‘I took the podcast to where each of the participants live,’ Deirdre Graham tells me, as we chat over Zoom about the second series of Gaelic Song Stories. Funded by Creative Scotland, the return of the podcast has been hailed as one of the key Gaelic successes of 2023. Set free from the travel restrictions of the pandemic, the first episode, featuring Ross-shire-born singer Fiona J MacKenzie, allowed Graham to visit a place that had long been on her bucket list.

Bringing the podcast to the singers and collectors of Gaelic songs has meant recording in some spell-binding locations, including the billiards room of Margaret Fay Shaw and John Lorne Campbell’s house on the small island of Canna. Listening to the conversation between the two women unfold during the episode, it emerges that Graham, who comes from a musical family on Skye, grew up with views across the sea to Canna, but (until now) had never had the chance to visit. 

The second series provides listeners with the opportunity to get more intimately acquainted with songs, both ancient and modern, via the medium of English. In this way, Graham has used this most digital of means (and a lingua franca) to bring the storehouse of Gaelic culture that is the song canon to communities who may never have experienced it before.

‘We had Gaelic at home, but dad doesn’t speak it. It was natural to speak it to mam though,’ she says. Graham praises her mum Kirsteen for the impact she has had on her children's creative lives, and the pair’s work demonstrates how they have come to be seen as champions of both the language and its music. Graham argues that a love of song can be a real catalyst, supporting new speakers of the language to be part of the inter-generational transmissions that communities (like her native Lower Breakish) really need. 

Alongside her mum, other heroes featured on the podcast include Margaret Bennett and Rachel Newton. The series demonstrates the almost sacred role of women within the Gaelic tradition as standard bearers and keepers of culture. Episode four features Lochaber-based Rachel Walker, and two songs from her album with Aaron Jones, Despite The Wind And Rain, tracks which foreground the lived experience of women marginalised by society. ‘We need to recognise women,’ notes Graham, ‘without being apologetic.’

All episodes of Gaelic Song Stories are available here.