Soundhouse Winter Festival kicks off on Thursday

There is just one day to go before the brand new Soundhouse Winter Festival kicks off in Edinburgh, thanks to support from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

The programme is packed with big names and up and coming bands from across Scotland including award winning feminist rock goddess Megan Black, who has recently returned from gigs in California, performing tracks from her new album out next year; and impulsive punk/rock n’ roll multi-instrumentalist Callum Easter performing with his full band the Roulettes and special guest indie/folk soloist Iona Zajac.

They will be headlining alongside some of Scotland’s finest jazz and trad musicians including Fergus McCreadie, Su-a-Lee, Duncan Chisholm, Hamish Napier, and Donald Shaw; a screening of silent film The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric accompanied by music composed by multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson and fiddle player Catriona Macdonald; and live performance poetry with Edinburgh’s previous Makar Hannah Lavery accompanied by music from Kate Young.

The festival’s programme also includes early evening concerts at the Traverse with Nicole Smit performing some cool jazzy numbers with her Quintet (Vid Gobac on drums, Cameron Bradley on piano, Dave Toule guitar, and Kassandra E’Silva on saxophone); Gaelic singer-songwriter Rachel Walker performing with one of the country’s foremost folksingers and accompanists Aaron Jones; Edinburgh-based poetic psychedelic supergroup Acolyte (Ruairidh Morrison on bass, Gloria Black on synth and backing vocals, Daniel Hill on percussion and led by award-winning poet and spoken word artist Iona Lee); and acclaimed singer-songwriter Victoria Hume, joined by long-term collaborator Chris Letcher. Plus, there will be a showcase of emerging new jazz musicians including the Rosalind Orr Trio, TAO and C.A.L.I.E; a masterclass with jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie; and two workshops – Gaelic lullabies with Rachel Walker, and jazz saxophone with one of Scotland’s leading jazz instrumentalists Helena Kay.

Jane Ann Purdy and Douglas Robertson, producers of the Soundhouse Winter Festival said:

We are thrilled to be presenting a five-day festival of live ‘music from Scotland’ at this time of year. There are so many world class musicians working here right now that we were literally spoilt for choice. We hope the Soundhouse Winter Festival will not only be a chance for music lovers to hear some of their favourite live bands, but also a chance to hear some of the best up and coming artists of the moment.