Life in music grounded in countryside upbringing
Influence of landscape
The countryside around Callander has been a big influence on Scots indie musician Alasdair Roberts.
Born in Germany, the 45-yearold grew up in Kilmahog during the formative years of his life.
It was there that his late father Alan, a touring musician who had played with folksinger Dougie Maclean, taught Alasdair to play guitar.
Alan, who was born in Bridge of Allan, came from a large Callander family. He had worked as a booking agent in Germany with wife Peggy in the 1970s before the couple returned to Scotland with their young son and two daughters.
While growing up in Kilmahog, Alasdair enjoyed walking in the surrounding countryside and points to its impact on his work.
Alasdair said: “The landscape around Kilmahog and Callander definitely had an influence on my songwriting, particularly in the early years when I was still living there before I moved away to Glasgow.
“A lyrical concern with the natural world was nurtured amid the hills, bens, glens, forests, fields and lochs, and it certainly continues to feature in my songwriting.”
Alasdair, who has recorded more than 15 albums under his own name, lived in Kilmahog from around the age of four to 18 and attended Callander Primary School and Mclaren High School.
He said: “It was a great place to grow up. Especially out in Kilmahog.
“We moved back to Scotland when I was about two. I don’t remember living in Germany.
“We had guitars in the house. I started to express an interest when I was in my early teens and my dad taught me to play.
“A few years later I got lessons from a jazz guitarist in Bannockburn called Laurie Hamilton who sadly died a few years ago. “
His first experience of a proper recording studio had been at Stirling’s Random Rhythms in Bridgehaugh Road.
“I can’t remember what my very first song was. When I was aged six or seven
I had a wee Casio keyboard and I was making up songs. But the first serious attempt at songwriting would have been when I was about 15 or 16.
“A couple of times some friends and I went to Random Rhythms on the way towards Raploch. That was the first experience of recording in a proper studio.
“When I was 16 or 17 I bought a four-track cassette recorder. I started spending time recording songs and musical ideas. That’s how it all started.
“I was already serious about music before I moved to Glasgow. Part of the reason for moving to the city was because it had a good music scene and I would meet people I could play with. I sensed there were more opportunities in Glasgow.”
He has just recorded the album ‘Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall’ – to be released at the end of the month – which contains 12 traditional songs. Two singles have been released so far ‘Eppie Morrie’ and ‘The Lichtbob’s Lassie’ and the next will be ‘The Bonny Moorhen’.
Alasdair said: “I’m happy enough with the album to take it out there for other people to hear.
“It’s maybe my fourth collection of traditional songs. I came to traditional songs a bit later. I was more interested in writing songs than interpreting traditional songs until I was in my early 20s. Since then I have alternated between making records that have featured traditional songs and records of my own songwriting, but my songwriting draws on traditional song in various ways, melodically, thematically, or lyrically.”
Alasdair will also be touring at the end of March and beginning of April to support the album, which includes dates in Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as Perth’s Soutar festival at the end of April.
He said: “It is two weeks or more, 13 gigs – it’s probably the longest I have been away since the pandemic. I’m looking forward to it.
“It’s strange the way this tour has worked out – the first offers to come in were down south and that shifted the focus of my booking agent.
“We’re talking about more gigs in maybe September and October. I would love to play in Stirling again and do more gigs in Scotland. I have had great times playing at the Tolbooth in the past.”