Scotland's Landscapes in Music, from Kenneth I. MacKenzie and Niteworks Band

Scotland’s landscapes and stories inspire many sorts of creativity. Consider two rather different aspects of that, in recordings from Kenneth I. MacKenzie and the band Niteworks.

MacKenzie’s background is in pipe bands, with which he has played in such varied locations as Hong Kong, Norway, Denmark, and the United States. Among other things, he played on one of the best selling pipe band albums of all time, Amazing Grace from the Toyota Pipes and Drums.

Kenny is also well known as a composer of tunes. That is well to the fore on his album Glendrian , where most of the tunes in the twelve set offering are original. In addition to Highland pipes, he brings in his other instruments: digital chanter, harmonica, and low whistle.

The tunes, which include reels, waltzes. slow airs, marches, hornpipes and lament, are thoughtfully sequenced and well presented. They draw on people, places, and circumstances from Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, and are in most cases named in ways to honour them... including a reel called Granny Bheag’s Pancakes.

There are dashes of humour in the playing, as well as reflective pieces.

There’s a 4/4 March in tribute to Gaelic singer Alasdair Gillies, and a slow air which Kenny composed for his wife on her first visit to his family home. You can almost see the dancers swirling across the floor to Rhona’s Waltz, or taking faster steps to Karen’s Jig.

There is that lament, the title track Gelndrian. That came from a a landscape with which Kenny has family connection. It is the named for a settlement in Ardnamurchan, in Lochaber. No one lives there now. Kenny wrote the music reflecting on lives lived there and what that may have been like.

“Music and a love of playing is at the heart of Glendrian, and it’s been a joy to play in my own style and to create and share new tunes that cherish a traditional feel,” Kenny says.

His first recording in almost twenty years, Glendrian is a collection of music by a composer and player who has a clear sighted view of what he wishes to say with his music, and how to say it best. His love of landscapes and people of the Highlands and Islands comes clear with no need for words.

MacKenzie’s vision centers the album, and he is well supported by Will Marshall on piano, accordion, and arrangement, Marie Fielding on fiddle, Donald Black on tremolo harmonica, Rory Grindlay on drums, and Tom Oakes on acoustic guitar and flute.

The men of the band Niteworks have been inspired and nutured by the dual and often contrasting landscapes and sounds of Skye, where they grew up, and the buzzing and busy city and club scne of Glasgow, to which they moved.

They have always worked to put these together in their music since they first formed the band almost fifteen years ago now.

For their third album, A’ Ghrian, they’ve really matured into their sound creatively and musically, finding the sometimes elusive balance of respecting tradition while moving it forward in connection with other styles.

Part of that has come through the years Alan MacDonald on pipes, bassist Christopher Nicholson, Innes Strachan on keys and synths, and dummer Ruairdih Graham have worked together, and part of it has come through musical challenges they’ve accepted along the way.

“With this album we’ve sought to create a more expansive sound that’s cinematic in nature,” Graham explains. They were commissioned to write music for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Farewell 2020 film. That was a project which required them to reflect and create musically on what that year had been like, a timer of hardship and unexpected change for many. “The nature of the project required broad expansive sounds, and that led to us going further in that direction in the writing and recording of this album,” Graham says.

That approach works. The music is well sequenced, too, with a mix of traditional and original adventurous tunes bracketing equally adventurous song. Niteworks have also invited along Laura Wilkie, Fiona MacAskill, and Aileen Reid of KInnaris Quintet along with Susan Applebee to add strings to the sound.

The men of Niteworks do not sing themselves, but rather invite a range of guests to contribute. They have included Gaelic singers on earlier albums, and some of the same singers return for this one. Further along the lines of expanding vision for their music, though, they have for the first time invited singers in English and Scots to join in.

The three women who make up the trio Sian return with their well honed Gaelic harmonies for a a track, while Alasdair Whyte brings strong and soulful presence to another song. Sian band member Ellen MacDonald does a solo turn joining on Gura Mise tha fo Eislein.

The men of Niteworks came across a recording of the English folk song John Riley by folk legend Joan Baez. They were taken with the melody and wanted to make it their own, inviting Beth Malcolm along to sing the song in English. It’s a song you may know, from the Joan Baez version or the many recordings and sessions in which it turns up. In the hands of Beth Malcom and Niteworks, it turns into a John Riley you’ve likely not heard before, true to the story and its tradition while taking these in new directions.

Hannah Rarity brings Scots to the mix with a graceful take on the song Gloomy Winter. There is a turn of season, so to speak, and a return to Gaelic as Kathleen MacInnes brings an equally thoughtful and graceful performance to the title track A’ Ghrian.

As much as their approaches differ, Kenneth I. MacKenzie and Niteworks share love of the landscapes and sounds of Scotland past and present, and express that through their music.

You may also wish to see
Three from Scotland, which includes Marie Fielding’s album The Spectrum Project
At Wandering Educators Music for a Month of Transitions, in which you can find a video of the title track of Glendrian
Solo from Sarah-Jane Summers, who offers another creative way to take tradition forward
Song in English and Irish as well as tunes Thar Toin/Seabourne, from Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Photographs by Paul Edney from Pixabay, by Andrew Murray from Pixabay, and by Kerry Dexter

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