The Rachel Hair Trio are recording a new album! We’re almost finished recording album no. 4 for Rachel, and album no. 2 for the actual trio. Release date is currently looking to be late May this year…
So back to Norway it is…
Hello and a belated Happy New Year! Many of you will know that January for musicians living in Glasgow means Celtic Connections, which kinda has a habit of taking over your life! So that’s my excuse for this late blog…. We’re currently back in Norway in the middle of another schools tour. This time the trio are in the city of …
Recording underway … but not without hiccups!
Ok, so… so much for the more regular blogs! I’m very behind uploading them, so lets go back in time to approximately 2 weeks ago, before all the holiday fun… So, the bulk of the tracking of the album is complete! We’ve had 9 days of actual recording in Carrier Waves Studio with our engineer Keir. The first few days …
Pre-production… in the studio at last!
So, the album has begun! We’re in the studio, and in the middle of pre-production. The studio is in the South-East of Glasgow and is the newly re-opened Carrier Waves studio, run by Keir Long and Andrea Gobbi. It’s such a convenient place for us to record… we’re all within 15 minutes drive of the place, which makes mornings and …
Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse!
Happy Thanksgiving to all readers in the USA! Apologies for the lateness of this blog. I had planned to do another one last week while in Norway, but time ran away with itself. We’re back safe and sound now after a very successful tour and we visited some stunningly beautiful places. Here’s a photo from Solund… one of the Westerly …
Sourcing the Material
Sourcing the Material So blog number 2! Thank you so much to everyone who read and shared my first blog. I hope you enjoyed reading. Please do take the time to share this one too. I’m currently in Førde, in beautiful western Norway on tour with the trio. It’s our 3rd schools tour out here. The Norwegian government have got …
New Blog
Ahhh… the first blog post… Ok folks, so I’ve decided to start a blog. My trio is in the midst of preparing a new album to record so I figured it would be an interesting thing to start a blog about the whole process so you can see what all is involved in it. I really wish it was as …
New Bass Player!
I’m very excited to announce that we have a new member of the Rachel Hair Trio, double bassist, Cameron Maxwell! Cammy has been playing off and on with us for a while now, and, well, he’s such an awesome musician that it was only right that we made him an official member. We’re loving the fresh take he has on …
Archibald Knox Commision
I was thrilled to be commissioned by Culture Vannin and the Archibald Knox Society to write the piece “The Deer’s Cry” to celebrate 150 years since the birth of the famed Manx art nouveau designer Archibald Knox. I performed “The Deer’s Cry” last week on Knox’s 150th birthday, together my student harp ensemble “Claasagh”, to a sell-out crowd at St Germans Cathedral, on …
Harpy New Year!
Harpy New Year! 2014 is looking to be a busy year with a number of new projects on the go for Rachel, some trio gigs and lots of harp teaching throughout Scotland, Europe and the USA! Check out the gig page for more details.
Summer Harp Festivals
Summer is here, and for once, it really is proper summer weather! Rachel was tutoring last weekend at Cottingham Harp Weekend, alongside fellow Scottish harpist Fiona Rutherford. They had a great weekend teaching Scottish tunes to the Yorkshire harpists. This week she heads off for the 35th “Stage International de Harpe Celtique… the International Celtic Harp Festival in Dinan, Brittany. …
New Manx Harp Book
Rachel has just published a new book ‘Claasagh – Manx Music for Celtic Harp’. She was commissioned to write the book of elementary – advanced level arrangements of traditional music for the Isle of Man by the Manx Heritage Foundation. This is the second ever sheetmusic book on Manx Harp music. The first (now out of print) was written by renowned Manx …
Sell out CC show and BBC Radio 3
We were overjoyed that our headlining Celtic Connections gig sold out before the doors even opened. Many thanks to all who came along! After our performance we quickly ran over to the Concert hall to play a few sets live on BBC Radio 3’s “World on 3” show which came live from the Green Room and featured sets from other …
BBC Celtic Connections Video
The trio took a wee trip to BBC Scotland here in Glasgow to film a video for their Celtic Connections mini site. We decided to film “Cancro Cru”, a beautiful tune written by Anxo Pintos that we recorded on “No More Wings”. Check it out by clicking HERE
Mini Autumn Tour
We have a mini 4 date trio tour about to kick off so check out the gig page for more info! We’ll be in Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man.
BBC Radio nan Gaidheal album of the week!
We’re chuffed to anounce that “No More Wings” is Radio Nan Gaidheals album of the week on their 2-4pm show “Caithream Ciuil”. Tune in or listen again via http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jdfl
Great Reviews Flying In!!
Rachel and her Trio have been getting many great, great reviews of the new album “No More Wings” from sources such as the Irish Music Magazine (written by the editor himself!), Folk Radio UK and many more. Check them out on the review page.
Online interview with Arperia
Check out the online interview Rachel did with the Spanish harp site “Arpera” all about her life as a harper. Read it here