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I went on the first proper ‘holiday’ that I’ve been on for years last month, to a house in the Loire Valley in France with all of my family. Despite the heat (35 + degrees everyday) it was a good time. My sole cousin lives nearby on her farm, so we hung about with the cows and goats and I even had a shot on a tractor. Back at the holiday home as I sat wilting in the shade, reading the very un-summery Orkneyinga saga, sipping back some good wine, eating delicious bread and cheese, I pondered, as people enjoying a holiday are prone to – What would it be like to live here all the time? If truth be told I think the heat would get to me, and I’d have to brush up on my French or I wouldn’t be having many conversations. Besides, I like the fact that here in Scotland you sometimes have to have a fire in July, and that August often feels more like October.

Last week I began the recording of my second solo album. Gregor Donaldson from Sparrow and the workshop was up playing the drums alongside my old pal Gavin Fox over from Ireland on the Bass and Sorren Maclean (who I wrote most of the songs with) on guitar. We got it sounding really good, and had a lot of fun. Over the next few weeks other musicians will be adding bit and pieces, and I’ll be singing them. No idea yet as to when it’ll come out, but I’ll finish it for October and then look for a label to release it.

Drever McCusker & Woomble, the ‘folk supergroup’ I’m sure you’ve all heard about are doing a few shows next week including a show at QUEENS HALL in EDINBURGH on AUGUST 29th. I use capitals because I’ve been told to by the promoter. I’m also playing my first ‘solo’ show since 2007 on sept 4th in Kilmarnock, opening for Eddie Reader, Sorren and I will be running through quite a few from the new LP that night. More ‘solo’ gigs will follow in January and February 2011.

Because idlewild left EMI amicably and retained a good relationship with the label and the people we worked with, the upcoming ‘idlewild - EMI collection’ is finally getting released next month. Although there was no budget for artwork and only the existing photographs to use, we were still consulted as much as possible, I wrote some notes for the inlay, and everyone involved has tried to make it as comprehensive a guide to the seven or so years we spent signed to that classic British record label.

2007’s ‘Scottish fiction’ compilation (also on EMI) is the one that we were more involved in, the accompanying DVD especially so, and maybe the one I’d seek out should you wish to own a condensed history of the group up until now. But the EMI collection is a low priced introduction to that time, and not a bad one at that. Of course there are always the albums, and fingers crossed, a ten-year anniversary special edition of ‘100 broken windows’ hopefully due out in the autumn, featuring all the unreleased recordings and demos from around that time.

We’re back at home now after a short tour around the Uk. I enjoyed myself, as I usually do. We played some good concerts, visiting a few towns and venues where we’ve never played (in the case of Barrow-in-Furness, never set foot in). The final ‘leg’ of our fairly extensive Uk tour for ‘Post electric blues’ begins on April 16th in York and ends in Dumfermline on May 1st. No more Uk shows are being planned after that, aside from festivals obviously, and we’ll hopefully find ourselves on a few bills before too long. I was meaning to write a tour diary this time, but as usual got side tracked just by being other places. I will next time.

I read this recently, by the great Woody Guthrie. A good reminder for any touring musician.

‘A picture – you buy it once, and it bothers you for forty years; but with a song, you sing it out, and it soaks in people’s ears and they all jump up and down and sing it with you, and then when you quit singing it, it’s gone, and you get a job singing it again. On top of that, you can sing out what you think. You can tell tales of all kinds to put your ideas across to the other fellow’