News

Just in case you thought we had disappeared, we are in fact taking a break from touring this year !

The last few years have been absolutely wonderful and we have had an amazing time touring in USA, Europe and in Scotland.   A wealth of wonderful experiences and music shared.

Two CD’s released which have received great reviews and continue to do so, plus so many wonderful people we have had the privilege to play for and meet along the way.

This year we have been focussing on other projects musical and otherwise, recharging, and planning for the future.

Please keep in touch with us and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Linsey & Ken

‘Shore to Shore’

BMCD007

13 tracks of original songs and music

to be released 7th July 2018

We have just finished recording a new CD at Watercolour Music

in the Scottish Highlands.

www.watercolourmusic.co.uk

and will have advance copies with us for our US West Coast tour Aril/May 2018.

This is our second CD as a duo, with a mixture of new songs and instrumentals,

many focusing on our Scottish connections around the world,

each with a story, and most of all about people and histories of the past and present.

Scotland is a small nation, but its people have a big heart,

and reach out beyond themselves worldwide.

Advance orders of CD’s/downloads with a complimentary free track at time of order

are available from us now on our website, and at

iTunes, Amazon UK, US and Digital, Spotify,  www.birnamcd.com 

Fortunately, people seem to really like what we do,

and ask what kind of music we perform.

The answer is not one genre or another, but a blending of

everyone and everything we have met along the way.

A coming together of both our musical journeys, combined into one together,

with elements of our respective musical backgrounds in

Celtic, Classical, Traditional, Contemporary Music and all else.

But most of all our music is about people,

and all those who have influenced us and inspired us along the way.

On this new CD we are joined by the very best musical companions and friends.

We also especially owe sincere thanks to Nick Turner, Mary Ann Kennedy, and Rycote

at the wonderful Watercolour Music for their enthusiasm, musical and technical skills,

and most of all for their encouragement and support yet again

in the creation of this CD album.

And of course equally we want to thank all the wonderful people around the world

who have supported us and our music along the way.”

We hope you enjoy them, take them, sing, play and share them yourselves.

Linsey & Ken

Loch Lomond Scotland, May 2018

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are delighted to be returning by request for our fourth West Coast tour in Northern California in April and May 2018.

A series of 11 concerts including many venues we have played at before, who have asked us to return, and also a number of additional new ones.

You will find  a full list on the “Gigs” page here on our website, together with all the contact details for tickets and where to find us.

2017 was difficult year for many of our friends in Northern California who lost so much in wildfires.  We are deeply moved by the resilience and spirit of so many good friends we have made there in the course of our previous tours, and it will be an honour to play for you all again.

In addition we have some new venues including the famous Auburn House Concert Series which we have heard so much about, the highly regarded Back Room concert venue in Berkeley, a wonderful invitation to play at San Jose, and the amazing Casa Serrano Museum in Monterey, and others.

If you wish further information about any of this then please contact us at  music@linskenscotland.scot

Currently we are recording a new 13 track CD for release shortly.  We have returned to the amazing Watercolour Music Studios at Ardgour  www.watercolourmusic.co.uk  where we are working with Mary Ann Kennedy and Nick Turner to produce what he believe could be our best CD to date.  We are supported on that production by our great friends and musical companions of many years, Stevie Lawrence & Fiona Cuthill, Alasdair Robertson from the original Ideal Band, and bass/piano man Jim Lightbody from Loch Lomond.

Very excited about this one, and again distribution and all else will be managed for us by Mame Hadden and his team at Birnam CD  www.birnamcd.com

In June last year we welcomed and played a short concert here for Harpist Sunita Staneslow, Fred Schlomka, and their party of international musicians and guests touring Scotland.  From that has sprung an invitation for us to play a concert early next year at Pender Harbour Music Society on the Sunshine Coast Canada.  A great honour and heralds our first tour in Canada which we are organising right now.

Hello again from our wonderful base here at Loch Lomond in Scotland !

We are about to leave for another European tour, the highlight of which will be playing two festivals in Italy.

Then back to Tuscany yet again to spend time playing more music, and enjoying the company of so many good friends in and around Barga.

Then we return to Scotland and head again for Ardgour in the highlands and the wonderful Watercolour Music run by our good friends Nick Turner and Mary Ann Kennedy to record our second CD over the winter.  Over the last 18 months we have been writing, arranging, and playing in live a whole new body of songs and instrumentals.

A completely eclectic mix of new songs with stories about people, instrumentals dedicated to wonderful people we have met along the way on tour, and this time bringing in more Northumbrian pipes, ukulele, harmonium, and loads of harmony and chorus songs, including by request ‘The Bonny Ship Balclutha’ which we wrote for that wonderful square rigger steel hulled ship, built on the River Clyde here in Scotland, and now moored in San Francisco bay where we played a wonderful concert on board as part of our third USA tour.

At the moment we are also organising our fourth USA tour to the West Coast again in May 2018.  Every venue we played at last tour has asked us back and new exciting venues are being added in.  11 concerts confirmed to date and a good number of other under discussion.  We are truly blessed with all these wonderful people who keep coming to see us over there and asking us back. It is amazing.. some people even coming to more than one of our concerts.  That is not an ego statement, we have none, and are truly honoured.

Lastly we looking at possibly setting up a series on mini concerts here at Loch Lomond in Scotland, an informal setting similar to some of the US house concerts we have played, where everyone gets close to the musicians.  So many people here and overseas have asked if we would do this, so you can’t have a better place to do it then this wonderful hidden gem of a place at Loch Lomond Scotland.

That’s a brief update for now, please get in touch with us, and we hope to meet you all along the way over the next few months.

Linsey & Ken

We look forward to welcoming Harpist Sunita Staneslow, Fred Schlomka, and their party of international musicians and guests for an informal house concert with us here on the banks of Loch Lomond Scotland on 5th June.

We are delighted to be part of this annual 12 day tour of Scotland from Edinburgh to the Western Isles, Highlands and Shetland.

http://www.sunitaharp.com/…/roots-of-harp-scottish-journey-…

Greetings again from Loch Lomond Scotland….. we have been asked for an update of what we have been doing since Celtic Connections festival in January… so here you go !

Our California tour in May this year was a great success.  Our sincere thanks to everyone who came to see us and share our music, and also to all the fabulous venues and hosts who asked us to perform, and also of course the hospitality offered by so many old friends and new ones as well.

Ten wonderful concerts and six standing ovations, an invitation to return to every venue plus additional ones further south towards L.A., and also to extend our next tour into Arizona and further afield.  

We also met some superb US musicians and it is hoped that we will be able to perform with them in the future both sides of the Atlantic.
We traveled as far south this time as Monterey, John Steinbeck country, visiting their world famous aquarium, and returned once again to Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond at Felton CA…. a home from home for sure !  

Three weeks after our return we celebrated the wedding of Ken’s son Ronan and his wonderful bride Kim, at our HQ here on the banks of Loch Lomond Scotland… a fabulous day, a great party, and the sun shone!  

Next off to Italy for four weeks playing and sharing the Italian culture with our many friends and wonderful musicians over there, including Hamish Moore Scottish piper and pal, plus a chance to start putting together a musical body of work for our next CD.  

Now back home in Scotland we are looking forward to a visit from our  musical amigo Howard Booster and his wife from the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers.  

In October we are delighted to be performing at the Braw Festival again here at Loch Lomond, and then at the Braemar Creative Arts festival on Royal Deeside just down the road from Balmoral Castle.

Yet again our sincere thanks to all of you everywhere who have supported us and our music.  It has been a great year for us so far, from Celtic Connections sell out concert in January, right through to the next two Festivals in October.  We thanks you all, and look forward to seeing you again soon along the way.

Linsey & Ken

Loch Lomond Scotland

April 2016

Itinerary   

Linsey Aitken & Ken Campbell   

West Coast USA   May 2016

May 7th 2016

Bill Wagman  House Concert

1350 Monarch Ln, Davis, CA 95618

May 8th 2016

Willits Community Theatre

37 W Van Ln, Willits, CA 95448

May 10th 2016

Camellia Inn

211 North St, Healdsburg, CA 95448

May 11th 2016

Relevant Music

1251 9^th St. Suite A, Arcata, CA 95521

May 13th 2016

The Bohemian Art Loft

3304B Bechelli Lane, Redding, CA 96002

May 14th 2016

House Concert

3500 Rolling Oaks Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404

May 16th and 18th   

Two more concerts, details being finally confirmed.

May 20th 2016

Elizabeth Todd Concerts

913 W Franklin St, Monterey, CA 93940

May 22nd 2016

Don Quixote’s International Music Hall

6275 Hwy 9 Felton, California

Presented by –

Celtic Society of Monterey Bay

We are delighted to report that our concert at Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland on 22nd January was sold out and oversubscribed !

What a wonderful evening, and our sincere thanks to all who attended and supported us, Donald Shaw and his team at CC, and for the great media reviews as well.

This year Celtic Connections had 2,000 musicians and 300 shows, so we are honoured that so many people came along to share the evening with us.

Thank you all.

Then we were invited to play a live set of three songs for Scottish Television which was broadcast nationally on 27th January, another great experience.

In May we are returning to California for our third tour..returning by invitation to many wonderful venues we have played before, and also to a number of  new and exciting venues as well.  We will list them all here on the ‘Gigs’ page shortly.

Later, in the summer we have been invited to play at the wonderful Boxfull of Treasures Festival in Italy near the Adriatic coast, which will be  great thrill.  A festival we have heard so much about and are looking forward to.  There will be other concerts round that tour as well, and of course a return to the very wonderful Barga in Tuscany..’The most Scottish Town in Italy’.

We are also working on organizing another major event later in the year with a multi cultural line up in Scotland, along the lines of the St Mungo Festival we organised in 2010, and with an all star cast, all in aid of Scotland’s support for International Refugees, a cause which we totally support.

Meanwhile Linsey’s World Famous Loch Lomond Ukulele Orchestra goes from strength to strength and we are also looking forward to celebrating Kim and Ronan’s family wedding here at Loch Lomond in the Spring.

Our sincere thanks to everyone yet again who have supported us, all the new friends we have made in recent months, and we hope to see you all again soon along the way.

Linsey and Ken
February 2016

We are delighted to announce …..

Linsey Aitken & Ken Campbell

in concert at

Celtic Connections 

The largest annual winter music festival of its kind

and the UK’s premier celebration of Celtic music.

~~~~

7.30 pm    Friday 22nd January 2016 

The Glasgow Art Club   185 Bath St  Glasgow G2 4HU   Scotland 

Tickets now on sale :

Online   www.celticconnections.com 

By telephone 0141 353 8000

In person Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

2 Sauchiehall Street  Glasgow, G2 3NY

~~~~

 We hope you can join us at Celtic Connections Festival in January 2016 

Our sincere thanks to all of you everywhere who has been with us on this wonderful musical journey.

Please get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you.

 Linsey & Ken