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'Big Road - the Caithness Sessions'

Update June 2007

During August 2005 I toured as part of the Unholy Trinity with Wes McGhee and Ronny Elliott. We did a lot of miles, didn’t make a lot of money and did have a lot of fun. Saw some old friends and made some new ones. One of the highlights of the tour for the three of us was a concert we played at The Lighthouse at Dunnet Head in Caithness, Scotland. Dunnet Head is the northernmost part of mainland Great Britain. It looks north over the Pentland Firth to the Orkney Islands.

I have travelled extensively in Scotland for twenty years and lived on the edge of the Western Highlands for three years from 2002 until spring of 2005. It has many moods, colours and subcultures but I found Caithness a truly amazing experience.

The Lighthouse is now the home of John Sutherland aka ‘Johnny Fats’ . John and his son Isaac host concerts and run a recording studio/production company there. The performance space has been created in the area that once was the room that housed the turbines that powered the foghorns. The waters around Dunnet Head are some of the most hazardous for shipping around the coast of Britain.

The concert the Trinity played was recorded and hopefully we can be looking at a release when it’s all mixed down. John and Isaac were keen for us to stay and do some studio recording but we had to drive down to Stranraer and catch the ferry to Belfast for some Northern Ireland shows.
However, we became good friends and kept in touch. In May last year I went back to this beautiful headland and stayed for a week. I did another show there, this time accompanied by John and Isaac and began work on a new album ‘Big Road - the Caithness Sessions’.

  Left to right; Isaac Sutherland, Terry Clarke & John Sutherland

I laid down 14 previously unrecorded songs; some new compositions and some which were written while I was living in Argyll, including ‘Loch Carron’ (a lament I wrote for my father Joseph Clarke when he passed away in April 2004).
I played my Guild 12 string acoustic and did some overdubs with my electric Gretsch 12 string and left the tracks with them. John and Isaac between them play pretty much everything else and are working away creating what for me is a very exciting and beautiful album.

I returned a few months later in Oct and as I write now have just got back down to Wales having done some more work on the tracks. I still find Caithness an exhilarating environment to work in.
Isaac Sutherland is playing; electric guitar/bass/drums/percussion, singing harmony and production/engineering.
John Sutherland plays electric guitar, double bass, harmonica and sings bass harmony too.

The song 'Sutherland Blues' features the stunning voice of 23 years old Mina Taylor from Tain, Ross and Cromarty. She is also currently at work on an album there with John and Isaac.
'Kodiak' and 'Maggie Fraser's Loch Fyne Rambles' show the influence of producer Brendan O'Brien (Bruce Springsteen's 'The Rising' and Neil Young's 'Mirrorball' among many others) on Isaac's production work
'Maggie Fraser's Loch Fyne Rambles' features 16 snare drums ...
John's lead guitar lines remind me of the 'dream trajectories' Jerry Garcia used to take flight on.

Left to right. Terry Clarke & John Sutherland

The tracks are sounding great and I'm looking forward to it's release later this year in October.
The official release party concert will be a show I'm playing at the Lighthouse with my friend Eric Taylor from Weimar, Texas. Eric is one of my favourite songwriters.

Incidentally, the past couple of years have seem John and Isaac release two great pieces of work ...
Sutherland & Son featuring Mark Naples
'The Rose-Line Connection' recorded live at Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh.
'Lincoln Cathedral' with Martin Stephenson recorded in Lincoln Cathedral.
Web links
Eric Taylor www.bluerubymusic.com www.myspace.com/bluerubyeric
John and Isaac Sutherland www.myspace.com/sutherlandandson

Please check back for updates ....

meanwhile to hear some of the rough mixes see the links below.

The Lighthouse at Dunnet Head click here

‘Glasgow Girl’ © Bucks Music connect
‘Sutherland Blues’ © Bucks Music connect
‘Maggie Fraser’s Loch Fyne Rambles’ © Bucks Music connect