Back to Blairgowrie Concert

Blairgowrie Town Hall, Blairgowrie, August 27

Fifty years after a new organisation was born out of one of the first folk festivals in Scotland, a celebratory concert is being held featuring a selection of people who have made it what it is today.

The Traditional Music & Song Association of Scotland (TMSA) emerged from the Blairgowrie Folk Festival in 1996.

Returning for this golden anniversary show include singers and musicians of the calibre of Archie Fisher, Joe Aitken, Sheena Wellington, Kenny Hadden, Davey Stewart, Doris Rougvie, Aileen Carr, Pete Shepheard, Gillian Frame and Simon Thoumire.

Many of the acts come from the local area and were involved in the Blairgowrie and successor festivals.

Others represent the progression of traditional music and song.

Event spokeswoman Alison Mackinnon said the TMSA was established to promote, present and preserve the music and song heritage of Scotland, and is the country’s oldest individual membership organisation associated with traditional music and song.

The Blairgowrie Folk Festival moved to Kinross after a few years and then later to Kirriemuir – where the TMSA Angus Branch runs a festival the first week in September every year.

A highlight of the night will be folk singer and song writer Archie Fisher who has released several solo albums since his first in 1968 and recorded with many other groups and singers, including The Clancy Brothers.

He hosted his own radio show – Travelling Folk – on BBC Radio Scotland for almost three decades.

Archie is a Patron of the TMSA and was at the initial Blairgowrie Folk Festival.

Dr Sheena Wellington is best known for her singing of A Man’s A Man For a’ That at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Born in Dundee into a family of singers and factory weavers, her repertoire covers everything from Burns to ballads to the best of contemporary song writing, drawing from the rich Scottish tradition passed from musician to musician through the ages.

Pete Shepheard member of the TMSA.

He has continued to be involved with the organisation and other local traditional music activities including the annual Fife Traditional Singing Weekend event.

His enthusiasm as a singer and collector resulted in the creation of Springthyme Records in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, Davey Stewart from Kirkcaldy, was a founder member of the TMSA, and is possibly best known for his long-term collaboration with John Watt. is a founding

Dundee’s Sheena Wellington.