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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Scotland's Music: Steall/Torrent from Ewen Henderson

Ewen Henderson has been part of many aspects of the music of Scotland, from playing with the Battlefield Band and Manran, to studying with Aongas Grant Sr to writing music for film to researching music in the archive at the School of Scottish Studies. He comes from Lochaber in the Highlands, growing up in a musical family and along the way picking up skills on fiddle, viola, piano, Highland pipes and small pipes, harmonium, whistles, and singing in both English and Gaelic.

When he set out to make what would become his album Steall/Torrent. , he thought to make a work that would offer a curated journey comprised of pieces carefully structured to reflect these many interests and experiences.

As he began, the music took him in a different direction.

It did have its origins in his first plan, but

“When that particular creative sluice is opened, one can quickly find such fine intentions overwhelmed and engulfed by the cascade of memories, impulses, and ideas released in its flow,” he writes in the sleeve notes. Hence his choice of title for the album: Steall, which means torrent in Gaelic.

The result is a journey worth the taking, moving from jigs to airs to song to waltz and back again, all the while allowing Henderson to create good stories with his mastery of numerous instruments. Keeping him company are Ewan MacPherson (who produced the project) on guitars and jaw harp, Jame Lindsay on bass, James MacKinstosh on percussion, and Thomas Gibbs on clarinet.

Through eleven tracks, music from traditional sources meets with with original compositions. The album opens that way, in fact, as the Melbourne Morning set sees the originals A Melbourne Morning and The Pneumatic Drills bookending a longtime favourite traditional jig Gillean a Drobhair/The Drover’s Lad.

Henderson points out that once he began working on the music from a different perspective than he had planned, he decided to, in keeping with the torrent idea -- dive in. “I respectfully suggest the listener do likewise,” he adds.

If you do that you will enjoy a line of melody and story which unite Henderson’s diverse musical skills. In recent years he has worked as a musical director for various projects and written music for film, both of which require a good ear for and knowledge of the stories told by sequencing music. That is a strength here as well, with those opening jigs followed by the Duncan Ban MacIntyre song Oran a’ Branndaidh, and later finds MSR, a set of fast paced pipe tunes played on the fiddle moving into the gentle Dileab na h-Aibhne.

Henderson also knows well how to evoke ideas of place and geography in his writing and playing as well. Have listen to that Dileab na h-Aibhne to discover many layers of music which do that. The title translates as The River’s Legacy. Henderson was living in Glasgow’s West End when he was asked to compose a soundtrack for documentary concerning a youth pipe band being established in the area. “It was inspired by thoughts of the River Clyde’s lasting influence on Glasgow, Scotland, and the wider world, but, in particular, the role it has played in the changing fortunes of the Gaels,” he writes. It is a piece of depth and imagination which well brings in the voice of the river and the people along it.

Camus Daraich evokes a different sort of landscape, although also a waterbound one. The title comes from a beach in the western Highlands overlooking Skye and the Small Isles, a place of childhood memories and more recent ones, as it was where Henderson’s sister Megan married Ewan Robertson. They are musicians as well: you will know them from their work with Breabach.

There is much more to explore on Steall. Henderson draws the journey to close with a tune he wrote for his wife, Maria, which was meant to be a surprise gift to her on their wedding day. That didn’t go quite as planned. I will leave you to find that amusing story in the sleeve notes (which are offered in both English and Gaelic). It’s a fine tune, though, which draws many threads of the music on Steall together and makes a closer at once spirited and gentle.

Follow the music straight through or dip in and out of Ewen Henderson’s Steall: either way, you will find engaging, thoughtful music in which to immerse yourself and emerge refreshed. A torrent indeed.

Ewen Henderson is one of the founding members of the top group Manran. Another place to hear his work, in a bit of a different context, is on their recording An Da La.

You may also wish to see
Scotland’s Music:Breabach: Frenzy of the Metting.
At Wandering Educators Music for Hope and Celebration, part of the Music for Shifting Times Series, including a song and video from Manran
Scotland’s Music:Hamish Napier: The Railway
Scotland’s Music: Julie Fowlis: Alterum.

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Scotland's Music: Breabach: Frenzy of the Meeting

The sound of Scotland’s landscapes, misty glen to rocky coast, mountain path to city street: that is part of what you hear in the music of the band Breabach.

There’s tradition and innovation. There are ideas grounded in Scotland and informed by by seeing Scotland’s people and music in the context of a wider world. All these strands come together in the songs and tunes they offer on their sixth recording. Frenzy of the Meeting.

Prince’s Strand, a tune named after the place on the Isle of Eriskay in the Western Isles where Charles Edward Stuart -- Bonnie Prince Charlie-- first landed in Scotland in the Rising of ’45 invites listeners in with a welcome which is both peaceful and complex. It was written by band member James Duncan Mackenzie.

Peaceful and complex: you could say that of each of the songs and tunes on Frenzy of the Meeting. True, some are faced paced, high stepping tunes which celebrate the dance and invite you to dance yourself, while others come with melody and lyric and in Gaelic , which ask good questions and offer vivid images with which to contemplate those ideas. Yet other tell good stories and suggest ideas for reflection with lyrics in English.

The members of Breabach are James Lindsay on double bass an vocals, Calum MacCrimmon on bagpipes, whistle, bouzouki, and vocals, James Duncan Mackenzie on bagpipes, flute, whistle, Ewan Robertson on guitar, vocals, cajon. and Megan Henderson on fiddle and vocals. Each has contributed original pieces and arrangements to the mix of traditional and original music here.

Each track is worth your attention, and indeed repeated listening. In addition to Prince’s Strand, several cuts of which to take especial note

Birds of Passage: Migration is much in the news these days, as indeed it has been a part of life across the world for centuries. Ewan Robertson wrote this song with his friend Michael Farrell. In it, he sings of the hopes, fears and dreams of people on a migration journey, backed by instruments which also speak of passages and journeys.

...Humble search for sanctuary
Timeless symphony
No borderlines they see...

On and on
through grief and pain
brave birds of passage fly again
as they light
on golden strand
brave birds pf passage
reach our land...

The Oban Ball is an instrumental track based around a nineteenth century pipe tune, married with James Duncan Mackenzie’s tune Thunderstorm on Thunder Bay. Pipes and whistles lead the dance, with bass and fiddle adding depth to the story.

Winter Winds, a song from Calum MacCrimmon also speaks of journey, hardship, and change. As with Birds of Passage, there is hope threaded through, in both word and melody.

So keep a eye on the horizon,
Even when nights are long
Give it time, and the sky will change

Whether falling or flying
We are all moving on
And in the light we can find our way

Knees Up pairs Knees Up in Hanoi, a lively tune from Calum MacCrimmon, with the Gaelic song Dòchas Glan Na Fàire, sung by Megan Henderson, which MacCrimmon wrote with Megan’s brother, Ewen Henderson. This too is a song of journey, of revisiting familiar landscapes and finding new ones. Part of the lyrics translate as

The road must be taken
Living in pure hope of the horizon
Until the day breaks

Òran Bhràigh Rùsgaich is the Gaelic song which the band have chosen to close the album. It speaks of light and shadow moving across landscape, a particular one, in fact. It is “our take on Iain Mac Dhùghaill’s nostalgic poem about the braes of Ruskich to the south of Glen Urquhart, “ the band write in the sleeve notes. “Megan and Ewan first heard this sung by Charlie MacFarlane at one of the legendary ceilidh nights in Glenfinnan House Hotel.”

Journeys across landscapes, facing hardship yet finding hope: in both song and tune, those thread run through the choices on Frenzy of the Meeting, all delivered with thoughtful and top class musicianship. Breabach, who formed in 2005, have been nominated for and won a number of awards; if Frenzy of the Meeting is your first hearing of them, you will quickly understand why.

The album was recorded live in the studio for one week, and then in a further week of work spent with producer Eamon Doorley (you’ll know him from his work with Danu and Julie Fowlis). It is a fine next step for a group of musicians who are at once at the top of their game, while suggesting that there is much ahead for them to explore yet. If ever you have the chance to see Breabach live, you will be well rewarded, too, by seeing a group of top notch musicians who really listen to each other, and who truly enjoy sharing their music with all who come to hear. You may get to see them add a bit of step dance into the mix, as well.

Side note: Mention must be made of those who created the cover art and design for Frenzy of the Meeting: The artwork is from the painting Sun In Bog by Somhairle, Struan and Breagha MacDonald, and the layout is by Somhairle MacDonald.

You may also wish to see
Juilie Fowlis: Gach Sgeul Every Story
Capercaillie: At the heart of It All
Music and Horizons” Stories of Hope at Wandering Educators, which includes the official video of Knees Up

Photograph of band in doorway courtesy of the artists; photograph of band on stage at Celtic Connections in Glasgow by Kerry Dexter, made with permission of the festival, the artists, and the venue. Thank you for respecting copyright.

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Celtic Connections 2014

by Kerry Dexter

Celtic Connections: each year in January, this major music festival fires up concert halls. clubs, theaters, and other performance spaces across the city center of Glasgow with music that includes both the Celtic side of things and music that reaches out into the connections of music across the world.

Through the hundreds of gigs on offer, it is always an individual journey of what music to take in. Several highlights of the 2014 edition of Celtic Connections for me included

Hearing classical violinist Nicola Benedetti talk about -- and play -- collaborations with Scottish musicians including Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, andJulie Fowlis, which they have been working on for an album that native Scot Benedetti plans to release this summer

Seeing fiddler Duncan Chisholm bring his straight from the Highlands of Scotland music to the stage of Glasgow Royal Concert Hall that same evening, and knowing he was part of the opening concert at the first Celtic Connections festival twenty one years back

It wouldn’t be Celtic Connections -- or Scotland -- without the pipes. One of my favourite pipers this year was James Duncan Mackenzie, playing both traditional music and his own compositions as part of a concert at The Mitchell, and sharing stories of the tunes with a lively wit

Speaking of lively wit, that was as much in play as was world class music and dance as Cherish the Ladies with bandleader Joanie Madden

brought the heritage of Ireland to the stage of the Royal Concert Hall, to the delight of a sold out house. Among the guests was singer and songwriterCathie Ryan, who along with Madden and guitarist Mary Coogan was part of the group’s first appearance at Celtic Connections twenty years ago.

Photographs are by Kerry Dexter. They were made with permission of the festival, the artists, and the venues involved, and are copyrighted. Thank you for respecting this.

There will be more to come of windows into the sights and sounds of Celtic Connections 2014 here along the Music Road. You might also like to see

Celtic connections: twenty years of extraordinary music
Cherish the Ladies: storytellers in music
Celtic Connections 2013: Images

Bagpipes with a different sound: Seudan

These days, the Highland pipes are most often heard playing military music, and even when they turn to laments, the pitch and timbre of the pipes tends to be quite bright and piercing, just because that is the way most modern pipes are constructed. This music is often quite melodic and stirring. There is an older sound of the pipes, though, with a bit of a different pitch and a different take on rhythm, and that is what the group Seudan offers on their self titled album.

Seudan (that is pronounced shayt-tan and means jewels in Scottish Gaelic) is pipers Calum MacCrimmon, Angus MacKenzie, Fin Moore and Angus Nicolson. Each of the four men plays a set of pipes made by Fin Moore and his father Hamish, pipes which are matched copies of 18th century Black sSet of Kintail pipes in the Inverness Museum. The pipes are made of ebony and with mounts in silver.


When they went to set up these pipes, they found that they play naturally at a lower pitch than the brighter sound which has evolved over the centuries as Highland pipes were found increasingly in military and exhibition situations. The men decided to take the sound of the pipes back to an earlier time in another way, as well, playing music which focuses on the rhythms of dance and Gaelic speech rather than march time pieces.


There are lively pieces which are part of and support the rhythm of quick step marches, step dancing, waulking songs with their work driven beat, and melodies which reference the nuances of Gaelic song and the sound of the sea. Many of these pieces come from the Western isles in Scotland, and a number of them come also from the island across the sea, Cape Breton in Atlantic Canada, where traditions of Scottish music have been handed down as strongly as they have within Scotland itself.

It is a program well worth the hearing all the way through, and more than once. Highlights, though, inlcude The Rock, which is a set of Cape Breton tunes, and Tha Mulad, which is a set of songs. Guests who sit in with the band include Mac Morin on piano, Donald Hay on percussion, and Allen MacDonald and Kathleen MacInnes, singers.

you may also wish to see


Bagpipes & bluegrass: Outlands from Fred Morrison
MScotland & Cape Breton: tradition and innovation
Celtic Connections 2011: images, part two

Bagpipes & bluegrass: Outlands from Fred Morrison

Train Journey North is the set which opens Fred Morrison album Outlands. You may be tempted to think the bagpipes on this sound rather like a train’s whistle, which may or may not be intentional, and may or may not endear the set to you. In any case, hang on and stay along for the ride:

Morrison is one of Scotland’s most creative pipers, and he’s brought along four men who are equally well known for their readiness to take music in directions it has not gone before. From Scotland guitarist and fiddler Matheu Watson sits in, as does the ever creative bodhran player Martin O’Neill, whose work you met most recently along the music road with Julie Fowlis. From the United States come banjo ace Ron Block whom you might know from his work with Alison Krauss and Union Station, and Grammy winning songwriter and string wizard Tim O'Brien.

It’s not about their credentials, of course, it is about the music they make together here. Morrison’s idea was to take on connections between bluegrass and highland pipes and whistles. It is no academic exploration, either. It is rather a collection of sets which join original and traditional tunes which connect with rhythms which might find themselves at home in either style. The title track, Outlands, starts off with what might be a bluegrass hoedown and travels over to a ceilidh in the highlands before it is done. Leaving Uist finds Morrison taking up the low whistle and joining with O’Neill and Watson for a spare set which paints the distinct landscape of the western isle. O’Neill’s bodhran again helps set the scene as he opens the appropriately named Drumcross set, and Morrison’s low whistle leads in to the haunting tune Nameless, and he takes up the reel pipes for the quiet Seonaiidh’s Tune set

There are ten sets in all, each equally varied and interesting. If you’re expecting highland pipes and whistles, it’s not quite that. if you;re expecting bluegrass, it’s not that either. It is fine listening that honors and extended both traditions.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: Julie Fowlis: Live at Perthshire Amber
Music Road: Musical imagination: Matheu Watson
Music Road: Capercaillie: Roses & Tears

-->If you'd like to support my creative work,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.