The life and works of a Perthshire poet who was credited as being a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland is being celebrated in his home town this weekend.
Hamish Matters is a new Blairgowrie and Rattray festival featuring live music, storytelling, sessions and film celebrating the life and works of Hamish Henderson.
Born in Blairgowrie in 1919, the renowned Scottish poet, writer and folk archivist was introduced to folksong by his mother who brought him up to speak Gaelic.
As well as being a decorated soldier in the Second World War and a major figure in the Scottish folk movement, Mr Henderson travelled throughout Scotland with the renowned American folklorist Alan Lomax.
Henderson and Lomax brought together and recorded performers from the various traditions of Scottish music, in particular, the Gaelic singing of the Western Isles, Aberdeenshire bothy ballads and border ballads.
Henderson, who died in 2002, also worked with Blairgowrie writer Maurice Fleming and became renowned for recording the music of the travelling people of Strathmore, famously the Stewarts of Blair.
Friday’s opening day featured choir singing by local primary schools in the Blairgowrie library, where there is a bust of the poet.
Also on the programme are a showing of Robbie Fraser’s highly acclaimed documentary Hamish: the story of a Scottish Cultural Icon in Rattray Halls on Saturday afternoon and a ceilidh in the evening in Blairgowrie Town Hall.
The ceilidh will feature Perthshire’s acclaimed two-piece Mad Ferret, ballad singer Iona Fyfe, Gaelic singer Aileen Ogilvie and the Perthshire Gaelic Choir and local performers such as Hamish MacGregor and young piper Callum Douglas.
The evening will be will be compered by poet and Henderson aficionado Jim Mackintosh.
Information is available from the Hamish Matters’ Facebook page and tickets for the ceilidh are available from Blairgowrie Library on 01250 871305 or from Rattray Community Connect on 01250 871538.
