This whole process of writing songs – it’s a, it’s a mystery, but it is utterly exciting and magic. But I think that you came with an idea and some lyrics and maybe some of the melody, and um – it’s so hard to describe, it seems like you have, often you only have a short period of time to grab, actually grab the song and put it down into a form. Um, it’s a moment of inspiration. I feel that it is a moment of inspiration. And you had an idea, or you had an emotion that was present for what you felt was going on with your mother which brought – it brought back – it was to do with memories.

And um, as for the way the music comes, I think you must have had an idea for a melody, and then, it starts with the first chord and then – I just, I, funnily enough I was thinking maybe of more music that I’d heard in the past, and the type of Gaelic songs, the way that they, the chord sequences often run. And um, it’s often a major chord, major minor progression. Um, and that seems to catch those moods really well. Um, so it was, er, it’s a natural process, but it’s something that you have to feel as well, but I feel that’s how it works for me, I think.

Um, I think, I can’t – in the same way that you can’t really deny where you come from in terms of your roots, my musical roots are that I was, I think, more involved with R&B and rock’n’roll as a kind of, as a style. But then I also played in an Irish cèilidh band for about ten years. We used to go off and play, um, lots of dances and weddings and stuff like that, and um playing tunes as well, playing reels and jigs and, um, so that my style, I think, is between the two, and I like to move between the two of them. Um, I think that, erm, and that’s what I, sometimes, I can add to it, um, add to the musical direction by injecting a little bit of the energy of that into, into the kind of, the Gaelic traditional thing. But I don’t actually feel that confident yet with the Gaelic music yet. I’m still learning. I have still a huge amount to learn with it.

And when you sing about somehting that is to do with, as you describe, the memories, the influences, and the history, I think that you – it’s not just singing about it because you, in a way when you sing about it, you call all of that back into the present. I think that is the process. I think that is the most, um, exciting part of it all – is that by singing about it you bring it back into the present.

I find it, though, particularly interesting that we’re working together. I really, I think that that’s um – you enter into a process when you write, as a co-writing – a partnership – um, where you share ideas. I think it’s, I think it’s not just what one person, or two individuals put into the pot. I think the two, the two influences of a writing team create something which is bigger than we can do individually. I think that’s, that’s something that is always, um, astonishing. Yeah.

I was working in London, recording in a, my studio, which was, I think, a professional studio, and also producing music for, erm, CDs and stuff like that. Um, that was something I did for many years. But what happened, in the whole, in the whole of that period was that I never used to write so much. I used to write sometimes, but more the point was I didn’t play, and coming here has given me the space to start playing music again, which, um, has been absolutely – it’s been wonderful, really enjoyable. To play again, and actually to start – because we’ve gone off and done some playing to audiences and, um, live situations, um, you have to work in a different way. Recording is a very, um, I wouldn’t say it’s a – it’s a very cosseted environment. It’s a very – you’re looking at a certain degree of perfection. And, um, I think that to go and play live, and actually to bring the music out, in a way that people can enjoy it, I think that’s a fantastic challenge, so that side of it I’ve really enjoyed. I want to do more of that too.

I actually want to, I want to play and sing and be involved with writing in that way. But in terms of the music that we’re working on now, I think the time will come when we’ll, we will record it. And we’ll, we’ll build up a body of work which we’ve played at bit live, and working in a live way you actually work out the problems of a piece of music. Sometimes it’s to do with the fact that you’ve pitched it too low, and you’re not lifting your voice up sufficiently. So, by going out and playing live, you actually test it. That testing process is really important, and, and then I think we’ll, we will record this material – I think it’s going to be really exciting to do that. I’d really enjoy that. So that’s one of the things I look forward to, recordingwise.

It’s about – it came about with my mother deciding to leave her home at 82 years of age after living in the village for over forty years. And for me it was a very sad time because I felt as if she was going to go and I would lose all contact with her and everything, even though she was only going 25 miles to another island. But there’s something very symbolic in that. Um, and it made me look at the life I’d had and the life she’d had there. And I felt at the time it was wrong for my mother, maybe for a selfish reason because my mother was suddenly going to be half an hour away from me rather than five minutes. Um, but for her I realised that it was moving on as well. My father died five years ago. She hadn’t really moved things out of the house. And I felt that she was as if preparing her life for something else. Um so when I wrote the verse “Tha na seann daoine a’ falbh, a’ toirt ceum bho ar saoghal” it meant that they’re stepping out of our lives, and heading into another one of their own.

One of the verses is “Mi a’ cuimhneachadh air m’ athair, ‘s na dh’fhalbh às an sgìr’, leithid Murchadh a’ mhachair, ‘s na sheall iad dhomh gun phrìs”. I remember my father, and the people who left our village, and the communities, and for example the likes of Murdo MacCuish. Murdo MacCuish was in my own village a great influence on me in my childhood, him and his wife. I was always there. He taught me all I know about the beaches and the sea and everything. But he also – what he gave me he never asked for anything in return, just to see me happy – but what he actually did for us – he was in the wars, he was a prisoner of war. And I think it’s really important that we remember these people for these reasons, of what, the life that we actually have today was because of their efforts and their endurance. And I think that comes through in the song. Er, in Gaelic it’s got a lot more meaning than it does in English translation because of the hidden meanings and the associations to people and what it means.

Um, but there’s also a verse, um, “Chan eil eich a’ treabhadh sa mhachair, ‘s tha an iodhlann gun chruaich. Far an do thogadh teaghlaich tha làrach feanndagan mar chuimhn’”. Um, when I came here first of all in 1969/70 there was horses ploughing on the machairs. I still remember them, and it was a way of life. It was a tradition. But today, everybody’s got hydraulic ploughs. They’ve got big tractors and everything, and it’s no longer got that same community feeling that it did have. Er, and then I look around the islands and I see – in my own village was 70 people – today there’s only 21. And all around there’s ruined houses of nettles and where big families were once brought up.

But that’s not only a poignant reminder of what happened in my generation. It’s also a poignant reminder of the clearances, and the emigrations, and the potato famines, and all of those people left here. And I think a lot of them come back today, looking for that ancestry. And it’s very symbolic – nettles is what’s left instead of people in a lot of the communities throughout these islands.

The great thing about my father was he was a very social person. And he took me everywhere with him into houses, so whenever he went there it was like everybody would gather round and he’d tell stories in the oral way. So a lot of what I know was what I learnt orally, but I think the influences on myself were mainly my father for poetry writing and song writing, was because he recited poetry he learnt in school. And he could recite maybe twenty, thirty verses of stuff, and even people like Keats and Wordsworth and all those people. So the intelligence was there and the knowledge was there. Um, but cèilidhs were great at them times, but people had more time. Today you look at your neighbour’s house, and you don’t go there. So our community’s not changed, we’ve changed as a people. And that’s one of the messages in the song. The last verse in the song, there’s a bit in it “Tha sinn làn pròis gun ghliocas, a’ milleadh na thug iad dhuinn”. We’re too full of pride, and lacking in knowledge. And we’re at risk of ruining the lifestyle that they actually gave us. The idyllic lifestyle that we try to lead today, in a world that sometimes looks on idyllic lifestyles as abnormal, but the normality of the life here was what they had.

This is the home of Kevin De Las Casas, in Houghary on the west side of North Uist.

Originally from London, where he ran a professional recording studio, Kevin is now settled here with his family.

He still has an interest in music, and has started writing songs with James MacLetchie, who lives nearby, in Sollas.

Very often the ideas for new songs happen in the kitchen.

Kevin might develop some musical ideas on his guitar, to which James would add some words.

At other times James might think of some words or phrases that go well together, and perhaps have a rough idea of a tune.

If they like an idea the next stage is to develop it into a song that can be performed or recorded.

This takes serious work, and is better done in another room with fewer distractions.

One song they both like is called “Na Seann Daoine” – “The Old Folk”. They want to develop it for performance or recording with their group “Bi Beò”.

They have to practise the words and the music, and discuss and agree the instrumental arrangement.

At Liniclate in Benbecula, the neighbouring island, there is a recording studio in the local college building.

Arriving early to set things up, Kevin and James tune up as they wait for the drummer, Paul Maclean, to arrive.

The recording progresses in a series of stages.

Firstly, a guide track is recorded with just drums and guitar.

This will form the base to which voices and more instruments are added.

The second stage is to re-record the rhythm guitar.

Then a preliminary vocal track is recorded – again as a guide.

Following that, more instruments are added, layer by layer, including keyboard, and other instruments.

Over the next couple of hours more instrumental and vocal recordings are made and added to the mix.

Kevin decides where to place each instrument in the final recording.

The computer shows where each instrument comes in.

After three hours work in the studio, the basic work is done.

Although a lot more would need to be done to perfect the recording, Bi Beò’s first CD has just been produced.

Taigh Chearsabhagh is probably as good as any art centre you’d get in Scotland or even Britain. The facilities for artists and students is very good. You have, like, printing facilities, you have photographic facilities, video, and there’s studio space available. And with that you have a really good café, and you also have a very good museum – exhibition space, which is very popular.

They manage to, kind of, take exhibitions to Taigh Chearsabhagh from all over Scotland, that are produced by very well known artists, and they also have exhibitions by local artists. And the museum puts on very good exhibitions – local, and national too.

Taigh Chearsabhagh runs some art courses and it’s – the facilities are as good as anywhere in that they bring home very well known tutors from all over the country, and they also have their own tutors, which are excellent too. And the kind of courses that they do, they do provide, are quite often environmentally based, which means that the place is very appropriate for that.

It’s appropriate because a lot of the work is done in the environment itself – environmental – you know, landscapes and seascapes. The environment is used.

Taigh Chearsabhagh is very important to Lochmaddy, and also to the Uists on the whole because they offer a service there. They offer a service to artists, to people who are interested in history, genealogy, and they’ve just provided lots of jobs for the community. And it brings in a lot of tourists, and a lot of people and artists who want to exhibit there.

My name is Caitriona MacCuish, and I work as Heritage Officer in Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Art Centre in North Uist.

I work in the museum and I curate the exhibitions, or I set them up and research them. Um, and I work with Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, the North Uist Historical Society, um, to curate exhibitions. I also work with schools, showing them round the exhibitions, creating work for the exhibitions with schools. And I also work with other community groups, and also with older people who are resident in the hospital or in the local care homes.

Um, I suppose most of the time I’m here, but I do then spend quite a percentage out in the community as well, out in the schools, or with other groups.

I really enjoy my work, yeah. Um, there’s always something different doing every day. There’s lots of people around as well, and the staff here are very friendly. Um, and I like the fact that there’s lots of the community come in to visit, to use the café and also to look at exhibitions, so I really enjoy it.

I think it’s very important. It is a place both for the community and also for tourists, um, and also it employs a lot of people. There’s nowhere like it, I don’t think, in North Uist otherwise, so it’s very important, and also it helps to conserve our history for future generations as well.

Lochmaddy, on the east side of North Uist, is the centre for the island’s annual sheep sales. People come from all sides to sell their lambs. It’s a reminder that this is a crofting community, in which working on the land is still an important part of the way of life.

For an island community, the sea is equally important. The main ferry service connecting North Uist to the mainland of Scotland comes into Lochmaddy, which shows again the importance of this township in the island.

But visitors may notice more than the sheep sales as the ferry comes into port. Pieces of work on the shoreline itself and close to the Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Art Centre show that the community has an interest in the arts as well.

Taigh Chearsabhagh is run as a partnership between the Uist Arts Association and the North Uist Local History Society, and it brings together in one building local cultural and historical interests with creative arts.

At the centre of the building is the café, famous for its homebaking and open all year round. Next to the café is the shop where you can buy books of local and Gaelic interest, as well as toys and gifts.

Next to the shop is the museum, run by the historical society. Exhibitions change regularly. The current one features traditional crafts such as spinning and weaving. The historical society is also responsible for the remarkable collection of photographs, donated by the local community.

Staff in Taigh Chearsabhagh share a busy office. Here exhibitions are organised, school visits are planned, and training courses are developed.

There are also two galleries for exhibiting artwork. In Gallery Two students in the first year of the BA are preparing for their end of year show. The pictures are finally put up with little time to spare before the first guests arrive.

It’s also a big night for diploma students, who exhibit their work in the studio.

There’s a good crowd to see all the different exhibitions. They are welcomed by Icelandic artist Valgerdur Hauksdottir. She has an exhibition of her own work in Gallery One.

From showing the work of international artists, to developing the talents of all ages in the community, to recording and preserving aspects of local life, Taigh Chearsabhagh is involved in a wide range of cultural activity. That it does it so effectively reflects well on the lively people who make it work, and the healthy community in which they live.

I got hooked by the song. I fell in love with the songs. And that’s how I originally came and, you know, started, you know, learning, memorising Gaelic songs and, and I, and once I, once I tried to get deeper into the singing then it was “well, I really need to learn the language better”.

I find the teachers just, you know, they almost all of them start out – some classes, maybe, may be a lot in Gaelic – but it seems like the teachers are always aware if there’s someone that isn’t speaking and doesn’t understand Gaelic well, or not at all, then they take time for you to figure out, you know, what they want you to do.

You know I think there was one year where they didn’t have the Gaelic in the morning, and, you know, in the early part, in the early years when I was coming – ah, I was only here for the music and I would some days get up to do the Gaelic, but I didn’t push that very hard. Now, if there’s no Gaelic for – now they have it all day long, you can take it as a major, which is great, but I want, I want the music too. So to have that one class in the day that anybody can take Gaelic is great.

For me it’s coming back to – you know in America we romanticise these places, and for me, coming back here, it’s part of my look at where my people came from – my Scottish side of my family came from. And for some of us it’s such an integral part of our lives. We look forward to it all year long. I realise immediately after I leave the Outer Hebrides I can’t speak Gaelic to just anybody. Out here I can speak – this my opportunity to push myself to speak Gaelic. But mostly I want to thank the people that put on this festival and keep it going because it’s just – it’s an experience like no other. You know, we go back home to Seattle, and we tell people, you know, if you’re interested in Gaelic you should – you should go, you should go to Scotland, you should go to Ceòlas, you should go to one of the festivals or whatnot, and really experience what those people are like, and what – how they carry their tradition. And, um, because it’s a beautiful, beautiful way that these people carry their tradition with the cèilidhs and with the teaching, and with the bringing in the young people to learn the piping and the, and the fiddling, and the stepdance, and these things that, you know, if nobody is organising something in some way for these people, for kids to learn this stuff, it’ll die off. So, mòran taing! (Many thanks.)

I think another part of – I met my wife at Ceòlas. Um, I was looking, and she was minding her own business, but, um, and er, it’s made me one of the happiest – it’s the happiest time of my life, you know, so it’s a great place to come and meet, er, lovely people. So, um, all you guys out there – there’s beautiful women here!

I work in the Ceòlas office helping with the administration of the Ceòlas week, so we’ve been busy planning since I started here in January.

Well, first of all we have to get our brochure ready and make sure that our website’s up to date because that’s how a lot of people get information about Ceòlas, and then dealing with student enquiries is probably the first stage as we get closer to Ceòlas. Also the tutors have to be booked quite in advance, and the school and the buses, and all the logistics of it all. And then just allocating people to their classes and making sure that everything goes smoothly for the Ceòlas week.

Most people stay in self-catering accommodation. We arrange the accommodation for the tutors, but we try and help students along as well if they’re having trouble finding somewhere, but I think this year it’s been fine. People are quite keen to share with other students. Quite often they know each other anyway, so that helps.

During Ceòlas week, well, the week starts on the Saturday. There’s a music session in the Borrodale Hotel. That’s how it started this year, and on Sunday the students arrive, and they have all their registration which is quite a busy time. But again we’ll have prepared their packs and everything beforehand, and so everything went quite smoothly this year. And then the classes actually begin on the Monday, and run through until the Friday. But it’s quite a busy week because there’s lots of evening events, as well, so everybody’s quite tired by the end of the week.

The last day is Friday and the classes are finished at quarter past three, and then they have what they call the crossover class. And they’ve been working together in the afternoons throughout the week, and they do a performance if they want to – some people don’t want to perform – on the Friday afternoon. Then there’s the cèilidh mòr on the Friday evening and then the farewell dance after that. They’re always really popular with locals as well as the students.

Em, normally I come in about half past eight during Ceòlas week. And I’m here until the classes finish then at five, and normally I’ll go along to some of the evening events. This year we had some lectures which I was doing translations for, so I had a few evenings out to attend. So it’s a busy week.

In 2003 some of the Ceòlas board and committee went to the Celtic Colours festival, so that was quite useful for them I think, to see how another event was organised, and they got quite a lot of ideas from that, but unfortunately I wasn’t involved in Ceòlas that early. I didn’t start until 2004. I came as a tutor first in 2004.

Ceòlas operates on two levels. The main operation is really the weeklong summer school, but as well as that there is an all year round programme of activities and development. People would most generally think that the most – the school is the most important part, and that’s what I would say as well. That’s quite a big operation because hundreds of people come into Uist at that time. Ceòlas itself brings in about 200 people between the tutors and the actual students, and there are, sort of, followers, families who come, but we are also finding that more and more people are taking their holidays at that time of the year. So it’s quite a busy time for the south end of South Uist.

It takes place in Daliburgh School, and that’s an excellent venue because it’s bang in the middle of a lively community with all the kind of services you need round about. Eh, and leading up to Ceòlas quite a lot of preparation takes place in the community, where accommodation gets booked, people get ready, the school gets prepared, because it happens very quickly after the school closes and, em, it’s a very busy week really, with a big buzz in the whole of South Uist, particularly the Middle District upwards.

We organise quite an extensive programme of community and evening events, from cèilidhs, to dances, to lectures, to walks. We sort of try and put things on that will show to visitors particularly the beauty of our island, and how we value our environment, and how fine the machair looks, and how valuable it is that we have places where Margaret Fay Shaw came, and ruins from Peigi Anndra, and connections with the bards – all these things that are in the wealth of our culture we try and just give a snapshot to people who come.

During the year the Ceòlas board and committee use all the opportunities they can to develop partnerships with other organisations. Particularly we try and work with Benbecula College, who have music and Gaelic students coming into the island. And we also build relationships with other groups like the fèis and the piping groups, to promote tuition. We’re trying to do as much as we can to develop our young people.

As well as that we do promotional events. We work with other individuals and organisations, and preparing for the summer school is really an all year round business, because there are various things that have to be done in stages – booking all the different parties that are involved, and then planning the different things. Em, it’s not just a week thing, although sometimes it can be a bit hidden, and that you think it might just fall out of the sky, but it doesn’t. There’s a lot of preparation involved.

I would like to think Ceòlas is very important to Uist on a variety of – in a variety of ways. To the musicians, particularly, that they see that music is being valued by particularly people who come in. And that helps us to create a culture of change here and getting ourselves to appreciate our own culture. Particularly the language as well – that we see people coming from many parts of the world who are fluent in Gaelic, and wishing to develop their Gaelic. And that can put us to shame and shake us into putting more value on what we have anyway. As well as that we are beginning to look again at the beauty of our island, and also just it’s a time when people can have a good time and have a lot of fun. And I think even God is on our side. He’s starting to give us good weather now.

On the west side of South Uist the beaches stretch from south to north for miles. Looking east the wild flowers spread over the machair towards the hills. And at the foot of the hills lies Daliburgh, home to the Gaelic music and language summer school, Ceòlas.

Ceòlas is held in Daliburgh School for a full week early in July every year. Students come from around the world to play a part in the rich musical and cultural life of this small community in the Western Isles.

The school has been running for over ten years now, and many students have attended regularly over that time, forming lasting friendships. The dining area is a busy place during breaks between classes as students exchange greetings and news in both English and Gaelic.

New faces are also made welcome. Ruairidh MacIlleathain, attending for the first time as a student, is a well-known Gaelic broadcaster based in Inverness.

Dale Cummings has come from much further away, Seattle in the USA. He first came 8 years ago, and has come back every year since.

The school has a strong relationship with the community. Mary Macinnes chairs the local committee that organises and runs the school every year.

After the break the students must return to their classes. Gaelic language is a very important part of the daily teaching. In addition students choose two musical disciplines. These include the fiddle, with a strong Cape Breton influence, as well as keyboard. Many students choose to do Gaelic song. And no music school in Uist would be complete without pipers. Dance is also taught, with a particular focus on the old stepdancing tradition that is still very much alive in Cape Breton.

Learning can be hard work, which can make you thirsty. When classes finish in the school some students are keen to carry on practising in the nearest hotel. But Ceòlas is an important event for the whole community, with a series of evening events throughout the week. Buses are provided at the end of each day to take students to the next event, whether it’s a house party, a concert, or a walk across the machair. And even the pipers need to take a rest eventually.

On Wednesday night the evening dance is held on the neighbouring island of Eriskay. This can now be reached by causeway, so there’s no excuse for not attending.

The local band is already playing when the students begin to arrive. For those new to the dances a caller gives instructions as the music plays.

As the evening draws on the music changes, and tutors and students get a chance to demonstrate their stepdancing skills. Bringing back an almost lost style of Scottish music and dance to a living Gaelic community is probably the most important feature of Ceòlas.

It generates enormous excitement amongst those lucky enough to witness it. But as the sun sets slowly in the west, only half-way through the week, everyone knows there’s still a lot more to learn.