Playing with Maurice Sutherst on the Scottish Isle of Skye

On the day of our 32nd wedding anniversary, July 7, Wendy and I were traveling on the Scottish isle of Skye. We happened to stop for a "wee bit" when we heard the sound of guitar and mandolin music coming from not too far away. Investigating the source of the music, we came upon Maurice Sutherst of North Shields, UK, and his companion Elaine Johnson of Dumfries, Scotland. It was not long before Maurice and Elaine invited me to play with them. Within a short few minutes our music attracted other musicians who decided to come and join us.

Maurice is a professional recording artist who started singing and writing songs a few years ago and came to the attention of David Wood of Impulse Studio who had previously discovered and recorded Sting. At the time Maurice was playing one of his own original songs in a music store he owned in England. Unbeknownst to Maurice, David Wood happened to be in the store at the time. Hearing Maurice's song, David asked if he would play it one more time. After the second play-through David asked Maurice if he would like to record the song. The song was recorded two days later and Maurice was on his way to stardom.

Wendy and I had a delightful time that afternoon on Skye. One of the other musicians who happened to come by and play with us was none other than Brian Skinner who played and toured with Belfast, Ireland, artist Robin Mark for twenty years. Robin Mark and his band are famous for his "Revival in Belfast Live" CD that was released in 1999 (as well as many other CDs produced and sold since then). Brian is the man playing fiddle to the right in the photo below.

Look up Maurice Sutherst and Brian Skinner on Google!