I played on Neil Johnstone's 'Suite for Alan' his piece of music that he wrote in memory of his brother Alan, who died in his early 20's. His father Duncan wrote the Pìobaireachd 'Lament for Alan my Son' and the piece has the theme of this beautiful and sad tune running through it along with many of Duncan's great tunes interspersed throughout. It was performed at 'Piping Live' in August 2010 and we toured the Western Isles and Skye in 2011 to advertise the CD, which we had recorded in March 2011. I had just suffered my last relapse before this tour and had to do the tour in a wheelchair. Not the best experience of my life but it was tour with wheels or no tour at all! This turned out to be one of my last major performances playing flute as what has happened since, is what I have been dreading for a long time and that is to lose the use of my hands playing music… My hands have now become so numb that I can't play flute any more. I can play whistle but it is a bit of a struggle…it's a combination of memory and sight to keep the fingers in the right place! I played a couple of gigs at Celtic Connections 2013 but I would think that would be the last of my public performances…....
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The last production I did was Kathleen MacInnes' latest CD 'Cille Bhríde'. The second album is always a tricky one especially as her first CD 'Og Mhadainn Shàmhraidh' was such a success. Cille Bhríde has a slightly different feel from the first one and has been well received. It won the 'Album of the Year' at the MG Alba Trad Awards 2012 so that speaks for itself in a way.....