halls…long live the days of Douglas House (don’t worry Iain, I won’t be posting pictures on this)! Since our uni …