Category: By The Way.

The By The Way podcast is for lovers of Scotland. It’s an audio adventure in Truth, fiction, unsolicited opinion and extra information from around the best country in the world.

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Kate’s Keekin-gless

Wee Folk in the sunset

Kate’s Keekin-gless is a renowned Arran fairy tale written in the Scots language. The story is a bawdy romp around the Isle of Arran in the 18th century.

A beautiful but vain island girl bids to leave Arran – preferably with a rich husband, but not everything goes to plan after she receives the gift of a mirror, and the Wee-Folk turn against her.

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SUBTITLES

Read along while you listen to the audio.
A loose translation of the dialogue in Kate’s Keekin-gless that will help those who don’t have the Scots to understand the subtleties of the language and to follow the story. 
Scots speakers may even crack a smile.

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Autumn view from the studio. Perthshire, Scotland's Big Tree Country

The By The Way podcast is for lovers of Scotland.
It’s a thoughtful and eclectic mixture of Truth, Fiction, Unsolicited Opinion and Extra Information from around the best country in the world.

Posted on

200 words

200 Words - eight personal audio essays.

JB meets a challenge to write 200 words inspired by each of the eight letters of an acronym – CLANGERS.  The themes are Dr Phil Hammond‘s daily habits for wellbeing.

It was really a serious writing challenge with the strict discipline of sticking to 200 words. Mind you, I was always going to take the most cynical, least literal approach because that’s how my mind works. 

I always write for audio nowadays, but I didn’t expect to produce such highly personal audio essays. There are heart-on-the-sleeve moments that took me by surprise. I had to think before I put them out there. 

Each piece has its own sound design and Foley; everything from a pistol that’s actually a Mole-grip to the sound of a single engined plane from the flying school near where I live. 

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Or listen to each sequence individually by picking one of these links:

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The Lady and The Poet

Statue of Robert Burns

I’m delighted to share the next episode in an Ayrshire Trilogy by Jill Korn with JB’s sound design. The Lady and The Poet explores the relationship between Robert Burns the poet and Mrs Frances Dunlop through their letters.

“Canny Rab, to send his book to Frances Dunlop! She was weel-kent in Ayrshire society, and she it was who made sure his fame would quickly spread about the county and beyond.”

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High Spirits

high spirits, a play for radio by jill korn

Jill Korn’s audio drama High Spirits with sound design by John Boyd.

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An angelic fantasy tale set on a remote Scottish island. The bees have all left, apparently forever, and spring has not arrived. Everything is out of kilter and only Breagh, it seems, can put it right. High Spirits is about finding friendship and facing fear. “You’re a child of the air. Your job is to cross the barriers that separate the different elements in this world. Your job is telling stories, and bringing back harmony.”

People are starting to wonder what’s happening on the Isle of Donan when springtime fails to arrive. Added to which, a mysterious young woman has made her way back to the island after long years spent trying to escape its pull. What’s the connection?  

High Spirits is part of An Ayrshire Trilogy, three audio dramas which celebrate our rich history and culture. The Trilogy is supported by Creative Scotland.