Interview

With Ewan MacVicar, songwriter and Living Tradition columnist.

Christine Kydd has been a glorious shaper and developer of tradition-based vocal style in Scotland for some years now; as soloist, formerly with Janet Russell;  and more recently as part of Chantan, the finest women's song group to have emerged from the Scots Revival.  Now she is undertaking more solo work, and we are the richer for it.  I asked her about her approach and how she started.

Did you start singing within your family?
Yes, at get-togethers we sang round the piano - everyone had to do a turn.  My uncle and aunt both played piano, so they did it in shifts.  When I went to school I was in the choir, which I loved.  Singing was a big part of our school life.   The assistant head was a passionate musician, as was the choir mistress.  I started learning piano when I was about 9 years old.  At eleven I picked up my friend's guitar, she showed me a couple of chords, then we just took it from there - I got a guitar after much pleading.

With another friend we tried some songs as a three (we're still pals, since we were 6 years old!) to start with, and worked on harmonies.  We had done descants at school, so we just tried it out till it worked.

You went on to University in St Andrews?
I carried on singing there, writing songs and harmonising.  Les Wilson (now in the Tannahill Weavers) gave Susan (Proudfoot) and I some ideas on harmony.  I worked in a few combinations and as a soloist as well.  It was a very varied time musically, with folk, rock and punk co-existing, some of the visiting up-and-coming bands became very famous.

Then you moved to Edinburgh?
Yes, after travelling in Europe for a while.  I worked forJohn Barrow (now Stoneyport Agency) as his assistant when he was directing the Edinburgh Folk Festival.  He was very encouraging and informative, which influenced my solo work, and I think it's fair to say, my work with Janet Russell.  He emphasised the importance of 'stage craft', of making the night special for the audience - not just musically, but in the presentation as well.

You mentioned Janet Russell.  When I first heard the two of you singing, I was startled and impressed by  the innovative approach  you brought to traditional song.  How did that come about?
By the time I came to sing with Janet, I was looking to try some unusual harmonies.   We were hearing Bulgarian part songs, and we both loved the crunchiness of it all.   Janet is a good harmony singer too, and absolutely rock solid to sing harmonies against, and to bounce counter rhythms off.  What I look for now in harmony work is to try more and more outrageous notes until I find the edge that feels right to me.   Some of "Dancin' Chantin" sits on that edge.

Then more recently you worked in Chantan?
Yes, that was really exciting, to blend our mutual interest in jazz, blues and traditional material.  I think we did something sufficiently different, and made a good album!  One of the things I felt we were exploring was a sort of watercolour effect with harmony,  without using technology to do it with.

In the middle of all this, were you also working as a soloist?
Yes,  more 'quality than quantity', I would say.  I've played quite a few folk clubs in England and Scotland, and some festivals, including Sidmouth and Irvine, as well as having been Traditional Musician in Residence at Aberdeen Alternative Festival.   I supported Capercaillie,  Christy Moore and also the Tannahill Weavers,   as a soloist, and appeared solo at Celtic Connections, in two "compilation" concerts, "Burn's an' a' That" and "My Ain Countrie".  I've also been over to Germany and Ireland and the USA this year.

Does solo singing give you more freedom?
I get really excited about the atmosphere and emotion harmony can bring,  but I can't harmonise with myself!  Solo unaccompanied singing is a form in itself and singers connect with the thrust and emotion of the song in different ways.  So yes, when I'm singing solo I can be playful with rhythms, phrasing and the tunes.  Also, when I'm accompanying myself on guitar, I can be pretty fluid in the way that I work as well.  It's just different!

And the material?
I suppose my solo gigs are quite eclectic, in that I mix trad and Burns with contempory songs I think are good, and also songs I've written which are more influenced by  the Appalachian style!  I grew up in Glasgow where that music's heard a lot.   But I'm sure I'm thought of more as a tradition linked singer.

But you emphasise Scots song when you perform, surely?
Yes, of course, because these old songs are so brilliantly honed, by having been sung by many singers through the passage of time.  I sing now mostly "Lowland" songs,  but that term covers a very large geographical area.  Some are from Robert Burns, with some beautiful airs.  We're supposed to be related, according to my father - I looked into it, and my Burness ancestors, if not related, certainly lived within miles of Burns' family - so they probably knew each other!

We've seen your name in other collaborations as well, in the last few years.  Looks like you've had a really interesting time!
Yes, I'm afraid it has been great fun!  I collaborated at Aberdeen Alternative Festival with Alasdair Fraser - that was during two festivals there.  Alasdair is such a great musical communicator!  I've also had lovely fluid musical forays with many fine musicians including  Wendy Weatherby, Norman Chalmers (Songs and Tunes of the Sea), Andy Thorburn, all the fabulous musicians in Miro - Ian MacLeod, Rebecca Knorr, James Mackintosh, Simon Bradley and Chick MacAuley - Rod Paterson, Jack Evans, and Corrina Hewat; and recently with Tony McManus on stage in Santa Cruz after Valley of the Moon, Alasdair Fraser's fiddle summer school.

I can't complain - I've been lucky enough to play with the cream of today's musicians.  And it feels good not to know exactly what's going to happen next ...!

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