Spoken Herd

Spokenherd is pleased to announce the launch of its first crowdsourced audiobook, and particularly pleased to make it available to you on Burns Night! We have a collection of poetry for you, including a good serve of Burns brought to life by our awesome crowdsourced international narrators. Their enthusiasm passion and talent has made the project enormous fun and we hope you enjoy the product of our labours.

The recorded pieces can he listened to and downloaded on the soundcloud site for Spokenherd found here http://soundcloud.com/spokenherd

The collection is as follows:
One Year The Door Will Open by Ryan Van Winkle narrated by Craig Lawrie
The Six O’Clock News by Tom Leonard narrated by Fiona Karen Alexander
To A Mouse by Robert Burns narrated by Fiona Karen Alexander
The Tay Bridge Disaster by William McGonagall narrated by Kenny Gregory
Mrs Darwin by Carol Ann Duffy narrated by Mairi Campbell-Jack
A Scotsman’s Return From Abroad by Robert Louis Stevenson narrated by Robert Kirkwood
Hamnavoe by George Mackay Brown narrated by Rosemary Cunningham
Ode To A Haggis by Robert Burns narrated by Sarah Morrison
Braw Lads O Galla Water by Robert Burns narrated by Colin Irons
Invitation by Marion Angus narrated by Juliette Llewellyn

The final piece is the most excellent A Man’s a Man by Robert Burns narrated line by line by assorted voices that demonstrate the universality of Burns and the rich sounds of Glasgow.

We loved doing this and we hope you like it to. Tell us what you think.

Should we do another and if so what would you like?

Thanks go again to everyone who auditioned, took part, helped and supported – you know who you are give yourself a round of applause.

Thanks go particularly to Creative Scotland for making it all possible and the poets who allowed their work to be used

A very happy Burns Day ( and Night!) to all our happy followers. After a furiously busy recording period over the last couple of weeks edition 1 of Spoken Herd will soon be available for you to listen to for absolutely FREEEEEEEE!!!!!

The quality of the auditions was so good that we used more narrators than we had originally planned making the release a little delayed – but I think you will agree that it was worth the wait.

A big thanks to all who did audition and those that were selected to perform, and everyone that has contributed to making this project possible.

Cargo Publishing, twintangibles, Inner Ear and Social Media Week Glasgow have teamed up with Creative Scotland to produce a crowdsourced audiobook!

So far we have had an open audition session where anyone could send us an audition piece by reading Red Red Rose. We also held an open walk-in audition at SocietyM in Glasgow. Loads of you responded so now we are doing our very own X Factor judging session. I am being the mean one – whoever that is these days. It’s a bit tough though as the auditions are so good, so I can’t be really mean.

Robert Kirkwood of Insight Radio came and interviewed us and covered our project. If you like spoken word then we would certainly recommend Roberts show Talking Books.

Soon the selected narrators will be told and we will get into the business of recording to bring you a free audio book of classic Scottish texts.

Listen out for news!

Cargo Publishing, twintangibles, Inner Ear and Social Media Week Glasgow have teamed up with Creative Scotland to produce a crowdsourced audiobook! We want you to take part in recording some of the best poems and essays from Scottish literature and form one of the most unique audiobook’s available.

To be part of this project you should audition to be a narrator. We want you to  create an example of your talent as a narrator by reading A Red, Red Rose by Scotland’s bard Robert Burns. You can let us hear it by either uploading it to YouTube, or use Audioboo, or hipcast or simply send us an mp3 of you reading . A copy of the poem is below.

Whichever method you chooose you must let us know by either sending us an email, telling us where to hear it or sending us the audio file. In each case send the message to

glasgow@socialmediaweek.org

One way or another let us know you have done an audition and you are then in the competition.

There will also be a walk-in audition session at SocietyM in Glasgow this Thursday, November 24th, from 10am to 4pm. It’s your last chance to audition, don’t miss out!

Those who are successful in the audition process will be contacted and recording will take place before the end of 2011.

Are you an actor or budding author? Here’s a chance to hear yourself on an internationally distributed audiobook! You’ve got till the end of November so get your auditions in now!

This initiative is made possible through assistance from Creative Scotland

Poem as below. Judges decisions are final.

O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June.
O, my luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun!
O I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!

O, my love is like a red, red rose,
That is newly sprung in June.
O, my love is like the melody,
That is sweetly played in tune.

As fair are you, my lovely lass,
So deep in love am I,
And I will love you still, my Dear,
Till all the seas go dry.

Till all the seas go dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt with the sun!
O I will love you still, my Dear,
While the sands of life shall run.

And fare you well, my only Love,
And fare you well a while!
And I will come again, my Love,
Although it were ten thousand mile!