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Guitar Freakery is a one-hour weekly show featuring all aspects of guitar music whether it’s acoustic or electric, six string or bass, encompassing all genres from Classical to Heavy Metal, Cheesy Instrumentals to Shredding and all styles of playing from the deceptively simple to legato, percussive tapping and blistering flatpicking.

Guitar Freakery is a Workers Cooperative of like-minded and totally addicted guitar freaks and each member will bring their own unique bias to the shows that they produce. Current Production Team is Jake Cherry (Lead Producer) and Hugh Taylor.

About the presenter:

Jake Cherry arrived at Alive 107.3 in 2021 as an S6 Student from the Northwest Community Campus to take part in the Creative and Digital Media Foundation Apprenticeship scheme run by Skills Development Scotland. He told them that he wanted to be on radio, and they said they could make it happen.

He has always been interested in all forms from of guitar playing, including acoustic, six string and electric. He has a particular fondness for Classical Guitar.

As he was nearing the end of his apprenticeship, he got the opportunity to work on Guitar Freakery, made a grand job of it and as well as graduating with a recognisable educational qualification, was asked to join the production team for the show.

Now he is lead producer and presenter with former producer Hugh Taylor contributing occasionally.

He is also working on producing a Saturday Morning show aimed at a youth audience.

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FOLKnSTUFF is mainly about folk music however the debate about what is and what is not folk music is one that has been going on for years and unlikely to be resolved soon.

For the record FOLK Music is anything that the Producer, Hugh Taylor, chooses to play on FOLKnSTUFF. There wasn’t that easy.

You are likely to hear Traditional Folk, unaccompanied singing, Folk Rock, Bluegrass, Old Timey and music veering dangerously close to Country. Blues, Music Hall and on occasion some poetry and much, much more. Occasionally, if Hugh decides to play random far out stuff, like Pavarotti singing Nessum Dorma, there’s that wonderful Genre, mentioned in the title. Stuff!

There’s no fixed format. One week could be an entire show of new releases, the next a feature on a particular band or musician, or as is becoming far too common, an obituary show. Or it could be just a random selection of some of Hugh’s favourite tracks from the past sixty plus years or a selection chosen at random from his extensive library and sort of thrown together.

And don’t forget the live studio guests. They used to be a regular feature, with visiting and local musicians coming in to play. COVID rather screwed that up but soon, very soon, we will have them back.

So go on, give FOLKnSTUFF a listen. You know it makes sense. You can even request a favourite track by emailing Hugh.

About the presenter:

Hugh has been steeped in folk music since his late teens, first as a folk club member and floor singer then as a club and festival organizer. He was Artistic Director of the prestigious Girvan Folk Festival, created Moniaive Folk Festival and was its Artistic Director for nine years. He has many years of experience in radio starting as the producer and presenter of the popular Westfolk Show on Westsound Radio.

From there he moved on to carve out a career as a writer and radio features producer. For BBC Radio 2, he produced Doomsday in The Afternoon, a three half hour documentary/feature on the lives and music of the Stewarts of Blair; Isles Ne’er Forgotten, a half hour feature on the music of Ivan Drever and String Saga, an epic journey through Shetland and Norway examining the links between the Shetland Fiddle tradition and the Hardanger Fiddle tradition in Norway.

Musically, he is one half of McCrossan and Taylor, a duo playing an eclectic mixture of music including folk and country. They are noted for their harmony singing and intricate guitar arrangements.

Hugh is an unrepentant Guitar Freak.

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