At long last we're back from our travels.... or should that be travails?

The (Galician) gaita or gaita de foles is a traditional bagpipe used in Galicia, and Portugal.

The name gaita is used in Galician, Spanish, Leonese and Portuguese as a generic term for "bagpipe".

Just like "Northumbrian smallpipe"' or "Great Highland Bagpipe", each country and region attributes its toponym to the respective gaita name: gaita galega (Galicia), gaita transmontana (Trás-os-Montes), gaita asturiana (Asturias), gaita sanabresa (Sanabria), sac de gemecs (Catalonia), gaita de boto or gaita aragonesa (Aragón), etc. Most of them have a conical chanter with a partial second octave, obtained by overblowing, in the same way as e.g. the Eastern European gaida. Folk groups playing these instruments have become popular in recent years, and pipe bands for some models.In Bulgarian the same instrument is called GAIDA. Maybe the Wisigeths are the link between both sides!

It is possible that the name originates with the ghaita (also spelled rhaita in Morocco and algaita in Niger) a North African oboe similar to the zurna whose name derives from an Arabic word meaning "farm,", and/or the Eastern European bagpipes bearing similar names, such as gaida, gajda, and gajdy, but the linguistic relationship, if any, between these instruments is still unclear.

The word gaita might also be derived, according to Joan Corominas, from a Gothic root meaning goat (gait or gata), as the bag is a whole, case-skinned goat hide; Gothic was spoken in Spain as late as the eighth century due to Visigothic invasions.

We're back in The Caledonian Hotel with a new player on the block, all the way from Galicia in Spain ........................

It wasn't our first night in Friockheim, but it was the first time we'd recorded it for the Angus Sessions - long overdue!

It was quite a quiet night...........

This episode sees a return to the world-famous Caledonian Hotel in Brechin.

Just watch you don't turn up on a weekday afternoon when there's a funeral party in!!

A return to the Chapter & Verse as part of The Hairst.

Live from the Chapter & Verse in Forfar, part of The Hairst - http://www.thehairst.co.uk/

A WILD sessions with Aff the Cuff in The Stag in Arbroath..............