Ian Grant
A Man You Don't Meet Every Day.
Obituary - Ian Grant 1927 - 2003.
I first met Ian Grant at a talk on pipe music in the late 1980's during the Edinburgh Festival. He opened his wee brown case and I noticed it was full of mouth organs. "I play those things" I said. "Oh" said Ian "We'll have tae hae a tune the gither".
With work commitments etc. the "tune the gither" never happened until I bumped into Ian again during the Edinburgh Folk Festival in the mid 90's to be greeted with the same words. This time I made my way along to Sandy Bells pub where Ian led the music session every Sunday. When we played that first tune it was as if we had been playing together for years. I've hardly missed a Sunday session since.
Ian was born in Aboyne in the north east of Scotland in 1927. His father played the Pipes, Fiddle and Melodeon so Ian heard and had a love of traditional music from an early age. His formal musical training came during his national service in the Seaforth Highlanders as a piper.
After leaving the army Ian played with the Edinburgh Corporation Pipe Band and eventually became the Pipe Major. He began playing the mouth organ, or moothie, as we call it, seriously around the mid 70's and drawing on his vast knowledge and repertoire of Scottish dance music, folk music and pipe music, became a regular attender and competitor at the TMSA folk festivals. A glance through the moothie competition prize lists at the festivals gives a good indication of his playing prowess.
As well as a collector of music Ian wrote some fine tunes that will continue to be played such as Lochindorb Castle, The Grants of Achnagallen and Alison Grant, the tune he wrote for his wife who sadly passed away last year just a few months after celebrating their golden wedding anniversary.
Ian enjoyed nothing better than sharing a tune with fellow musicians what ever instrument they played. Even a Didgeridoo graced the Sunday session not so long ago. Everyone was welcome.
Ian, in his own words "shuffled off" on the 24th Sept. 2003 at the age of 76 and more than 200 family, friends and fellow musicians attended his funeral a week later. Traditional music was played at the service and afterwards at a local hotel and also Sandy Bells pub. The music continued well into the night.
Ian was a good friend of Will Atkinson and no doubt they are "hae'in a tune the gither" at this moment.
George Current. 2003.
Numb was how I felt
When first I heard the news
So I went up to Sandy Bell’s
Because I had to pay my dues
There were many gathered round
To tell you all their names I can’t
But they’d come to say farewell
To Iain Grant
He was the maestro of the moothie
He’d sook an’ blaw a’ day
Wi’ his pipe and dram before him
For hours and hours he’d play
There were many gathered round
To tell you all their names I can’t
But they’d come to say farewell
To Iain Grant
He twirled those moothies roon’ and roon’
He was like a man possessed
Then he’d take a few puffs on his pipe
Just to gie himsel a rest
There were many gathered round
To tell you all their names I can’t
But they’d come to say farewell
To Iain Grant
He welcomed all us “youngsters”
With a twinkle in his eye
And if you played the tune too fast
He’d shout out, “Where’s the fire?”
There were many gathered round
To tell you all their names I can’t
But they’d come to say farewell
To Iain Grant
We thank you for your marches
And your airs that did enchant
And the jigs and reels you played for us
Our dear friend Iain Grant
There were many gathered round
To tell you all their names I can’t
But they’d come to say farewell
To Iain Grant
Tom McAweaney 30.09.03
Ian wrote and arranged a number of tunes. They can be found HERE.