Douglas Montgomery - Community in Music.

I sat down with 2024's Tutor of the Year for traditional music, Douglas Montgomery, and talked to him about his journey in music.

(Credit: Sean Purser

Kaitlyn: How did you first get started in the folk scene?

Douglas: I started playing folk music when I was a young boy. I used to get fiddle lessons for a guy in the next island. I would have been about eight years old, which is 42 years ago, and we was actually a very kind of structured lesson. We had an hour of classical music first, not 20 minutes, like an hour, and then my mom used to get a lesson, and then I used to get about another hour after that of traditional music.

So I suppose it was from a early age I got into it just through my teacher showing me the tunes. After that, there was a wee bit of traditional music, I mean, it wasn't that prevalent.

I don't think especially here in Burray and South Rondaldsay. It was just you went to dances or cèilidh and it was there.

(Burray and South Ronaldsay are parishes in Orkney, where Douglas is from).

There was a wee bit of sessions going on, but not I didn't really get into that until I was older, and then I went off and studied music, classical music in Edinburgh. Then I kind of got into bluegrass then, because I was playing with five string banjo player, and I guess that's a wee bit closer to folk music, and that kind of dragged me a bit closer again.

And then when I came came home after uni, I was touring my band, and that was mainly folk music. It was kind of start. The early 90's was kind of the start. Oh, it was quite a folk revival going on, not unsimilar to what was going on in the 1960's when it almost been forgotten. But it wasn't quite at that stage, but in the 90's, it started to be valued as, I suppose, a serious form of music.

So I guess, really speaking properly, in the early, early 90's, and kind of since then,

Kaitlyn: Would you say that there's been an increase in the prevalence of folk and session music recently, or kind of stayed the same?

Douglas: I think it has, yeah. There's certainly more money available for people to make a living from it. It was probably quite tricky to do it for a while, and theI there is money there for folk musicians to make a living new but the big thing would be that you can't sell a product anymore, like a when I in the early 90s, if you had a CD, you could sell, you know, anywhere from 20 to 60 to 100 CDs a gig, and that would pay for your travel and your accommodation and All of that kind of stuff. And then the fee was your your wage, but knew that you don't.

Nobody buys CD's, or very little, there's very little CD sales. You need to be kind of creative with your merch. And it's still no, it doesn't. There's nothing quite as good as selling CDs.

Kaitlyn: Yeah, just a little tangent. I was at Blazin' fiddles gig last night at the Usher Hall. They were peddling the CDs, and it was good to see so many people buying them.

Douglas: Yeah, good. I was supposed to be at that gig. I was supposed to be playing, but I couldn't get the day off work. I was only needing an hour to get a flight home, but I couldn't get enough time off.

"It's given the kids the opportunity to get the same feeling that I've been lucky enough to get over the years"

Kaitlyn: You would have seen me front row. Yeah, moving on. What do you think could be better done to support folk music and teaching folk music as a teacher yourself?

Douglas: I guess, if it was part of the curriculum? I mean, we were really lucky in our day. Like, it's get, you know, it's like the teachers are already supportive of it, but if it was part of the curriculum, it would be even more supported.

And you know, it's like that, if when there's when there's talks of cuts and things like that, the first thing that's spoken about is instrumental instruction, which is, you know, key for folk music to continue. So I guess if it was mainstreamed, it would be on a level pegging with, you know, P.E, art, music, that would be the key.

Kaitlyn: And then I think finally, what has been your favourite moment from your career?

Douglas: Oh, I don't know so many highlights I always, and this is bit cheesy, but I'd really like the school moments like I get. I've played lots of different things with bands, like really cool gigs all over the place. I was in Canada, not long ago playing. That's all very fine and all the rest of it.

But the where I get the biggest kick is probably playing with young groups, such as Hadhirgaan, seeing them. That's the whole point why I teach - I love music, and I get a huge buzz at work. And if I see, you know, a small group, it's 5, 10, or 20, or 30 bands all playing, and they're getting, they are getting the feeling that I know you get from playing music.

(Video via Douglas Montgomery)

That's what I get my biggest kick with. So, I'm looking forward to the school concerts starting next week. We've got this big gig on Saturday, the music hall in Aberdeen, and that'll be really good, but on Tuesday next week, we've got the Hope School concert.

I look forward to those ones as much as the big ones. Yeah, it's just like a real kick.

I guess the older you get, like when you're when you're younger, just a comparison with Christmas, when you're younger, you think about yourself, and you go, what am I gonna get for Christmas? I can't wait for that bike or whatever I'm getting. But when you get older, it's much more about giving presents.

And I think this, you know, it's given the kids the opportunity to get the same feeling that I've been lucky enough to get over the years. It's great. It's brilliant.