Musician's shares his songs on wife's urging
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A self-effacing musician who for years has stuck his recordings “in a drawer”, has now made two tracks from his latest album available to the public on the urging of his wife.
Alasdair (Al) Sutherland (70), Mill Way, Brora, has been persuaded by wife June to upload songs Blue and A Positive Mind from his Head in the Sand album onto Internet music platforms.
“He recorded it all himself in the bedroom and worked so hard on it,” said Mrs Sutherland. “It is really good and I told him that this time it wasn’t going in the drawer! It should be out there.”
The couple moved to Brora a year ago from Dunoon. Although he was brought up in Maryhill, Glasgow, Mr Sutherland's family hail originally from Brora and Dunbeath.
A guitarist and bass player, he has been making music since he was 14 when his mother bought him a guitar, which she paid up weekly.
As a young man, Mr Sutherland worked in the accounts office of the Glasgow shipyards but in his spare time played in Glasgow pubs with his band Pendulum. The band even followed in the footsteps of the Beatles by going to perform in Germany.
Aged 30, he went back into full-time education, qualifying as a business studies/IT teacher. He taught in London and at Barnard Castle before returning to Scotland and teaching at Dundee College for 22 years, then retiring and moving to Dunoon.
Although he was no longer performing, Mr Sutherland’s continued to write and record music, but fell short of sharing it with anyone other than family and friends and fellow musicians, all of whom gave him positive feedback.
“The amount of music he has got in that drawer is incredible”, said Mrs Sutherland.
She added: “His music has got soul. He gets his inspiration from what is going on in the world and also from his past experiences. Some of his songs are political – about the politics of the day and how it is all going wrong. Some of his songs are quite bluesy.
“He wrote A Positive Mind for me a few days after I went through a health scare and it is about keeping on going no matter what, while Blue is about somebody who never achieved what they wanted to achieve in life.”
After uploading the two tracks a week ago, Mr Sutherland has gained in confidence and is pursuing a dream he has had for a number of years.
“He would like to sell his music to publishers for possible use in dramas, documentaries, pilots and such like,” said Mrs Sutherland. “He isn’t interested in going round singing but is intent on writing music and selling it to publishers.”
Mr Sutherland's songs can be downloaded from iTunes and also SoundCloud, Spotify and Deezer.
