David Ward Maclean (singer/songwriter)

I was born in Clydebank, Scotland in 1958, and have lived variously in Sutherland, Glasgow, Hamburg, Stirling and ultimately York, England, where I’ve lived since 1988, and have three noisy, expensive, gorgeous children. I’ve worked as a street musician since about 1991, and still find it enjoyable. My job has allowed me to meet and play for an extraordinary range of people from all backgrounds, whom I would otherwise never have encountered, some weird, some wonderful, some both. It has been and remains a privilege to do so.

I’ve played the guitar and written since I was fifteen, got my first paid gigs in Hamburg in 1979 when I lost my passport and had to survive, and recorded 2 albums in Bremen at Thein Studios in the early 80s with my good friend and wonderful guitarist/composer Torsten Brandes. The songs really are questionable, mainly due to some really crap lyrics, but I’ll always be proud of the guitar work on those albums. Until I stopped gigging in 1988 I played across North Germany and Central Scotland, doing one-off supports for Jack Bruce, John Martyn,and John James. In 1986 I wrote and performed my first composition for solo guitar, ‘Anamnesis’ for the Stirling District Festival, to accompany paintings by Koert Linde. I have 2 Honours degrees, in English with Music History (1983) at Stirling, and in Music at York (1992), where I focussed on composition and stopped performing and writing songs (although I did write some for a project at York, 3 of which have survived). Although I wrote some adequate compositions, including 2 guitar quartets (for the York Guitar Quartet and the Dundee Guitar Festival, a tape piece for York Dance Festival and arrangements of Celtic music for Richard Ingamells, I dropped it 18 months ago when I started writing songs again (nearly 40 since then), and decided to record them. ‘Acts of Faith’ is a kind of sampler album of some of those, and I hope to record them all over the next 2 years or so.

All the way back to those great Delta Bluesmen, pretty much all singer-songwriters have been by necessity feral and eclectic, and I’m no different.: never let the brain get in the way of a good idea. As you’ll see from some of my reviews, there’s a lot of guessing about my influences. Have a listen and make up your own mind. Personally, I’ve never thought a song stands or falls on whether it’s new, old, borrowed, or just plain nicked: the real question is whether it’s right for what it is, whether it works. And that kind of thing goes way beyond reason.

http://www.myspace.com/davidwardmaclean

Discography:

David Ward Maclean / Acts of Faith

Artist’s Itinerary (click dates for more info):

08/04/08 - The Last Drop Inn, York
29/04/08 - The Tap and Spile, Hull
23/05/08 - Cityscreen Basement, York
31/05/08 - Montrose Music Festival, Montrose
01/06/08 - Montrose Music Festival, Montrose

Matthew McAllister / Merula @ Tokafi.com

It has almost become a general consensus that classical and contemporary repertoire need to be treated fundamentally different. “Merula”, however, works exactly because it defies the dogma. For his debut album, Matthew McAllister has taken the liberty of showing his abilties within the most diverse contexts, of organising a time-travel package through the ages and of recording his own interpretations of “a choice selection of classic guitar repertoire, alongside newer styles of contemporary guitar music.”

Agnew & McAllister / Recital @ Classical Guitar

The Agnew/McAllister duo once again show their talents as arrangers in a superb presentation of the Fantasie from “Carmen” where Aisling Agnew displays her highly polished, fluid technique to its best advantage … Throughout this recording the duo handles all the technical and musical requirements with aplomb and have produced a most alluring disc.

Agnew & McAllister / Recital @ Tokafi.com

If you can’t catch this duo live, then “Recital” is the next best thing … a work which lures you into loving it by its unintrusive nature … it is vivid and full of the pleasure of being alive