NEW music based on a famous Ayrshire mining story is being released next month.
The Great Stariski documents the fascinating tale of Johnny Stariski, a miner with Polish origins, who toiled at the Barony Colliery for much of his working life.
The music from Seán Gray is inspired by the poem of the same name written by Scots poet Rab Wilson, who shares the musician’s passion for Ayrshire’s mining history and, in fact, worked alongside Stariski in the mine in the 70s and early 80s.
Stariski was born in Scotland in 1928 after his father and grandparents emigrated from Poland just before the First World War.
He became a champion high board diver and bodybuilder, famously performing a handstand on the top girder of the 150ft high Barony Colliery A frame, a massive steel structure now preserved as an important piece of Scotland’s industrial heritage. The A Frame holds the Horrals, the mighty wheels over which the winding ropes would be spun by the winding engines to raise and lower the miners almost 2000 feet to and from their place of work.
It is the last remaining example of its type in the UK and was restored at a cost of more then £1 million in 2007 by the Barony A Frame Trust.
“The story of Johnny Stariski is legend where I come from and Rab’s poem captures the incredible feat beautifully so I really wanted to pay homage to the great endeavour and to Rab’s fantastic words with this debut release,” said Gray, who previously collaborated with Wilson for the New Voices concert series at the Celtic Connections 2017 festival.
“Most of the poems I have used in my music are on the subject of Ayrshire mining and are all written in Lallans Scots. My Ayrshire upbringing is an incredibly important part of who I am as a person as I grew up in the village of Coylton speaking Lallans Scots and I have a long history of coal mining in my family. I also served an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer in a 100-year-old manufacturing factory that created equipment for mines, so the story and poem really spoke to.”
A sought-after guitarist, flute player and singer, Seán has spent most of the past decade playing with the award-winning Paul McKenna Band.
On the new single, Gray’s vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and wooden flute are accompanied by Joe Rattray from Admiral Fallow on bass guitar and Stuart Brown from Blue Rose Code on drums. The track was mastered by Chris Waite.
The Great Stariski will be available to download and stream on May 14
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