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Travelling Folk

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BBC Radio Scotland's flagship folk music programme.

BBC Radio Scotland's flagship folk programme and brings you the very best of today's music and song.

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Travelling Folk: The Lost Words with Kris Drever and Rachel Newton

The Lost Words with Kris Drever and Rachel Newton

BBC Radio Scotland - Travelling Folk, The Lost Words with Kris Drever and Rachel Newton

Kris Drever and Rachel Newton on their latest project, The Lost Words: Spell Songs.

Kris and Rachel chat about Spell Songs, the musical companion to Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris' The Lost Words. Plus the 20th anniversary of Fèis Rois' Ceilidh Trail.

The Lost Words is an illustrated book created by nature writer Robert MacFarlane and artist Jackie Morris. It features 20 common names for 20 common species of plant and creature, forming a crooked almost A-Z from ‘acorn’ to ‘wren’ by way of ‘conker’, ‘kingfisher’, ‘otter’, ‘willow’ and others.

These words are ‘lost’ in the sense that they are slipping from our stories, minds, dictionaries and habitats.  Robert MacFarlane wrote a spell-poem with these words designed to be spoken or sung aloud in an act of summoning back and Jackie painted each in watercolour and gold leaf.  Jackie described it as ‘a beautiful protest’ against the loss of everyday nature from our everyday lives in the UK and beyond.

Spell Songs is a musical companion piece to The Lost Words performed by Kerry Andrew, Kris Drever, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Jim Molyneaux, Rachel Newton, Karine Polwart and Beth Porter. Kris and Rachel Newton tell Bruce how they came to be involved in the project, what it means to them and the experience of recording it.

In the second hour, Kirsty Campbell joins Bruce from the road on the 20th annual Fèis Rois Ceilidh Trail - the programme that gives young musicians and singers the opportunity to take part in a professional summer tour, with support from a team of musicians and specialist tutors, and that has helped produce many of today's touring traditional musicians.

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