I was playing at a regular monthly event last night, called The Gather, in Tarbert, Kintyre. It’s a lovely mishmash of creativity regularly featuring original songs, covers, comedy, poems, and stories. And every time there is a little je ne sais quoi.

Last night we had a small, local bagpipe band playing. I was sitting right next to the lead piper as he played, looking straight at the lead drummer, and got a new insight into the musicality and pure physical commitment involved in this kind of music. And, of course, of the loudness too. It was great.

I did two short sets. After the first one a lady called Jill Aven approached me and asked if it was possible to accompany me on her fiddle during my second set. She needed to retune, as my guitar is tuned a semi-tone lower than the norm, which she happily did.

And then she quite wonderfully added her magic to the occasion. Lots of laughter too. It was great, and without a moments practise, she managed to raise the level of my own music..

Jill is from Glasgow. I’m trying to get her and her family to move to Campeltown. It’s not a lot to ask! But she is keen on playing with me again, so hopefully that will happen.

It’s funny. I had one of those, thankfully rarer, moments earlier in the day, when I was feeling a bit low, and wondered whether I could be even bothered to drive the thirty seven miles up to Tarbert. Fortunately I was committed because I’d promised to take the keyboard of my pal Chris up in the car.

It’s always worth Pushing On, or being pushed sometimes, through all of those little valleys and troughs of life.