Graham MacKenzie on taking Scottish folk music to the world with Assynt

On my recent travels through the UK and Ireland for Streets of Your Town, I was amazed to find how strong the cross pollination between Australian and Indigenous music and Gaelic traditions were, and how it continues to evolve.

While I was in Glasgow, I was lucky enough to meet Graham Mackenzie from award winning instrumental folk trio Assynt. Sitting in his Glasgow living room, his fiddle sits between us, never far from his thoughts, as we chat about the band's recent Australian tour.

The band launched in 2018, and had long held aspirations to play in Australia. Even the pandemic - while delaying their plans - couldn’t hold them back for long, and last year they came to the Woodford Folk Festival to perform and do workshops. The trio also toured down the East Coast on a hectic trip for the Festival of Small Halls.

Inspired by the great piping, fiddle and Gaelic traditions of the Highlands where he grew up in Inverness, McKenzie’s self-penned melodies for Assynt have a contemporary edge while rooted in centuries-long musical traditions.

Graham tells us on Streets of Your Town how he is relieved to find their workshops and performances both in Scotland and Australia are now filled with young people embracing their fiddles and traditional Celtic instruments, and wanting to pick up tips. 

One of his favourite aspects of coming to Australia was hearing First Nations performers at Woodford Folk Festival, seeing it as a rare opportunity for two age-old cultures to learn from each other.

For more shownotes - please go to my substack for this episode at soyt.substack.com