“[…] I have never held the uke in high esteem as far as the great lexicon of musical instrumentation goes. Or indeed in any kind of esteem at all.
Then I heard Zoë Bestel sing and play and everything changed. Dumfries & Galloway is most assuredly blessed with some of the most talented performs you could ever hope to see or hear, but even in such a densely packed firmament, Zoë is a particularly bright star. She has a haunting, ethereal voice that can bring a whole new depth of meaning to even the most weel-kent songs. And she blew all my preconceived notions about the instrument right out of the water because her preferred partner in song is a ukulele. “

Coming as a complete and rather lovely surprise, I am delighted to have been mentioned in this seasons issue of Dumfries & Galloway Life! A huge thank you for the wonderfully kind words, Gilly Fraser, I am honoured and touched. How unexpected and heart warming! I did have a bit of a cry when my friend sent me this – it’s funny how things arrive just when you need a little encouragement and nurturing. Thank you 💚

D&G Life were one of the first publications to champion me, and I am incredibly grateful for the support they’ve given me over the years. Extra chuffed that in this season’s issue my incredibly lovely friend Piper and her equally lovely sister Ella’s new business Pip and Ell are also featured (I’ll be wearing one of their gorgeous ear creations on my live stream on Wednesday) with photographs taken by another lovely friend Kim Ayres Photography, as well as my lovely 2nd hometown of Wigtown launches Wigtown Book Festival‘s first virtual festival on the front cover with friends The Bookshop Band and The Bookshop (of which features on the cover of Sir Lucas and the Moon, and the venue of the Nobody Knows music video – phew)! 🌻 Lovelylovelylovely!
My live streams are every Wednesday at 7pm (BST) here on Facebook and YouTube, if you don’t already tune in, I’d love to see you there, please do say hello. I invite you to 💚 See you then!

Another champion of my music has been New Found Sound, who featured me in The Scotsman after my Hit the Road tour all the way back in 2015! They’ve just released a Spotify playlist of all their featured artists from that year which you can check out here: https://bit.ly/ScotlandOnSunday

If you missed my stream last week, catch this little snippet below featuring my original song Clockwork or rewatch the whole thing – better yet, come hang with me tonight!

P.S If the article piqued your interest about ukuleles, or if you’re keen on getting one as a present for someone else, or for yourself 😉 I will always and highly recommend my good friend Matt of World of Ukes. Not D&G based, but Carlisle so close enough…