Barry Nisbet

In a way the sailing trips in 2024 were a good metaphor for that whole year.

Challenging weather, gales and rain were the main feature - and yet we had the best time, played the best tunes, and made some really exciting trips out of it. We went to some amazing new places, and had experiences we'll be talking about for some time to come!

Certainly my personal view of the whole year was a bit like that. 2024 was full of tough challenges, several of them heartbreaking - and yet in other ways, life never felt more exciting.

New musical collaborations began; new projects and opportunities appeared; and the Sessions and Sail voyages seemed to go to new strengths. 

This has all set things up for a 2025 that I'm really excited about - it feels like I'm on the verge of a new and epic journey right now, so I'm resurrecting my blog to share it with anyone who's interested!

I'm on the way to Glasgow right now, where Celtic Connections is getting going; it's a great chance to see a few concerts, meet up with loads of friends - and rehearse and prepare for a gig on Thursday 23rd, performing an abridged version of The Springbank Voyage with a new line-up. 

Collaborating with Miriam Iorwerth, one of that line-up, on marimba, has been great; we're excited to be bringing this story and the music to Orkney, one of its spiritual homes, for a few gigs in April. 

We're planning several other shows in various regions in 2025 and beyond; watch the gig list on my site for more info!

Language, dialect, and the way we use them to communicate and to share culture has long been a fascination of mine. So, since mid-December I've been getting into a new project studying Shetland Norn, our lost language, and how we used and enjoyed that language, relating it to modern-day Dialect in Shetland and Orkney, and to other Nordic languages. I'm heading to Færoe in April to help me make some of these connections. This is going to result in a host of new musical productions and projects; I'll reveal more as the project reveals itself to me!

Achieving funding from Creative Scotland to help me work on this project was a great boost and is something that has really given me the impetus and motivation to push forward with it.

And Sessions and Sail is shaping up for an exciting season; we'll be working with two new ships on international voyages - the Søren Larsen in Australia, and the Florette in Italy, as well as being back aboard the brilliant Lady of Avenel for six Scottish voyages. We have some new tutors that will be exciting to announce, and the core crew will be back together; this crew felt tighter than ever in 2024 and it will be great to be back aboard sailing and playing music with them.

So here's wishing you a very happy New Year 2025 if you've read this far; let's hope for some fair seas and following winds this year but, if not, that we can be resilient and weather them and find a way to have a good time anyway!