The Music Café - 24/11/2010

Are musicians only ever writing political or protest songs when times are hard? Billy Bragg doesn't think so. He says that people like him are writing their music all the time, it's just it's not in peoples mind during the good times. So how will the current economic and political climate be portrayed in music? Imagine never being able to listen to The Beatles, Mozart or a good ripping set of jigs and reels. For the three quarters of a million people in Scotland who have some kind of hearing impairment the idea of not being able to ever hear music is a real one. But one man has set out trying to change all that. Dr. Paul Whittaker is deaf, he's a professional musician and is passionate about helping other deaf people enjoy music too by signing it. He joins Bruce to talk about how he signs music for other deaf people. Glenn Donnellan plays the violin with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC. He's also a Baseball fan. Created at home in his garage, The Batolin is a cross between a baseball bat and a violin. He bought it into the studio to play some classic rock tunes.