@ Aye Write! Festival, Glasgow, Sat 12 Mar 2016

The Aye Write! Festival in Glasgow has a wide variety of events, masterclasses and performances. The first Saturday of the festival presents “An Evening of Novels and Songs” from two of Scotland’s finest songwriters. In 2015 Colin MacIntyre released the award winning novel The Letters of Ivor Punch. MacIntyre is more familiar to music festivals and has spent many years performing under the name Mull Historical Society. James Yorkston is also a singer/songwriter turned novelist and is celebrating the release of his debut book Three Craws. The event at Aye Write! is a welcome combination of book reading, music performance and chat, with music journalist Fiona Shepherd acting as chair.

The evening begins with James Yorkston taking to the microphone and singing Tortoise Regret Hare from his classic 2008 album When The Haar Roles In. Yorkston leaves his guitar in its case and sings with passion and confidence and this attitude also translates to his writing. Three Craws is set in the East Neuk of Fife, the part of Scotland that he also lives. The performer began his career as a member of the Fence Collective of musicians and the title of the novel is a wink to his former band with fellow collective members King Creosote and The Pictish Trail. Home and friendship appear to be themes of the book, which gets a release from Scottish publishers Freight in early April. This is Yorkston’s second book, his first being a dry and somewhat droll collection of tour diaries called It’s Lovely to Be Here.

Home is also a theme in Colin MacIntyre’s novel The Letters of Ivor Punch. The location of this story is an unnamed island that bares a remarkable similarity to the Isle of Mull. The novelist/songwriter gives us a reading from one of the letters in the book, that the protagonist writes to President Obama. MacIntyre captures the characters voice and shows that he has the same ability in writing prose, that he expresses in his lyrics. MacIntyre treats the audience to two songs, including a brand new track inspired by the novel and entitled The Ballad of Ivor Punch. With a new Mull Historical Society album on the way and the paperback release of his book, it looks like 2016 will be another successful and busy year for Colin MacIntyre.

James Yorkston gets the last word and closes the evening with another song from his aforementioned classic album. This time the audience get the chance to enjoy the delicate and catchy Queen Of Spain. As with MacIntyre, James Yorkston will also have a busy 2016. The release of Three Craws is just around the corner and the musician is currently riding high on the success of his Yorkston/Thorne/Khan project. Let’s hope that both these performers return to many literature and music festivals for many years to come.

Aye Write! is @ The Mitchell Library, Glasgow from Thu 10 Mar to Sun 20 Mar 2016