Sep 9, 2010

Mary K Burke interviews  John A Blakey, artist and author in Co. Cavan, Ireland.

Listen to the interview here.

I had the great priviledge of meeting and chatting to John A Blakey on my recent visit to Co. Cavan, Ireland for the  Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. 

Looking for something other than music which was in great supply everywhere, I discovered John Blakey was launching his book ‘The Tale of Lundravar the Dragon.‘  It is a story that reflects John’s journey through life as an artist.

And what I hear you say has that to do with Celtic Music Radio ? 

It was’nt long until I made the connection as the book is set to become a feature film for the big screen with Matt Moloy and the Chieftens likely candidate’s to be doing the sound track .

The other connection?  John took the name of the main character Lundravar from a small loch just behind Ben Nevis, Fort William named  Loch Lundavra.  One of the characters is based on John’s friend Fergus MacLeod from the Isle of Skye.

Most of the characters in the book exist or have existed, and he hopes that the general philosophy that inspired the book will touch some part in all of us.  Having now read the book myself I found it a really magical tale and would highly recommend it to any one of any age and can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

John has expressed a wish to come over to Fort William and do a book launch beside Loch Lundavra and to visit Celtic Music Radio here in Glasgow.  I will keep you posted, but in that meantime, enjoy the interview  and do go and visit The Tale of Lundrava The Dragon website here.  You will love it!

More on John Blakey

Picture: Mary K Burke with John Blakely.

The Tales of Lundraver the Dragon is a  tale of a lost little dragon who hatches from his egg many centuries after all of the dragons have been vanquished from the world.  Lundravar the dragon is a charming tale of a journey of discovery, of love and hate, joy and disappointment and of being lost and being found. His adventures bring him into contact with wonderful characters, who help him discover his true self and the terrible truth of his past.  Alone as the first and last of the great fire-dragons, he has to face a heart-breaking decision: should he remain alone for ever, or give up his powers and resign himself to mortality and happiness?  The book has 157 illustrations by John.

Sep 6, 2010

Mary K Burke’s guest on Sunday 19 September will be Karen Whitelaw Smith when she will speak about The Butterfly Experience.

Listeners are invited to email, phone-in the studio on 0141 548 4041 or text the studio on 07588 15 1530 during the programme with their questions.

Karen Whitelaw Smith  is one of the leading coaches in personal development and has built her reputation by word of mouth as The Positive Thinking Expert, Inspirational Speaker, Therapist, Personal & Spiritual Development Coach and International Author of The Butterfly Experience — Inspiration For Change. She has a unique talent of helping you connect with your soul. Karen has been featured on television and radio and in the press.

Karen lives in the south side of Glasgow and consults from Glasgow and London. Passionate about positive thinking, she has dedicated her life to transforming, improving and healing the lives of people from many different backgrounds and has spent years researching the secrets of success, and now teaches her own techniques.

Karen’s aim is to impart universal laws, knowledge and spiritual wisdom through to enable people to fulfil their ambitions and lead happy, abundant lives. She has worked with the world’s top mind-body-spirit leaders.

 Through The Butterfly Experience coaching and presentations she teaches others to use their intuition; positive thinking; listen to their own body; how to cope with stress; have an attitude of gratitude; understand how the mind works; visualisation and to attract abundance; self-relaxation techniques; affirmations and how to discipline your life.

Join Mary K Burke and Karen Whitelaw Smith from 7.00pm on Sunday 19 September.

Sep 2, 2010

Joining Mary K Burke this Sunday 5 September is Glasgow singer and songwriter Ian Davison.   (Sunday 5.00-7.00pm)

Ian has been described as ‘the song-writers’ songwriter’.  He originally helped organise and perform in Scottish folk clubs, especially in Glasgow and Rutherglen, Lanarkshire.

Ian is known mostly as a top songwriter with almost 300 songs in traditional and modern styles, half of them written in the 1990s.   His songs are being sung in clubs and festivals all over the world and recorded by artists like Peggy Seeger, Archie Fisher, Adam MacNaughton, Ed Miller, Brian McNeill and Toni Wood.

Ian has won every song-writing competition in Scotland including all of them in one year, and retired from competition a number of years ago.

He also teaches song-writing at festivals and university adult classes and judges song-writing competitions and is an active member of the Glasgow Song-Writers Club and Glasgow’s ‘Live at the Star’ folk club.

As a performer, Ian has sung on both radio and television, in folk, poetry and music clubs and festivals in Scotland, Ireland and England. Many years ago his group did the first recording of the popular ‘Jeelie-Piece Song’ and performed frequently as support to famous names like Tom Paxton, Matt McGinn, Billy Connolly, The Corries, Christy Moore and Eric Bogle.

In less than 10 recent years Ian has produced several CDs of newly written songs, and a double CD and a triple CD packs containing ‘Best of…’ from which some tracks are regularly broadcast.

Visit Ian’s MySpace page.

Carissa Bovill (pictured above) from the southside of Glasgow will be joining Ian in the studio as they are working on various projects together.  Carissa was the ‘castaway’ on last week’s Dorris Island on Ciaran’s Sunday Session.  Music has always hugely influenced Carissa’s life. She began taking piano and fiddle lessons both classical and traditional at the age of 8. She now teaches Scottish music and song at the Junior RSAMD every Saturday.

Aug 25, 2010

Hi listeners, (writes Mary K. Burke) just back on Sunday night from a fabulous holiday in Co. Cavan at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2010 (Festival of Music in Ireland). 

The Fleadh Cheoil saw 250,000 people desend on the town of Cavan and  I do have some footage of the musicians many of whom were young children who played on the streets and in the bars  and everywhere you turned.

This was the biggest Fleadh (festival) I have ever witnessed and at times it wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been had there been less people and indeed less noisy people who were not really interested in music.  However, I did manage to catch some great sessions and interviewed John A. Blakey artist and author of a new childrens book ‘The Tales of Lundraver The Dragon’ which is set to be turned into a film with the soundtrack being performed by The Chieftains.   The characters in the book are based on people John met over the last 30 years as an artist and is a truly magical story. I’ll be telling you more about this in the coming shows on Celtic Music Radio and I will also post some video clips to my Facebook page.

My new Goldwing I wish!

Interviews and programme guests on the Listen Again section.

I have just uploaded two interviews from my archive of interviews that have not been aired yet. One with Roya MacLean and the other with Lorcan Mathona and  also a live in the studio session featuring Alisdair Ogilvy & Steve Adams.   Visit the Listen Again page.          

I have quite a few shows to edit and upload so watch this space.

And a special thanks to Danny Matheson who covered my show in my absence.   Paul and I will be back on Sunday 29 August 7.00 to 9.00pm on Celtic Music Radio and look forward to your company.

Mary K Burke.