Last night at the Mid Ohio Scottish Heritage Association meeting (MOSHA), I presented a slide show of my trip to Scotland and played several tunes associated with various people and places that I visited. During the day, I had checked out all of the equipment to make sure the LCD projector and computer and cords were working. But last night, of course, the projector kept saying "no signal"! It took several minutes to trouble shoot. The thing that finally worked was to unplug the cords and start over. Thank goodness for arriving early.
You need to pack a lot of stuff when you are playing the harp somewhere: harp, stool, strings, tuner and clip, set list, as well as other emergency equipment. Doing this multimedia presentation meant having even more equipment: computer, LCD projector, AVG connection cords, extension cords, stool for projector, screen, etc.
I sang "Both Sides The Tweed" while showing the Tweed River flowing through the city of Peebles. Corrina Hewat sang this song several years ago at the Ohio Scottish Arts School. Then, I played "Jolly Band of Shearers" as an example of a Bothy Ballad. I learned this tune from Sharon Knowles. I sang "Will Ye Go Tae Flanders" while talking about my lesson with Corrina Hewat and showing a photo of her neighbor Karine Polwart who sings this song on one of her albums. Next, I played the pipe march "High Road To Gairloch" while showing photos of the town of Gairloch that I passed through on my way from Skye to Ullapool to catch a ferry. This catchy tune was taught to me by Jo Morrison at the Ligonier Highland Games. I showed photos of the white sandy beaches of Harris and played "Harris Dance" which I learned from the Captain Simon Fraser Collection. I played Corrina Hewats arrangement of "Isle of Aigas" as a precursor for my insistent pursuit of finding the Isle of Aigas. Finally, I played the strathspey "Cawdor Castle" I learned from Dominique Dodge and relayed the legend of the Hawthorne Tree which remains still in the keep of the castle.
