James Robertson and Andrew Wasylyk

A Kick Up The Arts with Nicola Meighan

The third in our weekly round-table discussions with fab guests in arts spaces around the country is here, right now! And it's thanks to two of our best-loved writers and musicians...

James Robertson is the Booker Prize nominated author of Scottish landmarks like The Testament of Gideon Mack - which is being adapted for theatre as we speak - and blindsiding state-of-a-nation epic, And The Land Lay Still…
His daily, year-long writing challenge - or madness, call it what you will - 365, saw him create a short story with that exact number of words every day for 12 months - and that, in turn, galvanised fiddler and composer Aidan O’Rourke to create a musical response for every one of them.

And James’ musical odysseys don’t end there: he reimagined Joni Mitchell’s Hejira in Scots, for a packed show at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2016, as part of Celtic Connections, and he’s collaborated with the other equally lovely and quiet superstar who’s with me on today’s podcast…

Andrew Mitchell, also known as Andrew Wasylyk, has variously played in The Hazey Janes and Idlewild, with Michael Marra and Liz Lochhead, he’s been nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year Award several times, and his latest record, in cahoots with artist and musician Tommy Perman is a mesmerising, and gently psychedelic, trip called Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On…

We recorded this at the brilliant V&A Dundee - and our conversation roves across the wonder of Liz Lochhead, Michael Marra, Karine Polwart and Aidan Moffat - not to mention the unsung Scots poet and Burns influencer Robert Fergusson in a month that’ll pay tribute to him with events across the country - along with the distinctions between lyrics and poetry - and the fact that Andrew put the bins out before he came to see us. You can’t say we’re not keeping it real…