The Scotsman Sessions #81: Barbara Dickson

Welcome to The Scotsman Sessions. With the performing arts world shutting down for the foreseeable future, we are commissioning a series of short video performances from artists all around the country and releasing them on scotsman.com, with introductions from our critics. Here, Barbara Dickson performs a new song called Time Is Going Faster, the title track of a new album due to be released later this year.

The Scotsman Sessions is privileged to present a bespoke, intimate preview of a brand new song by woman o’ parts Barbara Dickson, a beautiful, ruminative ballad called Time Is Going Faster - “which, of course, you know it is,” she contends in her intro.

Dickson wrote the song last year when the long months of lockdown could scarcely be imagined. “Lockdown has been hard,” she says. “It’s the isolation that’s been tough and no one able to play live, a real issue. I am lucky in that I had very little live work this year as I have my big concert tour in March and April 2021.”

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Instead, Dickson has spent her time profitably, recording a series of lockdown interviews on various aspects of her career for her YouTube channel and even returning to acting in the podcast drama Can It Wait Till Morning, adapted from the diaries of retired GP Dr Peter Paterson Brown, all from her home base in Edinburgh’s New Town.

“My sitting room doubles as a work space for me with my grand piano permanently in situ,” she says. “I have my guitars stowed here as well and I love the space, it’s very warm and cosy.”

This set-up has allowed Dickson to work remotely with producer Nick Holland on a new album, also called Time Is Going Faster, to be released this autumn. The album will include a stripped-down version of one of her signature songs, Tell Me It’s Not True from Blood Brothers, alongside other lesser known material she has always wanted to record and a trio of new originals, including the title track.

“I’ve started to write rather prolifically again after many years of not much,” says Dickson. “Maybe I’ve had more to say. But I’m happy with these songs and so they’re on the new CD.”

Time Is Going Faster will be released in late October or early November. Barbara Dickson plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 9 April 2021, the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on 10 April 2021 and Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, on 11 April 2021, https://www.barbaradickson.net

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