'I'm getting rid of my past': Glasgow singer Horse on new tour

“It’s an opportunity for me to play new songs, and old favourites,” she explains.

“It is the 30th anniversary of our second album, God’s Home Movie and when I’m singing those songs, all the memories come flooding back.”

She adds: “And with the new songs? It’s the same, it’s all about storytelling. It’s good to get a chance to try them live, let them breathe a bit without all the clever stuff in the studio.

“These are the most fragile songs I have ever sung.”

Horse, who lives in Finnieston, has released nine albums in a successful career spanning more than three decades. She has opened for and toured with the likes of Tina Turner, BB King and Burt Bacarach and her thrilling, uplifting live performances sell out quickly all over the country.

Horse McDonald (Image: Horse McDonald)

At Frets, the Lanarkshire concert series which brings big names to an off-the-beaten-track venue, Horse will be supported by Emma Dunlop and Kirsten Adamson.

“I’m really excited about Frets, it’s similar, I think to what is happening all over the country – smaller, more intimate venues are putting on music because lots of people just can’t afford to go to the big shows, or don’t want to travel into the cities,” she says. “It’s fantastic, a bit like the circuit in the old days. And you get the chance to chat.”

She adds, with a snort of laughter: “I mean, I love to chat, as you can tell…”

During a recent gig, while performing one of her new tracks, Moon and I, Horse noticed a woman in the front row in tears.

“It is quite something, to get that kind of immediate response from an audience, isn't it?” she ponders. “There is something about song, and how, in its simplest of forms, it can still move people and they can take something from it.”

Horse with her portrait and artist Roxana Halls (Image: Newsquest)

She explains: “Moon and I happened when I was recording at St Mary’s Space in Fasnacloich, just over the Connell Bridge.

“Each night I’d be in my wee sitooterie, looking at the moon and it transported me right back to all kinds of points in my life. The moon has been a bit of an obsession for me, an anchor in the sky. It’s quite magical.”

She adds, smiling: “Without meaning to sound sad, I really am in the last quarter of my life and there is something poignant about having no more promises to keep, no more roads to travel.

“I’m getting rid of my past. But I’ve done most things I ever wanted to do, and I’m in a place where I am happy.”

Horse grew up in Lanark in the 70s, where she discovered music as a way of escaping the homophobic bullying which reared its ugly head in much of small-town Scottish life at that time.

“I think I have always been on the road less travelled,” she explains. “I have never chosen NOT to be myself. And if that has meant butting up against society’s 'norms', then, so be it.”

A new single, Leaving, sees Horse on top form – “it’s a banger,” she agrees – and a new album is on the cards.

“In an ideal world, I’d love to license it to a major label, get back on the Monopoly board, but who knows?" she says, with a sigh. “I just love music, and I feel like I have a good batch of songs here. I gather songs by osmosis, the emotion and experience soaks into you like a sponge.”

There will also, perhaps surprisingly, be a Horse Christmas single.

“Yes! I have written one with Bobby Bluebell,” she laughs. “I am very excited about that. It’s not your typical Christmas song, I think – it’s quite political. And it’s called What I Don’t Want for Christmas.”

She pauses, then grins: “But it absolutely does have sleigh bells. You have to have sleigh bells….”

Recently, Horse was honoured with a painting, by Roxana Halls, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. At its unveiling, just after the end of lockdown, when many restrictions were still in place, Horse spontaneously sang one of her biggest hits, Careful in the near-empty gallery. The video went viral.

“That was a moment,” she agrees. “I mean, talk about legacy…there aren’t many people like me in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.”

She pauses, returning to the theme of taking the “road less travelled.”

“It’s been really hard at times, being on that road,” she nods. “But it’s great when I meet other people who have felt the same, and who I might have been able to encourage or give courage to in some way.”

She adds: “If you can inspire people just by being yourself, then that’s the best feeling in the world.”

Horse is at Frets in the Strathaven Hotel on May 19.