There was always music around
Recorded 1 year ago
About this recording
Gordon Gunn is a musician, fiddle teacher, composer and sound engineer from Wick who has performed and taught internationally, as far afield as Canada, the USA and New Zealand.
He has been a tutor at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton for many years and has toured widely with the band Session A9.
Gordon comes from a musical family. His late father, Robert, played the pipes, while his mother Margaret had been a side drummer in the Wick Girls’ Pipe Band.
“There was always music around,” Gordon says in the recording. “There were always musicians appearing at the house, particularly pipers.”
His first fiddle and bow, complete with “a dodgy kind of case”, came from an auction mart at a cost of around 50p. “I thought this’ll be easy,” Gordon recalls. “Then I realised this is a bit tougher than I thought it was going to be. But I remember thinking I’m going to get a tune out of this if it kills me, so I was kind of determined.”
Gordon’s first public performance was at a Christmas concert in Watten village hall, “scraping through Silent Night”. He recalls his music lessons with Margaret Henderson as a youngster before receiving fiddle tuition from Ian Sinclair in high school.
On leaving school, Gordon worked at Jimmy Johnston’s Grampian Records in Wick. It was a forward-looking business that took on work for major record companies such as EMI and Warner Brothers, churning out masses of cassettes. His years at Grampian Records allowed Gordon to learn about the technical side of producing music.
He had become disenchanted with playing but rediscovered his enthusiasm after meeting Davy Duff from Golspie. It was through Davy that Gordon began to fully explore folk and country music.
He looks back on a music camp he attended in Nashville, Tennessee, and having the opportunity to play at the famous Ryman Auditorium.
Gordon got to know Ruby Rendall, the Orkney country singer, and toured as part of her band for years. That led on to a trio comprising Gordon and two Orkney musicians, Phil Anderson and Billy Peace.
He has been a long-time member of Session A9 and he talks about touring and recording with the group. “It’s a great band to play with,” he says.
There is also the tale of how Gordon was surprised to find that one of his tunes had ended up on the TV soap Emmerdale…
Gordon tells of his approach to teaching, encouraging pupils to put their own interpretation on the tunes they’ve learned. He advises: “If we all sound the same, life is going to be rather boring.”
One message to pupils is that they can go far if they have the dedication and ability to master a musical instrument. “Because of this lump of wood here I’ve been able to travel the world,” Gordon points out to them.
He adds: “I love seeing the kids getting a buzz out of it, just seeing them getting inspired. If I can help them in some way to be a better musician, or help them to learn whatever they’re trying to do, that makes me happy.”
With thanks to Gordon Gunn for allowing two of his tunes to be used within this recording: the beginning of Gillian’s Waltz, then a further excerpt from it later on, and part of the Osmosis Reel Set to finish.
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