Salut! Live

The thoughtful, animated responses of Karine Polwart in the first part of her interview with Salut! Live deservedly attracted warm praise at the Mudcat folk music forum. Before proceeding to the second part, let us point readers in the right direction should they want to learn still more about what makes this outstanding Scottish singer/songwriter tick. Salut! Live is more than satisfied with Karine's answers to our questions, but notes - without spoiling the fun with detail - that from her interview for the Rocket Launcher feature of fRoots magazine, we also know of the fashion pitfalls of combining black lace tights and salmon pink leggings; the fanciability of Joaquin Phoenix and the differing songwriting virtues of Roger Tallroth, Dolly Parton and a certain Robert Burns.

The format of this concluding section of Karine Polwart: Mama don't preach should be self-evident, but each question is set in the form of an opening phrase offered by Salut! Live, with Karine then completing the sentence....

* My strongest childhood memory is ... of the smell of a rose shaped and scented soap that my granny used to use. I couldn’t stand the smell of it and used to have very weird dreams indeed involving these little rose soaps with sinister magical powers!

* If I excelled at school, it was because... I was born lucky but worked hard.

* My name doesn't sound obviously Scottish ... but it comes from a village in Berwickshire in The Borders, near where I live. One of the earliest recorded Polwarts, Patrick, was a court poet in the seventeenth century. There’s a famous (and very very rude!) poem called The Flyting of Polwart and Montgomery, which is the contemporary equivalent of a rap face off!

* My most memorably good gig was... my last show at The Queens Hall in Edinburgh. There’s something amazing and beautiful about hearing a whole room full of people singing my songs.

* And the one I'd rather forget... I’ve already forgotten!*

* To me, the BBC folk awards were ... a massive surprise. But they changed my life. I sold more CDS in a week than I had in the previous year. And that kind of break has allowed me to continue doing what I do.

* The singer/writer/musician I most admire (after Midge Ure?) is ... Dick Gaughan. He opened up the world of folk music for me and I admire his wilful integrity and intensity.

* When I hear social workers criticised for this or that supposed failure, ... I think it’s a miracle that anyone chooses to do that vital but totally underrated work these days.

* What Scotland most needs is .. a visionary political approach to sustainable energy and community development. And a cure for the wee black midges!

* Ten years from now, I hope ... that my family is healthy and happy and that I’m still able to do what I want for a living.

* ...but for the sake of thoroughness, Karine's reply to a similar question put by fRoots (using "worst" as the test instead of the gig "I'd rather forget") takes readers close to Salut! Live's present home in the Middle East. She recalls the Muscat Festival in Oman as a "bizarre and stressful experience", in which she and her band felt musically out of place, although I am delighted to add that she also found the Omani capital a truly gorgeous place, as indeed it is.

** Salut! Live once again acknowledges the cooperation of Roger Tiptrot, whose generosity with his superb archive of photographs at folkimages.com so often enhance what appears here. Roger provides this description of the chosen image: "I first came across Karine as half of MacAlias and since then she's come on in leaps and bounds with her solo album 'Faultlines' scooping her three awards at Radio 2's Folk Awards. She's followed this up with 'Scribbled In Chalk' and this also deserves to grab a raft of awards. She's taken here at The Railway in Greenfield where she gave a stunning performance in the company of Inge Thompson."