Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 6th Nov - Sat 11th Nov, 2023
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT
Nurture the Songwriter Inside
Dive into this creative week of songwriting, co-writing and explore the possibilities of telling a story through song, connecting words to music and sound, finding your inner voice and creativity.
Both Michele Stodart and Kris Drever will be your tutors for the week, with Dan Willson joining mid-week as a guest performer. Guiding you through morning workshops, prompted writing exercises, musical and lyrical references will be there at your fingertips. You will be given the space and tools to create, and co-write in groups. By the end of every day you will have a new song to perform and share with others.
The week will be welcoming, fun, exciting and all inclusive. Take the first step to start nurturing the songwriter inside.
Kris Drever is a multi-award winning folk singer and guitarist, whose two-decade career has influences from his early Orcadian musical beginnings, and includes his classic debut Black Water and beyond via Lau and The Spell Songs project. Drever’s skill in creating insightful, modern standards (such as Ghosts, If Wishes Were Horses and Scapa Flow 1919) and his constant reinvention in the live setting are just a couple of the reasons he has become a major artist in today’s international roots music community.
Caribbean-born Michele Stodart is an award-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in London. She is best renowned as bassist, vocalist and co-songwriter of Mercury-nominated, double-platinum selling band, The Magic Numbers, with whom she continues to play and tour world-wide. Michele has also always pursued her own writing and nurtured a love for artists such as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch. She has released two critically acclaimed solo albums of cinematic folk/Americana, and melodic country-blues influenced songs and has become known for her intimate, heart-wrenching live performances. Her third solo album is due for release in September 2023.
Edinburgh based cult-indie songwriter Withered Hand (Dan Willson) returned to the fray in 2023 with a long-awaited new album. How To Love was recorded with (Mogwai producer) Tony Doogan in Glasgow, and features guests King Creosote and Kathryn Williams (both of whom are long standing collaborators). Withered Hand broke out of Scotland’s Fence Collective music scene in 2009 releasing his acclaimed debut album Good News the same year. Willson toured Europe and North America before releasing a series of lo-fi EPs and his second album New Gods (FortunaPop!/Slumberland Records) which was nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year 2014 (SAY Awards). His music has found favour and support from national and international radio, online and leading print publications.
Fees
The full fee for this course is £650. This includes your accommodation in a single room with shared bathroom, all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, and your tuition. For more information about the practicalities of our courses and retreats, please visit our About the Courses page.
A limited number of en-suite rooms are available for a £50 surcharge, and a limited number of Twin Room places are available at a discounted price of £600 per person. When booking a Twin Room place, please tell us in the comments box which gender you are and which gender(s) you are comfortable sharing a room with. This information will remain confidential.
A deposit is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £500 is due six weeks before the course begins. If you would like to pay the full amount earlier than this or at the point of booking, please call our booking office on 01463 592 828 or email info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Please let us know if you have any access requirements, for example a ground floor bedroom and / or access to a wheelchair-accessible shower room. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Bookings
This event is fully booked. Please email info@moniackmhor.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.