Scotland's Music: Karen Matheson: Still Time

What draws a musician to a song or tune, to wanting to learn it and sing it?

That varies with each artist, of course, and sometimes with each song. For Karen Matheson, it was the poetry and image in James Grant’s song Cassiopeia Coming Through that got her thinking how she’d like to present it. It’s a piece with an abundance of both, along with enough room musically for Matheson and producer and partner Donald Shaw to open things up with ideas that flow between jazz and folk. They chose the song to open Matheson’s album Still Time. “Cassiopeia is a beautifully crafted call for change, for hope, for moving forward,” Matheson says.

The way the album came about is in some ways a story of hope and moving forward. Matheson is lead singer and a founding member of the top folk band Capercaillie, with whom she sings in both Gaelic and English.. She also keeps note of songs she would like to record in other ways. This is her fifth solo album, one she had begun working on some time ago.

‘’Ten years ago I was working on a bunch of different tracks, unsure of what direction to go in when I found myself facing a number of personal challenges including the loss of both my parents,” Matheson says. “It felt right to concentrate on the Gaelic songs of my childhood, in tribute to what had given true shape to my life.” The result was the all Gaelic album called Urram, a word which means respect in Gaelic.

“We were then left with a body of work, waiting in the wings to be resurrected at a later date with my sore heart eased and my faith in humanity restored,” she continues. Then came the unexpected pause of lockdown.

“While the world paused, birdsong soared and banana bread baked, Still Time was reborn with the help of some familiar, brilliant musicians who could accommodate the home-recording situation we worked through lockdown,” she says. Those musicians include Shaw and Grant as well as frequent members of Matheson’s road band Hannah Fisher on backing vocals and fiddle, and Sorren MacLean on backing vocals and guitar, along with Alyn Cosker and James MacKintosh on percussion, John Doyle on guitar and bouzouki, Fraser Fifield on saxophone, Anna Massie on mandolin, Ewen Vernal on bass, and others.

The gathering of songs is at once focused and varied.

They are thoughtfully and beautifully sung and backed with taste and creativity. Each track will reveal more riches with repeated listening. Highlights include

A thoughtful tale of life in the Highlands coming to terms with the clearances Recovery is a story with both historic and current resonance. It was written by Callum and Rory MacDonald of Runrig. Matheson’s take imbues the story with powerful yet understated grace.

The Aragon Mill is a story of loss, change, uncertainty, and perhaps, just a thread of hope. American writer and activist Si Kahn wrote it, inspired by the lives of those affected by the closure of the cotton mill in Aragon, Georgia, in the US. It’s a song which has spoken to Matheson for some years; she’s often included it in live performance. “I’ve loved it from the very first time I heard it sung by the brilliant Andy Irvine with Planxty, on their album Words and Music in the early 80s,” she writes in the sleeve notes.

Matheson chose four songs by James Grant for this album; one, in fact, came about because of request she made to the musician. Of the song called Little Gun she writes “This little beauty penned by James was in response to my request for something reflecting the power of parenting, and the raw emotion it brings.” There is the memorable idea “it’s not the fact that I made you, it’s the fact that you made me,” as part of the lyrics, and there’s a chorus --I will let you seek that out -- which will linger in your mind, as well.

Then there’s the title track, Still Time. It was, Matheson says, written by her partner and the album’s producer Donald Shaw twenty years ago. Life’s changes and choices, and the lasting fleeting nature of both those things, come in for consideration in the song. “The words “Still Time” resonated with me while collating the tracks for this album in lockdown firstly on an obvious level of time standing still but also on another level in that there was still time to finish this project which had been lying unfinished for so long!” Matheson explains.

There are other gems: The Diamond Ring finds lively contributions from Dirk Powell on banjo and Hannah Fisher on fiddle and backing vocals, John Doyle and Sorren MacLean on guitar; Cassiopeia Coming Through, another piece written by James Grant, opens the album with a mystical, jazz tinged, image filled story; things are drawn to a close with the Robert Burns classic Ae Fond Kiss as sung at the close of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

Still Time is an album with songs of reflection, connection, courage, creativity, and grace. The songs are presented with those qualities as well.

Photograph of Karen Matheson in studio courtesy of Compass Records; photographs of Karen Matheson in performance at Celtic Connections in Glasgow by Kerry Dexter, made with permission of festival, artist, and venues involved. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Karen Matheson's album Urram
Capercaillie’s album At the Heart of It All,
History into song: Capercaillie’s album Glenfinnan
Another artist to know: Cathie Ryan’s album Through Wind & Rain

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Music in times of change

In the midst of change and uncertainty, it’s often a good idea to take time for contemplation and reflection, time to find interior silence -- even when there may not be much in exterior circumstances to encourage that.

Music is a good gateway to silence. That can seem a paradox, but recall that creating music is as much about the notes as the space between them. It has been said that a painter paints on canvas, and a musician paints on silence.

With those ideas in mind, take a listen to these four pieces of music.

At times music without words -- tunes, in the Celtic music world -- invite this sort of reflection. Fiddle player and composer Hanneke Cassel draws on the traditions of Scotland and Cape Breton with hints of bluegrass, Americana, and occasional inflections to other places her travels have taken her. Take a listen to the Gretl in the Garden set, which you may find recorded on her album Trip to Walden Pond.

Songwriter Carrie Newcomer often looks to intersections of faith and the everyday to frame her stories. Hers is a clear eyed faith and a clear hearted look at living both in the moment and seeing threads of connection, grace, and spirit that pull through, now and then laced with humor too. In this song, Newcomer reminds that in times of uncertainty it is often wise to, as she says in the title of her song, Lean In Toward the Light. The song is recorded on her album The Beautiful Not Yet.

Music can be a gift of hope, whatever the circumstance. Cara Dillon knows this. Dillon comes from Northern Ireland and loves to perform and record music from the folk traditions of Ireland and Scotland. She recognizes ideas that connect across time and oceans, too. This song, Bright Morning Stars Arising, has engaged Dillon’s audiences from Ireland to Scotland to China. You may find it on her album A Thousand Hearts.

The members of the band Capercaillie have taken their music to Africa, the middle east, North America, and other points across the globe. Their base, and the heart of their music, is in their home in Scotland, however. You will hear references to Scotland in this song -- the poetry of Sorely Maclean, for instance. It is a piece that invites more than one listen for both melody and words, though, and connects with ideas of contemplation, reflection, and trust whatever place you may call home. Karen Matheson sings lead. The song and the album where you will find it are both called At the Heart of It All.

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Scotland's Music: Karen Matheson, Gaelic, and story

Home, and story: those are two things you will hear woven through the songs Karen Matheson offers on her recording Urram.. You will hear those things whether you understand the Gaelic in which Matheson sings them or not.

It’s not the album Matheson thought she’d be making. She is known for her work with the band Capercaille, who have been bringing the sounds of Scotland to audiences in their native country and abroad for more than twenty years now. Every so often she releases a solo project too. She was working on one which would include contemporary songs in both English and Gaelic when she found changes in her life calling her in another direction.

Her father passed away, and not long after his death her mother became ill and soon died as well. “The recent loss of my parents sent me on a journey of discovery, which has been both eye opening and healing,” she writes in the notes which accompany the recording.

Matheson grew up in Argyll in the southwest of Scotland. Her mother was from Barra, in the southern tip of the Western Isles. Gaelic was her mother’s first language, but when she moved to Argyll for work as young woman she found that she was not allowed to speak the language at all, that it was looked down upon. Calling to Gaelic was bred in Matheson’s bones it seems though, as she sought out teachers who would help her explore the language. Her mother, Matheson told Tim Cumming for Songlines “would never have dreamed that I would go on to make it my life and passion, but she had a great pride in what we did. She did see the tide turn before she died.”

Matheson traveled back to Barra, where she heard songs and family stories, ideas that had made their way across time and generation. She also started looking through family photographs. Connecting faces to names, landscape, and story inspired Matheson to create an album of Gaelic songs, songs which in varied ways speak to the story and landscape of Scotland, and of those family photographs.

It is not that Matheson is a stranger to Gaelic song. Singing in Gaelic has been part of her work with Capercaille. The band offers songs in English and Gaelic as well as tunes in their recordings and concerts, have won awards for their work, and are credited with bringing the language to wider audiences with their work across the years.

One of those earlier songs:

Still, looking through the photographs, Matheson felt a deeper connection. “The hardships their people endured, the tales of poverty. the losses of war and emigration -- all the more poignant when able to connect a face to a name,” she writes.

The tracks on Urram sound a bit like the sort of narrative you’d find were you to sit in on a session at the kitchen table with a singer of Matheson’s gifts. It is not a spare album, though: her voice weaves in and out of arrangements which include guitar, bouzouki, fiddle, string quartet, harmonica, various sorts of percussion, flute, and African kora and Indian sarod. Most arrangements were made by Matheson and husband and musical partner Donald Shaw. They clearly know what they are about, telling the story of a song as much through instrument as through voice.

Wondering about the kora and the sarod? Both are melodic instruments which add color and texture to the project while fitting right in with what is going on with guitar, fiddle, bouzouki, keyborads, and flute. These African and Indian instruments are in the hands of masters too, Seckou Keita and Soumik Datta respectively. Those on the traditional instruments are top class as well. Among them are Donald Shaw, Matheu Watson, Innes White, Michael McGoldrick, and Signy Jacobsdottir.

The thirteen tracks of the album include waulking songs -- songs with the rhytms of work which may tells tales fantastical, amusing, or thoughtful -- a cradle song sung to Bonne Prince Charlie, a song about a dog, a call and response song of argument between two bardesses, a lullabye, a prayer, a song in praise of a boat, one celebrating the Hebridean island of Lewis, and a powerful and reflective love song. They come sourced from Matheson’s own memories, her research in the archives of the School of Scottish studies, and in one case, her work with Capercaille.

The sea is very present in these songs, honoring the seabound nature of the Western Isles and all of Scotland. There is a certain cultural crossroad inherent in water’s edge, too, and that comes to play especially on a song from Matheson’s work with Capercaillie which has lyrics by poet Catriona Montgomery set to music by Donald Shaw. It is framed as a prayer for all those who have been affected by famine, especially those in Africa. It resonates with the famine times in the past of other lands, as well, and stand in good Gaelic company with the other songs Matheson has chosen.

Choice on how the songs on an album are sequenced are part of the story an artist wishes to tell with a project. That plays out in both word and melody with Urram. Whether you know Scottish Gaelic or not, you will be well repaid by listening to the tracks as they are set out. If you’ve time for only one or two to begin with, though, A Bhirlinn Bharrach, a song in praise of a boat from Barra, and ‘Eilean Fraoich, about the isle of Lewis, are good gateways.

Karen Matheson - A Bhirlinn Bharrach; from Vertical Records on Vimeo.

Whether you listen to two songs or all thirteen, chances are you will be drawn back to listen again. Chances are you will also learn things about story, family, and home -- and Scotland. As Matheson writes in her notes “The title urram sums it up -- respect.”

Photographs from Karen Matheson’s concert at City Halls in Glasgow at Celtic Connections 2016, made with permission of the artist, the festival, and the venue. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Capercaillie: At the Heart of It All
History into song: Capercaillie: Glenfinnan
Scotland's music: Dunrobin Place from Matheu Watson

Another earlier song...

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celtic connections: seeing music

Celtic Connections, a celebration of music held in Glasgow, Scotland every January, is one of the world’s great music festivals. Artists from across the realm of Celtic connection come to share their music. One of the great things about such festivals is the chance to be present with the musicians and the music, to be part of that connection which occurs when music is shared in person.

At Celtic Connections, that connection is fostered in places ranging from the main concert hall -- which despite being, as you might think, a large place, still offers and air of welcome and intimacy -- to the church turned pub that is Oran Mor. From the down home feeling at the National Piping Centre to the elegance of City Halls, from the Old Fruitmarket -- which is actually that, it did used to be a fruit market -- to the classic and classy Georgian former church that is Saint Andrews in the Square and at many sites between, music finds its place in Glasgow in January.

Here is a bit of what that looked like this year.

American songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman, who has been spending time in Scotland working on her music lately, invited Scottish singer Julie Fowlis, on the left in this photograph, to join in with her for a song during opening night festivities

This year, as Celtic Connections was turning twenty one, the band Capercaillie was marking thirty years since high school friends Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson started the band off in Oban, and they were also celebrating the release of their album At the Heart of It All with a concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

You’ll most often find Nicola Benedetti and her violin sharing stage with orchestras and chamber musicians, but on this might the native Scot and home town favorite (she is from nearby Ayrshire) joined up with folk artists Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, Julie Fowlis and others for tunes and songs and stories from a project they’ve been working on which will be Benedetti’s next recording. It’s meant to be released this summer.

Karen Matheson and Michael McGoldrick of Capercaillie

Over at the National Piping Centre, Irishman Eamonn Coyne and Kris Drever, from Orkney, offered a warm, intimate set of tunes and songs and lively bits of banter too, featuring music from their latest collaboration, an album called Story Map

At the Old Fruitmarket, a creative joining of musical talents found Parween Khan as the opening act, with music from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland following on. Parween is from Rajahstan, where she is carrying on ancient tradition of song called maanda, which might sound a bit like sean nos to those familiar with that Celtic style.

The following act was Rant fiddles, four women whose energy and creativity speak of musical connections from the Highlands to the Black Isle to the Nordic influenced style of Shetland. That Highland flavour comes from Sarah-Jane Summers, who is pictured above. Julie Fowlis closed the evening, introducing her new album of songs in Scottish Gaelic, Every Story.

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

You may also wish to see
Collaborations: Music from the Heart
Celtic Connections 2014: reflections, part one

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music of love

Love is the substance of all music, when you stop to think about it. Songs of love gone wrong and gone right in all sorts of ways, love for land, home, country, family, children, friends, love of tradition and family that keeps the music going on, and music that may not speak directly of these things but is brought into being by them. As I write this it is a time of year when love is celebrated especially. Here’s music to go along with celebrating all these sorts of love.

Romantic love is the substance of Someone Like You, sung by award winning country, folk, and Americana artist Emmylou Harris. A few of my favorite lines are
I never wasted a minute of my time
Every road I ever took led me to your side

Robert Burns, Scotland’s bard, wrote of aspects of love from romantic to bawdy to friendship. John Anderson My Jo finds the poet considering love that lasts across the years. Fellow Scot Eddi Reader does a fine and thoughtful job with it

Love between parents and children is the subject of December Child from Gretchen Peters and Mo Níon Ó from Cathie Ryan

Celebration of the many gifts of friendship is what Carrie Newcomer considers in The Gathering of Spirits
there’s a gathering of spirits
there’s a festival of friends
and we’ll take up where we left off
when we all meet again

Sharing love for land and home place is well told in At the Heart of It All from Capercaillie.
At the heart of it all
Is a calling to this land...

At times, love is shown with no words at at all. Molly Mason’s composition The Snowstorm is music of that sort I especially commend to you.

Blessing is a deep form of love, and so I will draw this to a close by suggesting that you take a listen to Cathie Ryan’s choice of a song of blessing, May the Road Rise to Meet You

Each of these artists well knows how to write and to interpret all sorts of love songs, so I commend to you the albums on which this music appears, and their other works, as well. At this season of love, also, I wish you love, joy, and peace -- and great music..

Did you notice the heart in the photograph? I saw it in the reflection whilst at a gig at the Piping Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. This photograph is copyrighted, and I thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see
music and mystery
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain

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Scotland's music: Capercaillie: At the Heart of It All

Misty glens, brooding mountains, miles and miles of sea coast, the heart and hand of those who live by them: this is Scotland. The first notes of S’ Och A’ Dhomhnaill Oig Ghaolaich, the opening song on Capercaillie’s recording At The Heart Of It All, draw the listener in to this world for a journey through Scotland that doesn’t let go until long after the last note of the final piece, Lament for John :Garve’ MacLeod, of Raasay has sounded.

Capercaillie is an ensemble well qualified to create such music. Thirty years on from the time when friends at Oban High School decided to form a band, founding members Donald Shaw on keys and accordion, and singer Karen Matheson are still leading a group whose top notch musical creations, at times adventurous, at times traditional, and most times all of that, always hew close to the heart of Scotland’s landscape and its people.

In addition to that waulking song S’ Och A’ Dhomhnaill Oig Ghaolaich -- a song with the rhythms of work and landscape, with a love song set with in it -- which opens At The Heart Of It All the programme includes The Strathspey Set, with traditional tunes from the Western Isles wrapping a piece by Capercaille fiddle player Charlie McKerron. Rhythms of jig, reel, march, and strathspey, both from the tradition and recently composed, form sets which weave to and from the fabric of song. One of those songs that’s especially worth your notice is Abu Chuibhl’, a spinning song from Lewis in the Western Isle. You’ll catch the rhythm of work, of life, of landscape, and of history within it, whether Scottish Gaelic is your language or not.

At the heart of it all, in more ways than one, stands the title song of the recording It is the only song in English, a piece which both celebrates nature, history, and connection and asks good questions about the present and future of these things. Donald Shaw wrote the song. Framed in the graceful sounds of her band mates instruments, Matheson sings in the chorus

At the heart of it all is is a calling to this land
In the words of our salvation is a song for the common man

Across their three decades of work, Capercaillie have explored and expanded the nature of the traditional music of Scotland at home and across the world. In their thirtieth year, they wanted to record music which focused on the tradition and the vibrant place it has in the world today -- which they could have done all on their own, with band members Shaw and Matheson, Michael McGoldrick who plays whistles and flutes, Charlie McKerron on fiddle, Manus Lunny on bouzouki and guitar, and Ewan Vernal with double bass. If you have walked the music road here for a while, those names will be well familiar to you.

As accomplished as they are separately and together, they decided to add to this recording a way to respect tradition they hadn’t done on record before. “We didn’t want Capercaillie’s thirtieth anniversary to be all about us and our record, but more about celebrating how Scottish and Gaelic music as a whole has expanded and progressed in that time with so many younger musicians' coming though,” says Donald Shaw. To that end they invited guests including Kris Drever, Kathleen MacInnes, Julie Fowlis, Aidan O’Rourke, and James Mackintosh to sit in.

At the heart of it all, though, remains the stellar musicianship, and the stellar musical imagination, vision, and understanding of the heart and life od Scotland that have marked Capercaillie’s music across the years. If you know their work, you’ll know you need to to hear this; if you’re just beginning to think about the music of Scotland, At The Heart Of It All would make a very fine place to begin.

photograph of fireside by Kerry Dexter, photograph of Capercaillie courtesy of Celtic Connections, where Capercaillie will be celebrating with a thirtieth anniversary concert in Glasgow this January

you may also wish to see
history into song: capercaillie: glenfinnan
Michael McGoldrick: Aurora
Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition

by Kerry Dexter

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History into song: Capercaillie: Glenfinnan

Putting history into song is a long tradition. It makes sense that they should intertwine: both hold the capability for vivid storytelling, and of connecting people across time, space, and country.

The Scotland based band Capercaillie is known for connecting the music of Scotland with that of other countries and continents. For the film Glenfinnan, though, they focused on the stories surrounding a major event in the history of Scotland: the raising of the standard by Highlanders who would follow Charles Edward Stuart -- Bonnie Prince Charlie -- into battle in attempt to restore the house of Stuart to the monarchy. The first raising of the standard took place at Glenfinnan, in 1745. The program, from which this video was taken, was shot there.



It’s also instructive in the making of visual statements with music. Sure, it took some production values to get the fire and the flames and the night lighting and the stage on the water, but compared to many music videos common today, this one is quite straightforward, and lets the visual aspect enhance the music rather than compete with it. It was made in 1995, and still holds impact.



I was fortunate to see the whole film during a Gaelic Film Festival which was part of Celtic Connections several years back, and the whole thing is equally powerful. As far as I can tell, the film isn’t available. The music Capercaillie made for it is, though, and it is certainly powerful enough for you to create your own images while listening.
Glenfinnan: Songs of the 45

you may also wish to see
Capercaillie: Roses & Tears
Scott-Land at Celtic Connections
Celtic Connections 2012: the music begins

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Capercaillie: Roses & Tears

The eight musicians who make up the band Capercaillie come originally from the Atlantic fringes of Ireland and Scotland, and it’s to the music of those places that they’ve returned to source the ideas for the album Roses and Tears.. It is not an album of traditional music. exactly. Nothing Capercaille does ever is quite that. It is, however, adventurous, creative, and well in the spirit of traditional music as connection, celebration, and telling memorable stories.

The first track, Him Bo, is a groove based song which finds Karen Matheson singing in Scots Gaelic. It’s the sort of song that draws you right into the music, whether or not you understand Scots Gaelic or have even heard it before. Matheson has; she’s from a Gaelic speaking area of Argyllshire in the southwest of Scotland. She’s won recognition and awards for her Gaelic singing, and she sings in English as well. Her skill there is in evidence on several cuts on Roses & Tears, including the haunting Soldier Boy, composed Donald Shaw. Shaw is a keyboard and accordion player as well as composer, and it one of the most prolific and widely respected of Scottish musicians, having worked on projects with more than fifty artists, composed music for several films, and in 2008, helming the artistic side of Celtic Connections, one of the largest Celtic music festivals in the world.

The heart of it all for Shaw is still writing and playing music. He too is from Argyllshire, and founded Capercaillie more than twenty years ago while at high school in Oban. Several of the instrumental sets on Roses & Tears pair Shaw’s original work with traditional music. The members of Capercaillie went looking for traditional music that’s rarely been played ot recorded to challenge themselves of this project and they came up with some gems, many from the archives of the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh. These include An Turas an Anraidh/The Stormy Voyage, which is paired in a set with an original tune from flute player Michael McGoldrick. McGoldrick is from Manchester, the son of Irish parents . By the age of fifteen he had had already won several prestigious All Ireland championships, and he’s played with the rock band Toss the Feathers, Brit folk artist Kate Rusby, Irish trad music powerhouse band Lunasa and the non trad powerhouse Afro Celt Sound System.

One aspect of Capercaillie that underpins all the music on Roses & Tears is that it really is a band, with the musicians collaborating and connecting to offer an engaging and clear vision of music that’s rooted in tradition and extends the traditional elements of song and story into the twenty first century. David Robertson on percussion, Che Beresford on drums, and Ewan Vernal; on bass, have m musical resumes that include folk, rock, jazz, and world music. Fiddler Charlie McKerron is steeped in traditional music and has worked with other modern day musical adventurers including Aidan O’Rourke and the Finlay MacDonald Band. Manus Lunny, on guitar, bouzouki, and vocals, is a respected composer who hails from Donegal in Ireland's northwest and has worked with The Wild Geese, Phil Cunningham, and others.

What comes through clearly here: the musicians and really passionate and engaged in what they do; they have a fresh vision for sharing an extending Celtic tradition, and they are just plain fun to listen to. The album itself is a fine balance of the fast paced and quiet, the upbeat and reflective. Outstanding tracks include that opener, Him Bo, a set which includes a clapping song from the isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides and a tune called My New Silk Gown; a haunting cover of John Martyn’s powerful ballad Don’t You Go, and the reflective closer Loedhasach an tir chein/ Lewisman in a Foreign Country.

you may also wish to see
The Highland Sessions: Mo Ghile Mear
Julie Fowlis:Uam
Celtic Connections coming up

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Music for St Andrew's Day: music of Scotland

Saint Andrew’s Day, November 30th, is a holiday that’s close to home for every Scot, at home and abroad, and even more so in this year of Homecoming Scotland. There are concerts, light shows, and celebrations of all sorts, and a general throwing wide the doors to the winter holidays. From the northern isles to the western ones, from Lerwick to Galloway and Oban to Aberdeen, it’s a time of festivity. If you’d like music to go along -- or perhaps delight the Scots on your Christmas list -- here are several ideas.

Capercaillie Roses and Tears

Capercaille is one of the best loved and indeed most musically adventurous of Scottish bands. They've taken their musical tastes all across the world, For this recording, though, they bring things back home, focusing on music in English and Scots Gaelic that holds close to the Atlantic fringe where most of the band members grew up. Outstanding instrumental tracks from the band and fine vocals from Karen Matheson show the group in top form. Notable cuts include the Gaelic groove of Him Bo and the anti war song Don’t You Go.

Lauren MacColl Strewn With Ribbons

Fiddler Lauren MacColl has a sure touch and a distinctive tone, and she’s a flair for graceful composition and song selection, as well. Here she draws from music collected and composed by four musicians from her native Ross-shire area, mixed with her own pieces. It’s a fine work in which you can almost hear the voices of the hills. Barry Reid on guitar and Mhairi Hall on piano, who usually work with MacColl in concert, add to the music with their creative support for MacColl’s fiddle lines.

Eddi Reader Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns

Indeed she does. Reader has said that she wanted to present Burns conversationally, as things might be if you happened into a pub in his times. She has done that, and offers the songs in such a way that they are conversational to today as well. There’s one non Burns song, Wild Mountainside by John Douglas, which is a real standout its own. There’s an extended version of the recording with tracks collected from other projects, which is worth seeking out, but the original release stands fine on its own as well.

Julie Fowlis, Eamon Doorley, Ross Martin, and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
Dual

Astute readers will note that this appears on my suggestions for Irish music for your holiday gift list, as well. That’s because it’s an exploration of the connections and intersections of songs in irish and Scots Gaelic. It’s a very fine project, one you’ll be well able to enjoy whether you understand a word of either language ot not.
more about that here

Jim Malcolm First Cold Day

Not for nothing has Perthshire native Jim Malcolm been given top honors in Scotland as both singer and songwriter. He’s also a fine song picker too, as for example with the first track on the collection, The Valley of Strathmore, a reflective, haunting ballad of regret by Andy M Stewart. The original An Hour in the Gloaming is a tribute to Robert Burns and to the joys of fishing that you have to be neither a fisherperson nor a poet to enjoy. Down in Alabam is a funny take on some of the food Malcolm has encountered on his travels in the southern United States, while Schiehallion grew out of a project he did with Perthshire School children.

You may also wish to see

Emily Smith: Too Long Away

season of change: music for autumn

malinky: flower & iron

Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns

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