A CHARITY single featuring Scottish actor Kevin McKidd and a host of musicians and singers has been released today, along with an accompanying JustGiving page.
The Celtic ballad, Leave a Light On, is raising funds for the Trussell Trust and Help Musicians UK.
Grey’s Anatomy star McKidd is male lead vocalist on the track, accompanied by Northern Irish singer Mairead Carlin. James D Reid composed and produced the song, while Carlin’s husband Ronan Scolard arranged and produced it.
The idea to release the single came about when friends McKidd and Reid discussed wanting to do something to help, having been “very shocked” by reports on empty food banks. A plan was hatched after a chat with fellow actor Iain Robertson to pull together their old team from a previous 2012 album collaboration, The Speyside Sessions, which went straight to the Number One spot on the iTunes World Music Charts in six different countries.
The First Minister gave her seal of approval on Twitter.
Great charity initiative to support food banks with the @trusselltrust. Congrats to @TheRealKMckidd @IainR0bertson @angusrobertson and everyone in @speysidesession. #LeaveaLightOn https://t.co/Oj1xBBRQxg
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) May 4, 2020
McKidd said: “I’d been looking for an excuse to get the old Speyside Sessions Band back together. It’s been a great experience. James has done a great job with writing Leave a Light On. He and Ronan had an uphill struggle to mix and produce this song with the quarantine restrictions and everyone being apart – but they did it brilliantly”
Reid added: “Some songs you have to chisel away at and some just come out as quick as it takes to play them through – this was the latter.
“But it took a week to get all the musicians to lay down the backing and then another week to get all the vocals in. Ronan, our arranger, and Scott Cameron, our engineer and mixer, then laid the tracks down and synced them. I’m delighted with how great is sounds, given the difficult circumstances. It’s come out as a proper wee Celtic ballad.”
Leave a Light On is available to download on iTunes and Google Play, and can be streamed on platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. JustGiving donations are going to The Trussell Trust via just.ly/lalo, while Help Musicians UK will receive all download revenue.
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