News
16 July 2010
I said on my last update that time was passing quickly, well here we are again and it is almost another 7 weeks down the line and not a word from me.
Still here I am now.
So what is going on?
The weekly Mantlers session is going strong with a good crowd in every week and sometimes as many as a dozen musicians. This is a real fun gig to do.
I am running another weekly session in the Captains Bar which has started up as a music venue. It is a small bar but Pamela is trying hard to get the music on most nights of the week. The session is very much relaxed and I welcome any musicians into the fold, so if you are around come along and give us a song / tune.
I am starting to get a bit busier as the Festival period approaches with the gigs building nicely.
The Robertson & Reid project has been coming on well although we have had a break from rehearsals due to Alan being away on hols, however we get back to rehearsing in earnest on Tuesday at Banana Row's fine facility. Our shows for the Edinburgh Fringe are at te Lot in the Grassmarket on 18 & 19 August. The first show is The Robertson Reid Show where we will be doing a shortened version of our Indie Variety night, the second night it is our Alter ego Crumbling Jack where we concentrate more on the musical side with a scattering of Alan's poetry. We hope to have a couple of other musicians joining us so watch this space. For full details about Robertson & Reid go to:
The site has also passed the 5000 visits which is great and I would like to thank you all for your continued support.
Cheers
Ian
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31 May 2010
Time is passing so quickly and I am not keeping up with all my updates, too many sites but hey I will get there in the end.
Well I am just getting over a few days of feeling really ill, throat closed up, sinus blocked and head swirling. After throwing lots of medecine down things seem to be getting better and I am starting to feel a bit chirpy.
Anyway what's happening or going to happen?
The Robertson Reid rehearsals are going well and we have our Leith festival gigs coming up. WQe are top and bottom billing at the Literary Festival being held in Bond 09 Commercial street. First slot starts at 11am then we finish the night at 11pm.
My solo gigs have taken a bit of a back seat lately due to the fact I have been doing the "Mantlers Session" with Harry and Mike at the Greenmantle in Edinburgh (Every Thursday + the first Saturday of the month) and they have been good fun. Also my "Rustic Two" project with Gordon "Oz" Kingsford Smith is kicking off again in mid June.
I am also hoping to do some recording very soon, but not decided whether to do a live or studio recording. Any thoughts - drop me a line.
Check out some of the new Artists links I have put up as I am sure you will enjoy
Cheers
Ian
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04 April 2010
Hope everyone is having a good Easter weekend and not eating too much chocolate!
So what's been happening since the end of Feb?
Well I have continued with my regular gig at the Greenmantle, which has turned into a really good session with quite a few different musicians turning up to join in. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of unsigned talent that is on offer. Especially when you see some of the so called professional acts that are around at the moment.
I have two collaborations on the go at the moment one is Rustic Two where I am joined by Gordon 'Oz' Kingsford Smith on bass guitar and we are having some fun even though it is only 2 - 3 gigs a month at the moment.
The other is a completely new direction for me, Robertson & Reid. I have joined with a Poet/Songwriter to put together a variety show where we have Monologues, Poetry and Song. In all our shows we have guest artists and they have been really popular and creating a bit of a buzz, which is really exciting. We are performing at both the Leith and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals and are also about to start filmimg a series of six shows for which a short pilot show was filmed at our last gig in The Lot in Edinburgh. The quality of the video was not as good as we hoped but it captures the essence of our show. Excerpts, and more information, can be seen at www.robertsonreid.org.uk
I am hoping over the next month or so to build on gigs although the Robertson & Reid project is taking up a fair bit of my time. My long term plans are to build on a folk act possibly bringing in a couple of other musicians for some shows.
Keep a check on these pages for more info and feel free to join the site or leave a comment on the Guestbook Page.
All the best
Ian
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26 February 2010
Well here we are another month nearly gone already, time is passing so quickly that I can't keep up.
So what's been happening in the life of Ian Robertson Acoustic Music?
Well Livepianoman had an absolutely fantastic line up of artists on the show he co-hosted on Awesome radio. All the acts were unsigned artists mainly from The Reverbnation website, and what a selection he made it was well worth tuning in. Click on Livepianoman to go to his site.
I have also been struggling a bit lately as I have been having problems with hearing in my right ear and my balance has been a bit wonky too. Possible middle ear infection but will not know for definate until my hospital appointment comes through (which will not be quick due to the long waiting lists that we do not have anymore!!!!!) As you can imagine it is fun gigging when affected like that. Still it could be worse....I think!!
I have added a tune widget to my music page so why not head there now and have a listen.
Feel free to Leave a comment, good or bad, on the Guestbook page. I will publish it as long as there are no obscenities.
Not much else to report on at the moment but will be back soon with some more updates so in the mean time take care and thanks for looking in and remember you can become a member by clicking on "Join this site" at the bottom right of the Welcome page.
Ian
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12 February 2010
Hi folks,
It has been a while since I passed on any updates, but here we are and things are running along nicely at the moment.
Firstly a big thank you to everyone for supporting me and helping me to Nos 3 in my local area Folk Chart on Reverbnation, it is incredible to find myself in this position as there are a lot of great artists out there.
www.reverbnation.com/ianrobertson
Secondly I am getting a couple of tunes played on www.awesomeradio.net who are partnered with www.indieshowcase.net I have to thank James Clarke aka Livepianoman for this opportunity as he is one of the DJ's on the show which is airing on 14 Feb.
Radioshow airtime depends on your time zone as follows:
Australia - Mon. Feb. 15/10 @ 8:00 am EDT
UK - Sun. Feb. 14/10 (Valentine's Day) @9:00 pm GMT
Canada/U.S. - Sun. Feb. 14/10 @4:00 pm EST... See more
For time zones in other countries, pls use this link: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/custom.html?sort=1
TO LISTEN IN ONLINE on the "Play it forward" co-host radio show:
Pls go to http://www.indieshowcase.net
At the top of page, beside the words "Tune in:", click on the media player of your choice.
TO JOIN JAMES, SHASHONA, MYSELF & many others in the CHATROOM:
In "Main Menu" box on left side of that same page, click on "Chatrroom".
You will be prompted to enter a name you want to go by in the chatroom for others to see.
The chatroom will be open before, during and after the "Play it forward" radio show airs. James, Shashona and I would love for you to listen to this special show if you can, and would also love it if you could pop in and say hi to us in the chatroom. Stay as long as you want. James will be able to come in and chat with us when the songs he has chosen are being played "on air".
Please come by to listen to the show and/or come in to show him your support and MOST OF ALL......enjoy some brilliant indie artists who truly deserve this exposure.
James & Shashona will rock the house !!!! Hope to see you there !
Take care and keep the music flowing
Ian
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27 January 2010
A belated Happy New Year to one and all.
The festive season is now a distant memory and things are back to normal, the madness has passed. So what has been happening. Well I played my last weekly gig in the Royal Oak Edinburgh on Saturday 23 January and it was a good one with a great atmosphere. I decided to have a break from the Oak after having played there for some time. This was mainly due to personal circumstances and the early start time for this gig. I would like to thank the management, staff and customers of the Oak for all the support during the time I have been performing there, it really has been a fun gig. I will miss it but will still turn up for some of the regular sessions.
Gigs are now resuming at the Grey Horse Inn, Balerno as well as new ones at the Murrayfield Hotel Edinburgh so watch the Gigs page for info. These are gigs that I do as a Duo with Gordon "Oz" Kingsford Smith under the name Rustic Two.
If you are in the Edinburgh area please come along to a gig and make yourself known to me as I would love to meet any readers of my pages.
Take care and have a great 2010
Ian
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13 November 2009
Hi Folks,
Well very little has been happening over the last couple of weeks as I have been a bit under the weather so missed a couple of gigs, but glad to say I am feeling a lot better now.
During October I was approached by AA (Alan) Reid, a poet and songwriter, to see if I would be interested in a collaboration with him. This was to put together a show that we could eventually take to next years Edinburgh Fringe. After some discussions and ideas being mooted we decided to go for it and immediately put on a preview show in The Royal Oak lounge to a small invited audience. The night went fairly well but after the focus groups it was decided to rework some material. This has now been done and with the Introduction of a third person, namely Gordon who has been plucked from stacking shelves in Sainsbury's, we start a seven gig weekly preview on Tuesday 17 November.
See the pages that I have dedicated to Robertson Reid.
I am in the process of negociating possible gigs outwith my regulars at the moment so keep a look out either here or on the gig page.
That's about it for now so take care and please drop by my Reverbnation site and try and help me climb the folk charts.
http://www.reverbnation.com/ianrobertson
Thanks and talk again soon
Ian
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27 October 2009
Apologies to any regular visitors to the site for not having any updates for you, but things have been a bit crazy lately. One of the problems of working gigging and having to many web pages to deal with. Anyway looking forward I am going to concentrate more on this site.
So what's been going on and planned for the future?
Over the last couple of months I have carried on doing the regular gigs ie Thursday nights in the Greenmantle is the Mantlers session where I am aided and abetted by Harry Sunderland on the Bodhran. This has been going well and we get a steady flow of musicians coming along, happily it is an ever changing crowd so it keeps the music interesting and varied. Saturday evening I have my regular Royal Oak gig which is still going strong and has not suffered the usual after Festival slow down this year. Also still going well is the once/twice monthly gig in Balerno at the Grey Horse.
There has been a couple of other things that have transpired lately.
Firstly after a succesful trial gig, with Oz (Gordon) Kingsford-Smith on bass, under the guise of Rustic Two a regular monthly slot at The Kinleith Arms, Lanark Road has been achieved.
Secondly and I must say quite excitingly, I have been asked to collaborate with the Poet and Songwriter A.A. Reid where I will supply the musical side of gigs where Alan will combine some stotytelling with Poetry. We had our first evening in front of an invited audience a couple of weeks ago and it was highly succesfull.
I will be adding a page to this site at a later date dedicated to this work and explaining some of the background.
Well I think that's about all for today, please check out the rest of the sites for various other updates and thanks for your continuing support.
Ian
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18 September 2009
Happy September weekend to you all (Local holidy weekend in central Scotland).
It has been pleasing to see that I have been getting a fairly steady stream of visitors to this site, I must admit it has been more than I expected. I hope that people are returning but it is difficult to tell.
I would love to get some feedback, good or bad, from you guys out there on either the guestbook page or by sending a message through the contact page.
Well things are back to normal on the gigging side since the festival finished and I must admit it has been nice to have a couple of quiet, low key nights where the songs can be introduced in more detail and sung a bit more softly.
Sounds Acoustic is a night that I have started in the Greey Horse in Balerno for musicians to get together and play a few songs, have some discussions and maybe even form collaberations. We are there every Tuesday except the 1st Tues of the month (Balerno Folk club night), so if you are around come along.
Well take care folks and keep the music live
Ian
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01 September 2009
Hi folks,
It has been a busy month playing some extra gigs because of the Edinburgh Festival, however most of the gigs have been really good and I have met some fantastic people from all over the globe. They have been visiting our fair city knowing they come to one of, if not the largest festival in the world.
This month starts of reasonably busy also but gigs will be a bit quieter and more relaxed. The sessions in The Greenmantle have gone from strength to strength and along with Harry (who plays Bodrahn) it has become known as the Mantlers session. What we will now see, hopefully, is the return of some fantastic visiting musicians who were dropping by before the festival but, due to their own commitments in August, could not make it during this period.
Also the Royal Oak will become a bit more sedate for a while and we can get back to the quieter but nice singalong and storytelling nights we have come to love.
To save a bit time I am changing my gig page and just showing a link to one of my other sites as it is getting pretty hard keeping up with everything at the moment, I wish I could give up the day job ha! ha!
Well please drop by the music pages and have a listen and then drop a comment or message to me. Hoping to have some new songs posted in the not too distant future.
all the best
Ian
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03 August 2009
Here we are on my new website and I have a lot of things to do to get it up to speed so whilst I am building things up please feel free to pass on any thoughts or ideas you may think would be useful to me.
So anyway what's happening on the music front?
I have a farly busy month ahead with my usual weekly gigs in the Greenmantle on a Thursday and the Royal Oak on a Saturday. These are both session nights and musicians and singers are more than welcome. In addition to these I have a couple of extra nights in the Greenmantle as well as playing the Grey Horse in Balerno. See Gig page for more info.
On Tuesday 11 August I will be starting an Acoustic club in the Grey horse which will be weekly, except for the first Tuesday of each month as the room is used by the Balerno Folk club. The idea of this night is for musicians and singers to get together in a session, share ideas and possibly even enter into a collaboration. So if you are interested please come along. Agsin see Gig page for info.
Well thats all for now
Ian
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