A great opening for Patsy and pals

Jul 11 2008 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

CARSE of Gowrie born and raised Patsy Reid and her three co-members of rising stars Breabach, are among headliners of The Danny Kyle Open Stage 10th Anniversary Concert in Glasgow next Saturday (July 19).

The Danny Kyle Open Stage competition takes place every year at the Celtic Connections festival, with up and coming musicians keen to be awarded a coveted ‘Danny’ as a milestone in their careers.

The innovative Celtic style played by Breabach, blending double bagpipes, flute, fiddle, song and Scottish stepdance, won them a Danny in 2005, which proved to be a springboard which led them to sign with Vertical Records and the release of their debut album, The Big Spree, a nomination for ‘Best Up and Coming’ at the Scots Trad Music Awards 2007, and a hugely successful Tune Up Tour across Scotland last winter which included a storming gig in Perth.

This year is the band’s busiest to date, with a European tour in autumn, and last night they played at a special concert to launch the major new exhibition ‘Scotland: A Changing Nation’ in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Patsy plays five string fiddle and sings in the band, who are also Calum MacCrimmon, Ewan Robertson and Donal Brown.

She comes from Knapp in the Carse of Gowrie where she grew up playing both traditional Scottish fiddle and classical violin. Competing around Scotland culminated in her double win of the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship at just 15 and 16 years of age, and she remains one of the youngest ever finalists in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition, where she competed at just 17.

In 2004, she gained a first class honours BA Applied Music degree from Strathclyde University, specialising in performance and album production. In June 2006, Patsy graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with a Post Graduate Diploma in violin performance as well as a Post Graduate Certificate of Education with specialist string teaching.

Patsy is an experienced fiddle teacher and has just returned from a week’s teaching at the Stevenson School at Pebble Beach in California.

Joining Breabach at the all-star line-up of previous winners and folk favourites in the Old Fruitmarket next Saturday are singe/fiddler Lori Watson with her band, Rule of Three, the Clan Wallace Band, the Jamie Smith Trio, singer and clarsach player Jennifer Port, Swing Guitars and Scottish American singer-songwriter David Ferrard.

Hosting the evening will be Arthur Johnstone, Archie Fisher and Brian McNeill, who will also be taking part in this musical tribute to the passionate supporter of traditional music and constant campaigner for its revival in Scotland, Danny Kyle.