THE STRATHSPEY PROJECT: HONORING STONE AND MUSIC

The man of May stands very still, watching the children dance away the day- The January Man

Derbyshire native Dave Goulder is not only a certified master stone wall craftsman with the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain, but he is also a renowned folk singer and songwriter. Folk legends Christy Moore of the iconic Irish folk music band Planxty and the late Bert Jansch of the equally influential British folk-jazz band Pentangle covered Goulder's song, January Man. The lyrics personify the months of the year, tying them to the land and changing seasons.

Highland Dancers doing a Strathspey

To honor both Goulder's craft as a musician and a stonemason along with the Scottish Highlands where he lives, his friends commissioned a tune for his 65th birthday—calling it The Strathspey Project; two stone dancers are the emblem. The Strathspey is a dance style seen in Scottish Country Dancing (social dancing with two or more couples) and the solitary Highland Dancing. The slow, graceful movements originated during the 1700s in the valley (Scottish strath) of the River Spey.

Dave Goulder building a dry stone wall.

While shapeshifting stone dancers leaping through the air with arms held upright to resemble stag antlers may seem incongruous, the project compares Strathspey's progressive formations to the stonemason building walls and the musician crafting songs. Like interlocking dancers, dry stone walls consist of carefully selected interlocking load-bearing stones that are stable because of their construction method. These sometimes ancient walls etch Great Britain and Ireland’s landscape, as does the memory of a song or dance passed down through the ages.