Wullie - the musical!

The Broons and Oor Wullie are 70 on 8th March. This song is by way of a wee personal tribute...

Podcasting is go!

Right, here we go with my first ever podcast! I should say right away that this is NOT the radio show and has NOTHING to do with the BBC. It has everything to do with the kind of songs you can find on my myspace site or by clicking on the 'tom morton's songs' link over on the right.
This (Tom Morton's Chatter and Twang)is a different animal, though, and frankly I'm not sure how it works. YOU WILL NEED PODCASTING SOFTWARE to use the xml links below, and then you have to paste the 'feed address' in to it to subscribe. It seems that podcasts are syndicated in some weird way to places like iTunes, but frankly I hae ma doots. Though go to the iTunes Music Store and have a look for Tom Morton's Chatter and Twang. It's not like straightforward downloading, by the way - you subscribe, thus having subsequent podcast and updates automatically delivered to the doors of your perception. If it works! Anyway, if you click on this

tag, you should be, well podcasting. Err...obviously you don't have to.
What is on the Podcast? Well, basically, it's just me and a guitar (or two: Martin Shenandoah D28 and Moon 003) singing and talking into my trusty Tascam digital Portastudio, which lives, along with double basses, cellos, mandolins, banjos, drums and pianos, near but not in The Barn of Bannocks.
Anyway, it's here if you're in any way podcasting-inclined! I'm excited!

"Grand old vikings, upon the ocean vast...

...their great battle songs a-thunder on the blast!"

The entry of the 2006 Northmavine Up Helly Aa Jarl Squad into the Hillswick Hall in the early hours of Saturday morning. Play the video! Just 30 seconds I'm afraid.

More Morton music now available!

...if you can be bothered, check out my new myspace page which is at www.myspace.com/tommortonmusic. I'll put a permanent link up over in the right hand links column in a minute. You can download or listen to four songs there. If you feel inclined, sign up as a 'friend'.
Up Helly Aa was great, by the way, and pictures, possibly even video, are on their way.

Valhalla bound!

 

It's Up Helly Aa day in Northmavine, and the galley Hankavaar, constructed over the past two years (last year's festival was cancelled following a local tragedy)sits sparkling in the Hillswick sunshine even as I write.
Chief viking for the 'day' (which will last until around 8.00 am tomorrow!)is Ivor 'Hank' Hughson, and he will lead his band of merry men (and females - my daughter is a viking princess this year) around the local schools and other establishments during the day, until the procession and burning of the galley tonight.
This will be followed by dances in the Sullom, Hillswick and North Roe Halls until the wee sma' hours, along with skits performed by the squads of guizers who accompany the Jarl's vikings in the procession. These sketches promise everything from innocentjapery to scabrous social and political satire, and beyond. I have the programme here and performances will include: "Lowrie goes to da races and nips his pillie in da car door" which I don't think I'll translate from Shetlandic. "Running Bare" fills me with foreboding.
There are several Up Helly Aa fire festivals in Shetland each winter, signifying 'the lightening of the year' as winter begins to retreat. Lerwick is the biggest and most formal, but Northmavine is usually the most fun.