Alan Dickson’s Singing Manifesto profile picture

Alan Dickson’s Singing Manifesto

About Me

Background - Born in Leith (1956), and formerly of Dundee and East Kilbride, now based in Glasgow. A song-writer, singer and performer, probably in that order!
Growing up in Leith in a large working class family was tough going says Dickson but he's proud to be a Leither. Musically he says he takes after his father who was a dab hand on the accordion and harmonica, and his grandmother who played piano at the old Dalkeith Picture House, during the days of the silent movies. Equally he cites as influences the language and musical traditions of the gypsy travellers who were a sizable community in Leith at the time. Dickson's also an admirer of Dick Gaughan, but only recently discovered that Gaughan had lived a few streets away.
After studying town planning at art college in Dundee, Dickson moved to Glasgow (via East Kilbride). He soon found himself doing the odd floor spot at folk clubs and for various causes in and around Glasgow, by this time working as community worker. His songs are inspired much by his life experiences and notions of social justice.
Dickson's contributed songs to Songs For Change (2006) showcasing political songwriting and 'Songs From Under The Bed' (1989) a cassette series which focused on Scottish political songwriting. On both occasions he's had favourable comment, most recently by Rory McLeod. Also a great admirer of Robert Burns, Dickson has created a site in his honour here , showcasing songs inspired by Burns amongst others. Thanks for visiting.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 05/01/2008
Band Website: www.rowth.com
Influences: The Singin' ManifestoArt has always been at the forefront of the larger conflicts within a culture, and music I believe is the most powerful form as it can inspire the listener to act.
Artists have the power to show the way by pushing political and aesthetic boundaries and sometimes push a culture in a direction it's ready to go, otherwise they can act as witnesses.
Like food, music is such an opener. As the Kitchen Sisters have remarked, you can talk philosophy and different points of view and politics until you are blue in the face, but with the right lyrics, from the right artist, at the right time, with the right tune, you can open peoples minds to new ideas in the same way that the right taste and smell of food opens your memory and heart. Music connects people in ways that few things do. Music like food cross that divide.
For me, the singin' manifesto dates back to Robert Burns, if not before. He made poetry and songs of universal interest, rooted in his local culture but still responded to new ideas of his day. Bob Dylan and Bruce Springstein to some extent have continued down this road with their socio-economic viewpoints, but the unity that Burns' felt in his day has long since gone and today we are fragmented into a thousand, sometimes warring interests.
Singing can be a way to reconnect us to the best of our culture and liberate us at the same time. It can change the way we feel about ourselves, how we see ourselves and others, and make us more spontaneous. Brian Eno has said singing should be at the heart of the school curriculum. Woody Guthrie even went as far to say that singing could cure our national ills, and friends of Johnny Cash have said that he found new energy when singing, even when he was in poor health.
Curiously, the searching spirit that seeks to discover a final unity, is often convinced there is one. The last word to the Scot, Patrick Geddes (a poet-at-heart) on aesthetics: ‘we have thus reached the new paradox that ... economics is ... the ways and means of increasing not so much bread, as art’ (1884)
Record Label: Rowth
Type of Label: Indie

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