Going solo

DUNDEE-born singer-guitarist Alan Brown plays his first-ever solo concert in his hometown when he appears at the Wighton Centre on Saturday.

Brown left Dundee in 1970 and as well as writing songs, he is a novelist, journalist, poet, after-dinner speaker and tour guide.

His 11am concert is part of the Wighton’s Cappuccino Concerts series, which also features locally based Gaelic singer Wilma Kennedy from the Skye family, the Campbells of Greepe on Saturday, November 18 and viola and violin-playing sisters Zakia and Farrah Fawcett on Saturday, November 25.

friendsofwighton.com

Rambling across Scotland

AWARD-winning Canadian bluegrass quartet The Slocan Ramblers play seven concerts across Scotland in November as part of their first tour of the UK and Ireland.

The group won the much-coveted Best Emerging Artists award at Edmonton Folk Festival in 2015 for their combination of lightning fast, inventive playing and songs in the tradition of bluegrass founder Bill Monroe.

The Slocan Ramblers appear at Kirkcaldy Acoustic Music Club on November 2, going on to Strathdon (3rd), Rothesay (4th), Irvine (5th), Edinburgh (6th), Kilbarchan (7th), and finishing the tour in Coldingham Village Hall in Berwickshire on November 8. slocanramblers.com

Composing new work

TWO of Scotland’s most promising young composers, Ailie Robertson and Neil Smith, have been selected by the London Philharmonic Orchestra as “Leverhulme Arts Scholars” for their Young Composers scheme 2017/18.

The LPO Young Composers programme offers four emerging British composers the opportunity to write and workshop a new piece with the Orchestra’s musicians across a year.

This leads up to a public performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

The participant composers are mentored by the LPO’s Composer in Residence, Sir James MacMillan, who provides expertise and guidance in a series of seminars and workshops.

Far away book festival

ONE OF Britain’s most remotely-situated book festivals begins this week in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis with the aim of taking its audiences beyond the borders of the known world.

Headline writers at this year’s Faclan, which takes place at arts centre, An Lanntair, Stornoway, from Wednesday until Saturday include bestselling novelist, Michelle Paver, and mountaineering legend, Doug Scott.

The central theme of Faclan is Ultima Thule; a place in medieval geographies ‘beyond the borders of the known world.’

In the popular imagination, this is assumed to be the northern islands and territories.

For writers it’s said to be an endless territory to explore, revisit and reinvent.

(http://lanntair.com/creative-programme/faclan/faclan-2017-ultima-thule-25th-28th-october-2017/faclan-authors/)