Grace Stewart-Skinner + Evie Waddell

Grace Stewart-Skinner’s debut album Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie effortlessly intertwines field recorded conversation with her new compositions to create an ethnomusicological postcard of her wee home village, Avoch. As a finalist in the Folk Album of the Year Awards 2025, this album is Grace’s musical tribute to Avoch, encapsulating a sense of the village’s proud community and special heritage.

Grace is a composer, performer and ethnologist belonging to the Black Isle and is deeply rooted in the Scottish Traditional music. She is contributing to the diversification of the scene through her experimental, yet tasteful approach to composition and clàrsach technique.

For this project, Grace had the pleasure of working with some of Glasgow and Edinburgh’s finest up-and-coming musicians and artists. The Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie band is comprised of Grace on clàrsach, Rose Logan on fiddles, Rhona MacDonald on double bass and Ewa Adamiec on drum kit. The live performance is accompanied by stunningly sensitive film of the Avoch landscape, created by film artist Michiel Turner.

Located on the Black Isle, Avoch was once one of the oldest north-east Highland fishing communities with her own unique lingual and cultural heritage. Recent decades have given way to a drastic decrease in Avoch’s fishing industry, mirrored by a fading away of the Avochie dialect. Avochie is a truly special dialect of Scots with clear links to Gaelic, demonstrating a
wonderful example of the fluidity and preciousness of Scotland’s languages. An old recording of Grace’s Boba (grandad) reciting original poetry in the Avochie dialect prompted Grace to explore records of the dialect and was disappointed to find little to no trace of it in the archives. There was only one thing for it, Grace set out making her own field recordings. After capturiing
these Avochie voices and stories, Grace was compelled to create something musical with these recordings and share them with as many people as possible. Grace’s Traditional Scottish compositions weave in and out of the voices, guiding the listener through a sonic journey of Avoch’s past and the hustle of the days of the herring fishing.

Advance Ticket: £14 (incl. £2 booking fee)
Ticket on Door: £16 (incl. £2 booking fee)