Fiddle Players: 3 to discover +bonus ideas

Fast paced dance tunes, quiet slow airs, thoughtful backing of singers, classical orchestras and string quartets, bluegrass bands and ceilidh bands: fiddle players show up in all these, other places too. Whatever your choice of style, spring and summer make especially good times to hear the fiddle. Many festivals are underway or upcoming.

In mid May each year World Fiddle Day is on the calendar, too, to remind about exploring the creativity to be found in the work of fiddlers. And violinists. It's the same instrument,

Ideas to get you started on that exploring, some players you may know and some artists who may be new to you.

Alasdair Fraser, from Scotland, began his career as a scientist. That career took him to California. One day, as he found himself writing out a fiddle tune when he was meant to be focusing on his science work, he realized what he really wanted was to play the fiddle, compose tunes, and share with others his joy in music.

These days, Alasdair does all those things, through a range of musical experiences and partnerships, and as founder and instructor at several top class fiddle camps..

One of his musical partnerships is with cellist Natalie Haas. They've appeared all over the world, and though they've recently announced that they will be working on individual projects going forward, they've made many fine albums still to be enjoyed.

There's a bit more to the the ongoing fiddle story for each of them too: Alasdair's son, Galen, plays in the duo San Miguel Fraser with his wife Maria San Miguel,. Natalie's sister, Brittany Haas, is part of the band Hawktail, and plays with other bluegrass and Americana groups and artists including the Punch Brothers, Crooked Still, and Carrie Newcomer.

Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh grew up in and Irish speaking area of Donegal in Ireland's northwest. Mairead learned fiddle early, and trained as a teacher, thinking that she and her husband, flute player Frankie Kennedy, would teach through the school years and in summers follow their love of playing music.

Call of music proved too strong though -- and also, they were really good at it.

Mairead on fiddle (she is a singer and composer too) and Frankie on flute formed the band Altan with several friends.

Band members came and went, Frankie took ill and passed on at a young age. Mairead, though, is still one of Ireland's top fiddle players and composers, leading the band Altan in sharing Donegal music across the world, and working on other projects, including String Sisters, T with the Maggies, and teaching lessons over the internet. Mairead's daughter Nia Byrne, herself a fine fiddle player, sometimes plays with Altan. >Hanneke Cassel is based in Massachusetts in the US. Her music is grounded in the sounds of Scotland (she's studied and taught there) and Cape Breton, with now and then hints of her US background and of other places she's traveled as well.

There are so many great fiddlers, from Ireland, Scotland, Cape Breton, the US who work in Celtic styles. If this sort of music is new to you, the work of the artists named above is a great place to started exploring. You will find more in the archives here, and I'll have more to share in future too

You might also enjoy learning about these players
John McCusker: Best of
Nicola Benedetti: Homecoming
Cape Breton Music: essentials for exploring

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Scotland's music: John McCusker --The Best Of

John McCusker: perhaps you’ve seen him play his fiddle on stage backing up folk singer songwriter Eddi Reader or rocker Mark Knopfler.

Could be if you follow Scotland’s music, you may recall his longtime stint as a member of the Battlefield Band as is career began, or his continuing presence as part of the ’hoose band’ backing musicians at Transatlantic Sessions at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow and on the road.

McCusker is in demand as a producer and composer as well. He’s worked with Roddy Woomble, Eddo Reader, Heidie Talbot, Cathie Ryan, and others as producer and composed music for soundtracks for Heartlands and for Billy Connolly’s Tour of New Zealand, among other projects.

John has composed tunes for his own recordings as well. Among those recordings are Goodnight Ginger and Hello Goodbye.

Thinking about all these experiences and aspects of his work went into John’s thinking as he chose tracks for the recording John McCusker -- The Best Of.

It’s an interesting journey. There are tunes and songs, four newly composed pieces along with well known favorites and lesser known pieces, all sorts of collaborations alongside solo work.

There’s a lot to listen to and take in, to be sure. If you do not know John’s work, taking the tracks as he’s set them out will serve you well. Seeking out pieces which included your favorite guest artists is also a worth while way to begin.

That said, I’ll point out the sets Brian’s Jigs and Sadenia’s Air/Baron’s Air (Eddo Reader guests on that) as two varied ways to enjoy waht John does. ‘s Tusa Thilleas with Julie Fowlis is another to look out for, as is The Wishing Tree Set from the trio of McGoldrick, McCusker, Doyle. Listen out for the solo track Leaving Friday harbour, too.

There’s a lot more to explore of John McCusker’s work on this recording and in his other work.

I was fortunate to attend the release cocnert for this recording in Glasgow. It both was amd was not as expected. Was: a lot of great music, many guest musicians who appeared on the recording joined in. Was not: didn’t follow the list of tunes that appeared on the album at all -- which you’d rather expect of John anyway, in truth.

Some pieces from the recording, to be sure, but favostures from the guests. John persuaded Eddi Reader to sing her classic hit Perfect, for instance, with everybody on stage at City Halls and most in audience joining in.

It turned out to be a fine celebration of music, creativity, talent, and friendship.

You could say that of the album John McCusker: The Best Of-- as well.

You may also like to know that there’s a book called John McCusker: The Collection which includes 100 of John’s tunes.

Photographs by Kerry Dexter. made with permission of the artist and the venue. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also enjoy

A story about a song from Eddi Reader
Another fiddle player to know
More music from Scotland to explore

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Scotland's music: Haar from Lauren MacColl

Haar. In the northeast of Scotland that is the name for a mist that often comes in across the coast. It lends a feeling of uncertainty as one walks about and tries to find one’s way.

Musician Lauren MacColl had some of the grimmer aspects of what haar can suggest on her mind as she began writing music for an album, and working on music commissioned for Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters., MacColl’s instrument is the fiddle.

She found her way through the fog, though, to peace and hope.

“This music was written during a year of huge personal loss, when it often felt that the haar had engulfed me and those closest to me,” she said.

“Working on this album has been a solace,” MacColl continued, “and at the heart of it is a strong pull towards the coast both its fragility and its strength. Haar --- tor me-- is a reminder that that after the mist always comes the light.”

That idea appears that more than once in the music MacColl has composed and has chosen for the album she named Haar.

Most of is inspired by landscapes, seascapes, and stories of the place she calls home, the Black Isle in the northeast Highlands of Scotland.

The Black Isle is not an island, though it has a good bit of coast as it is a peninsula bounded by the Cromarty Firth, the Beauly Firth, and the Moray Firth. It lies just a bit north of Inverness. People have been coming to settle there, to work the waters and the land, since the time of the Picts and before.

Several of the tunes Lauren MacColl offers on Haar were inspired by histories of shipwrecks and lives lost at sea, and the effect these had on the communities left behind. In these tunes, MacColl has a gift for evoking hardship, change, and resilience through the music of her fiddle.

There are happier stories in the journey on which she tales her listeners as well.

One such is the set which pairs the tunes The Lost Bell and Women of the Shore. The fast paced opening tune is inspired by the true story of two bells cast in Holland for churches on the Black Isle back in 1624. They both almost made but...one lies beneath the waters to this day. That, Lauren decided, warranted a lively tune.

She pairs it with a tune of history and resilience honoring the women who had such a large part of in the lives of fishing communities in the Black Isle and all along Scotland’s coasts and waters.

Another story of resilience is honored and illuminated in the tune Culbin. The town of Culbin, east of Nairn, was overcome by a great sandstorm in 1694. Residents fled and did not return.

About a hundred years ago, Scotland’s Forestry Commission began planting trees, and now, as Lauren writes in her sleeve notes

”Culbin is a thriving home to nature.It is an ever changing place where shifting sands continue to remind us of the power of our coasts. A place full of dragonflies and singing seals.”

That love of and respect for nature, and a view of changing life along the coast both cleared eye and poetic come through clearly in Lauren’s work. Whether she is writing a tune inspired by the northern lights, or changes in spring weather, or a memory of how her grandmother’s love for the area her family calls home inspires her own love of the place and her work to share its stories through her music, without speaking a word Lauren evokes history. community, and landscape.

It is MacColl’s clear storytelling with her fiddle that anchors and informs the music on Haar.

She has gathered a group of musical friends to come along with her on the journey too, several of them with their own ties to the area. You will hear Rachel Newton on harp and spoken word, James Lindsay on bass, Alice Allen on cello, Jennifer Austin on piano, Anna Massie on acoustic and nylon guitars, and Mairearad Green on accordion.

You may also wish to see

Lauren MacColl has other projects on the go. Among them: she is a member of the bands RANT and Salt House, and the duo Heal and Harrow with Rachel Newton.
Rachel Newton is also part of the Spell Songs project
James LIndsay is a member of the top band Breabach
The title track of Haar is part of this story, in the Music for Shifting Times series at Wandering Educators

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Lossan: Ruth Keggin & Rachel Hair explore music from the Isle of Man

Lossan: that’s a word in Manx Gaelic that means shimmer, flicker, particles of light in darkness such as you might glimpse when looking at light reflecting on water at night.

It is also the title that Ruth Keggin and Rachel Hair have chosen for their duo album.

“It felt very fitting to title the album this way,” Ruth said. “The word also has connections to sea and sky and it’s these things that connect us both and are so important to our homelands.”

Ruth is a singer, native to the Isle of Man, and an artist who has played a part in the resurgence of interest in the Manx Gaelic language in recent times.

Rachel Hair’s instrument is the harp. She is from Scotland, currently based in Glasgow. Her music has taken her as far afield as Japan, the United States, and Australia. She’s been visiting the Isle of Man for a number of years to teach and play.

Ruth and Rachel met more than a decade ago at an after hours session one night on Man. Off and on since then, they have been playing together, including a gig at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival.

“For years now I have been inspired by the culture on the Isle of Man and its music, song, and language,” Rachel said. “I’m so grateful to those involved in the cultural scene on the island for welcoming me.”

Ruth’s and Rachel’s collaboration on Lossan adds to the creativity of Manx music in both song and melody -- and there are a few tunes from Scotland and Ireland in their set list as well, tunes which help illuminate connections among Celtic traditions, and the work of those who bring those traditions forward.

The whole of Lossan is well worth repeated listenings; indeed the balance of intricacy and simplicity that marks the duo’s arrangements and choices of music readily invites that.

That said, tracks to listen out for especially include

Graih Foalsey is a traditional song from the Isle of Man about about a lover who has proved false to her man. If you know other Celtic tales of false lovers you might hear hints of those in word and melody both. In this tale, though man knows of the circumstance, he remains hopeful. That likely explains why the song is reflective in tone rather than angry or sad It’s a piece Ruth and Rachel each enjoy performing when they are working on their own, so it made a natural choice to include in this duo project.

For the Tri Nation Harp Jigs Set, Rachel features on her own with a set that moves from a traditional Scottish tune to a Manx one to one from Ireland; Ruth similarly has a track on her own with an a capella take on the traditional Manx song Arrane Saveenagh, a song which has similar lyrics in the same vein as Rock-a-bye Baby.

You might at this point be wondering a bit about Manx Gaelic and Manx music and where they come from. They’re Celtic: if you have Scottish Gaelic or Irish a few words might catch your ear .

The Isle of Man lies in the Irish Sea, about halfway between Ireland and Scotland. Through history it has had connections and influences to the cultures of both countries, and to the Nordic lands also, as it made a good way station for traveling Vikings.

The Isle of Man has remained its own country, though, and being an island a bit out on the sea, has developed its own languages and culture from all those elements.

Another set to listen out for on Lossan is Eubonia Soilshagh, which comprises a lively collection of drinking songs, several with trad Manx lyrics set to contemporary melodies by Manx musician Annir Kissack. This is also a track on which guests join the duo: Adam Brown on bodhran, Adam Rhodes on bouzouki, and Isla Callister on fiddle.

The whole of Lossan offers a way to explore an aspect of Celtic music and Gaelic song that’s perhaps lesser known than others.

It also offers a master class in how singer and instrumentalist can work together to explore song and melody.

All that comes together especially in another track: Arrane Oie Vie, also known as the Good Night Song. It too is a traditional Manx song, one which is often used to end an evening of music.

Ruth Keggin and Rachel Hair have chosen this song to draw their duo album Lossan to a close, as well.

There’s much more to enjoy on Lossan. Take time with what Ruth Keggin and Rachel hair have created; you will be well rewarded.

Ruth and Rachel each have other albums in release, which you may find out about at their respective websites.
For English language lyrics of the songs on Lossan, go to the media tab of Ruth’s website.

Photographs of Ruth and Rachel by Amore du Plessis Photography

You may also wish to see:
A Celtic autumn celebration on the Isle of Man
Alterum from Julie Fowlis, with songs in Scottish Gaelic
Thar Toinn from Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh with songs in Irish

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Scotland's Music: Bruce MacGregor: The Road to Tyranny

Highland landscape, history, story, family, friendship -- those are things on which Bruce MacGregor draws for the tunes he has composed for his album The Road to Tyranny. A touch of politics, too, as the title would suggest.

You may know MacGregor as founder and driving force of the top band Blazin’ Fiddles, as presenter of BBC Scotland’s Travelling Folk, as book author, as partner in MacGregor’s Bar in Inverness, as co-host of the ongoing online sessions Live at Five, and from other projects.

All that goes to explain why it has taken a while for MacGregor to get around to making his second solo album. Twenty years, in fact.

That may also explain why the first track on The Road to Tyranny is anchored in family. The tunes are called Josh’s 2 Secs/ Jo De Sylva --a force of nature/ Short and Simple/Roddy MacGregor. It’s a lively set which references MacGregor’s son Josh, his wife Jo, a joking comment from a friend about the fiddler himself, and his son Roddy’s football career.

The lively tunes allow MacGregor to show off his skill and love for the fast paced aspects of fiddle music, and to bring in equally lively contributions from musical friends who will join in elsewhere on the album as well. Anna Massie and Angus Lyon, who are also part of Blazin’ Fiddles, bring in guitar and keyboards, respectively. Duncan Lyall and Ian Sandilands hold down the rhythm section with double bass and percussion, and Ali Levack adds his whistle to the mix.

As much as MacGregor can write blazing and engaging fast pieces, he well knows how to create moving airs and waltzes as well. One such piece of music is called Essich. It is inspired, MacGregor says, by the beauty fo the area in the Highlands near Inverness where he was brought up. Another Blazin’ Fiddler, Jenna Reid, wrote the string parts, which she performs along with renown cellist Su-a Lee, with Lyon, Sandilands, and Lyall returning for the piece as well.

There’s a fine variation between faster and slower pieces through the recording. Co-producers Massie and Lyon no doubt had a hand in that sequencing.

Annie’s Waltz, written to help a fan mark her 80th birthday, is also on the album. MacGregor along with Anna Massie and Jenna Reid, play the tune at Celtic Connections. On The Road to Tyranny, Tim Edy takes the guitar part.

“The tunes have been inspired by the people, the places, and the adventures I’ve been lucky enough to experience over the years,” MacGregor says. “There’s airs, jigs, strathspeys, reels, and marches as you’d expect, but then there’s other tunes...which don’t really fit into any of the usual categories -- they’re just catchy tunes.”

That ability to hear, understand, compose, and play catchy tunes of many sorts was honed as MacGregor was growing up by study with the late Highland fiddle master player and maker Donald Riddell. MacGrgegor’s time touring, travelling, and teaching across the world with Blazin’ Fiddles and researching the varied music he presents on radio have likely played a part in those abilities as well.

On the fourteen track album one of those catchy tunes is Doddie’s Dream. It is dedicated to former Scottish rugby champion Doddie Weir, who is living with motor neurone disease, for which there is as yet no cure. The tune was recorded by Blazin’ Fiddles along with Aly Bain, Nicola Benedetti, Phil Cunningham, Sharon Shannon, and Julie Fowlis joining in for a track that was released to raise money for MND research. It raised thousands of pounds while rising to number nine rank in the UK charts. On this recording, It appears as a paired back version with just fiddle and piano, a quiet piece that evokes the beauty of the Highlands.

There are other gems to enjoy on the fourteen track album. as MacGregor and his musical companions lead what one might think of as a journey through those Highlands, from fast paced ceilidh to quiet star filled night, from jig to strathspey to waltz to air. Tom Gibbs adds clarinet on two tracks. Tim Edey brings in both box and guitar in several places, and the players named above each return to add their gifts to more tunes along the way.

It is Bruce McGregor’s presence and creativity as composer and as player which anchor the recording. As both of those, and as collaborator with gifted musical friends , he has created a project to remember and to enjoy with repeated listenings.

Photograph of moor;and above Essich by Jennifer Jones; photography of Bruce MacGregor courtey of the artist; photograph of Blazin' Fiddles at Celtic Connections by Kerry Dexter, made with permission

You may also wish to see
Bruce MacGregor website
Blazin’ Fiddles website
Learn about an album from another Scottish fiddle player and composer who also studied with Donald Riddell Solo from Sarah-Jane Summers
More fiddle music to explore: Now More Than Ever from the Katie McNally Trio,

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Now More Than Ever: The Katie McNally Trio

Playing traditional music -- whatever the tradition -- requires choices.

How much do you stay with what’s been handed down and taught? How do you bring your own ideas into the music you create?

Those are among the questions the musicians of The Katie McNally Trio navigate on their second album, Now More Than Ever. The core traditions in which they work are the musics of Scotland and Cape Breton.

The trio comprises McNally herself on fiddle, Neil Pearlman on piano, and Shauncey Ali on viola. McNally and Pearlman come from New England; Ali is based in Wisconsin..

They have each loved and learned and studied and played many aspects of Scottish traditional music, and spent time in Scotland as well as in that Celtic Heart of North America, Cape Breton in Nova Scotia.

Just from their geographies you may imagine that they bring distinct approaches to the music. Add in experiences including Latin jazz, Galician music, and bluegrass to name a few, and you’ll expect they have a wide range of musical choices when the three get together to play.

Scottish tradition is at the heart of what they do, though . A lively and creative heart it is.

The nine tracks on the album range from lively sets to quiet reflective tunes. There’s a good helping of originals from each member of the trio, as well as music from the tradition and pieces from contemporary traditional composers.

It’s a well sequenced project, with music rising and falling and taking turns and twists much as a conversation between friends does.

That is another thing at the heart of Now More Than Ever: musical connection, friendship and respect intertwined.

You will hear that in the fast flying interplay between McNally’s fiddle and Pearlman’s piano with dimension added by Ali’s viola on the opening set of the album, which comprises Fletch Taylor/Marcel Aucoin’s/Matthew Robinson’s, tunes composed by New England musician Flynn Cohen, the late Cape Breton master fiddler Jerry Holland, and Pearlman himself respectively.

It is well worth allowing the stories the tracks offer to unfold as the artists and producer Anna Massie have arranged them, as every track is a keeper. Two favorites I’ll point to, though:

John and Maurizio’s Wedding March, which McNally composed for her Uncle John and his husband Maurizio after they got married in Italy. The tune is paired here with Dr. MacInnes’s Fancy by Pipe Major Donald MacLeod. It’d be easy to imagine couple having a stately walk/march down the aisle. following on with they and their guest doing some some lively stepping to the pipe major’s tune. McNally, Pearlman, and Ali sound as they are having a fine time playing both tunes, too.

The Acadia March set finds the trio in a reflective mood. The title track of the set, by McNally, came abut when she and Pearlman went hiking in the namesake national park in Maine. As it happened Neil had locked his keys in the car. While they waited for assistance, Katie wrote this tune to pass the time. They pair it with Neil’s Brunch Tune. Both allow the trio to show the graceful and quiet side of their playing.

“Now More Than Ever is very much a story of where we all come from and yet how far we’ve come,” McNally reflects.

The project was recorded in Scotland. There are no guests on the album, but the trio enlisted Anna Massie, whose work you will know from Blazin’ Fiddles and RANT, to produce. It was recorded by Angus Lyon (you will know him from Blazin’ Fiddles too) mixed by Iain Hutchinson, and mastered by Stuart Hamilton.

All that came about as travel restrictions came into effect, and that has also meant limitations on live performance. McNally reflects “With this album, we have grown in confidence to fully be ourselves, musically speaking.  

“The title of the album also reflects a communal feeling among us that we need to continue to collaborate with each other, make music and embark on projects that nourish us. As a band, and as members of the wider cultural community, we need to share our music and cultivate our artform in as many ways as possible during these difficult times.”

Times may indeed continue to be difficult. The recording Now More Than Ever from the Katie McNally Trio is bound to bring hints of joy, reflection, and connection into the times, though, much like a thoughtful conversation with good friends.

You may also wish to see
Katie McNally’s website
The Katie McNally Trio’s debut album The Boston States
Katie McNally’s album Flourish
Learn about Neil Pearlman’s duo album with Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson Burden Lake
Neil Pearlman’s album Coffee and the Mojo Hat
An album from Hanneke Cassel with whom Katie McNally studied (and whose music you have met often here along the Music Road) For Reasons Unseen
Learn about Farsan, another band of which Katie McNally and Neil Pearlman are part

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Scotland's Music: Ross and Ryan Couper

Ross and Ryan Couper grew up in Shetland off the north coast of Scotland, a place with distinct ways of life, music traditions, connections to history, and to the sea.

Theirs was and is a musical family. Ross chose the fiddle as his main instrument, while Ryan went for guitar. Ross follows music full time as a member of the Peatbog Fairies and in a duo with Tom Oakes, while Ryan works in his playing in the band Vair and other gigs around other career commitments.

The brothers had long had the idea of making an album together, but they never could quite work out the time. Then, when the pandemic came, they decided to make use scheduel chnages which opened up.

The result is their album And Den Dey Made Tae.

It’s a fine gathering of original tunes, traditional ones, contemporary music from traditional artists, and a cover of a Billy Joel tune that the brothers love playing together added in for good measure.

It’s evident that they really love playing all these tunes together, in fact. They recorded the album sitting in a room together and playing the programme from start to finish, not unlike, one might imagine, they’ve done in their homes in the past.

The music itself, and Ross and Ryan’s playing of it, resonates with family, friendship, landscape, and creativity.

The set Called The Dance, for example, includes a tune commissioned for a wedding paired with a reel written by the duo’s mother Margaret Robertson, a music educator well known in Shetland and beyond.

There is a set of waltzes which sees a tune by friend and well known Shetland fiddler and composer Chris Stout paired with a piece Ross wrote for the brothers’ nephew.

The tune Sandy Lell Stephen Couper, which manages to be both gentle a lively at the same time, was written by Ryan for his son.

Da Sixty Fathom Reel, a tune by Alex Couper, the brothers’ dad, is part of The Lucky Child set. The brothers frame it with a reel Ross notes as “one of his favourite reels of all time” The Cape Breton Fiddler’s Welcome to Shetland fromm Willie Hunter.

As much as they draw inspiration from family ties, Ross and Ryan learn from others as well. The set Marie Claire’s has “tunes from all over” they say, all over in this case being pieces composed by Jerry Holland, Willie Hunter, and Tommy Peoples. The Falling with Style set includes tunes from other places as well as it begins with a traditional Shetland tune, then moves to tunes by Ireland’s Brian Finnegan and Manchester based Michael McGoldrick.

Ross and Ryan are, as you might expect from Shetland musicians, adept at fast flying tunes. You’ll hear that in many fo the aforementioned sets, as well as in Cara’s Reel, which Ross wrote for his girlfriend Cara Sandison.

The brothers can slow things down gracefully, tool. Ryan’s piece for his daughter Jessi is one place to hear that. So is their take on that Billy Joel tune, And So It Goes.

To bring things to a close, Ross and Ryan invited their sister, Mariann Couper Allan, to join in on piano. Da Foula Reel set comprises tunes their mother learnt from her father, and opens with a bit of archive recording of his playing. These are also the tunes Ross and Ryan played as Mariann came down the aisle at her wedding.

A family circle indeed; top class, creative playing, excellent selection of tunes, original music and arrangement along with respect for tradition, and musicians who clearly love creating music together.

...and, as is said and done often in Shetland, And Den Dey Made Tae, And Den Dey Made Tae. Fix yourself some, and enjoy Ross and Ryan Couper’s music.

You may also wish to see
String Sisters Live
Travels in music: Alasdair Fraser, Natalie Haas, Hanneke Cassel
Katie McNally Trio: The Boston States
Exploring Ireland through fiddle, flute, and guitar, at Perceptive Travel

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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: The Woods from Hamish Napier

When you walk in a wood, what do you see? Weathered bark and new green sprouts, tall trunks and saplings, mosses, lichens, green leaves, red ones, brown ones, ones which have turned to gold, flowers, evergreen branches, yellow gorse, purple heather...

What do you hear? Bird song, the rustle of a deer as it moves through the wood, the dart of a squirrel, the voices of the waters, your own footsteps over rock and soil and leaf.

Perhaps you sense a whisper of stories of those who have walked this way before you, as well.

Hamish Napier has heard all these things, and more.

The woods he has in mind, and in experience, are those in the Cairngorms in Scotland’s Highlands.

The ideas, and the place, became resources he’d draw on the create the music for his album The Woods. Napier was commissioned to create The Woods by Cairngorms Connect, which is a joint project of RSPB Scotland, Wildland Limited, Scottish Natural Heritage, and Forestry & Land Scotland.

Through the album, Napier and his musical friends offer a journey that draws on music of Scotland’s traditions and ideas from nature, history, and language to create new stories and honour older ones.

Just as you experience light and shadow, close up views and wide ones, intricate tracery of fern and flower and boldness of high soaring tree trunks when you are in a forest, so to Napier and his musical friends reveal and share aspects of many aspects of woodlands on their journey

It used to be that children in Scotland were taught the Gaelic alphabet through learning names of trees. That comes into play as Napier chooses names for many of his tunes and draws inspiration for their creation, from different sorts of trees and the roles they play in the forest. Other aspects of woodland landscape, creatures and stories appear from time ot time as well.

Of the opening track, The Pioneer, which is tied to beith, the letter b, Napier writes “A Slow air for the beautiful birch. B is the first letter of the Early Medieval alphabet (the Ogham) which is very apt as it was one of the pioneering species to spread across the barren post ice age landscape 10 millennia ago...”

He goes on to talk of birch across the seasons, and of the uses to which it was put by Highlanders of old. You do not, of course need to know any of this to appreciate the beauty of the tune. It does give context to inspiration, creation, and connection, however. On The Pioneer, Napier plays bamboo flute and piano. He is joined by Steve Byrnes on guitar and drums, Innes Watson on fiddle and strings, Jarlath Henderson on uilleann pipes, James Lindsay on double bass, Su-a Lee on cello, and there are vocals, so to speak, from natural sounds of woodpecker, chaffinches, and swifts.

The Woods is an album that invites and rewards listening all the way through as the musicians have presented it. Much like a wander in physical woods, though, you can follow markd paths or go along other ways.

That said, several tracks I’d point out to you:

The Capercaille Rant/An Taghan is a fast paced celebration and evocation of the at times dramatic and in Napier’s words, otherworldly bird of the woods. “The giant grouse fly through the Scots pinewood with all the grace of a cannonball,” Napier writes. In nature the capercaillie’s rival is the pine martin, an taghan, “one of Scotland’s most beautiful and beloved predators.”

On The Tree of Blessings, you will hear Napier’s solo piano as he plays in tribute to the juniper. The Tree of Life/The Tree of Lightning is a a majestic and complex tune for the dair, the darach, the mighty oak. Though these days oak are more abundant in the west of Scotland than in the Cairngorms, there is archeological evidence that they were important centuries ago. Individual oak tress may in fact live for centuries. Druids and others considered the oak to be a doorway between worlds, too. More than enough from which to be drawing ideas for a tune...

Forest Folk is a tune at once lively and gentle, with a melody you’ll quickly catch on to. It is inspired by the flowers of the forest, and dedicated to those who go for a wander in the woods. “Find a big tree, lie at the foot of the trunk, and gaze up at the clouds drifting high above the branches,” Napier writes in the sleeve notes booklet, which you may gather from these excerpts I’ve ben sharing it is quite extensive and well worth repeated reading. The booklet also includes outstanding art work by Somhairle MacDonald. Take some time with his drawings, and with what Hamish Napier has written as well. Both will add to your understanding and appreciation of the music.

Hawthorne River/The Witches’ Tree begins with the voice of the River Spey and moves into tunes which, though newly composed, readily evoke Highland music of older times, as well as the presence of the river, the hawthorn, and the blackthorn.

The Tree of the Underworld speaks of the elm tree and draws on a story from 19th century forestry, I’ll leave you to seek that out through the sleeve notes. Suffice it to say that in addition to fine work on the cello, Su-a Lee plays her musical saw to haunting effect.

The March of the Lumberjills, and the letter R, ros for wild roses, give the nod to the Women’s Timber Corps, who came to work in forests during World War II. One of these women was Hamish Napier’s grandmother, who subsequently married and settled in the Highlands. The Regeneration March holds a bit more stately aspect, as befits a tune drawn from the idea of heather and forest reclaiming land which had been changed by both felling and wild fire. Calum MacCrimmon (you will know him from his work with the band Breabach) lends Gaelic singing to The Highest Willows which, though in the style of a lament, is a hopeful piece drawing many threads of the stories told in The Woods together.

There is quite a bit more to unpack and enjoy in The Woods, both in the music and the sleeve notes booklet. Both are well worth repeated exploration.

Here you may find out more about The Woods as well other projects from Hamish Napier.

You may also wish to see
Hamish Napier: The River
Hamish Napier’s album The Railway.
Eddi Reader: Cavalier
The Ledger, an album from Hamish Napier’s brother Findlay Napier and sister-in law Gillian Frame, with their friend Mike Vass

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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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Ireland, Scotland, and Story: Allt from Julie Fowlis, Eamon Doorley, Zoe Conway, and John McIntyre

Music is story. Story told in word, stories held in melody and harmony, through voice, instrument, and language. Those are aspects of music that Julie Fowlis, Êamon Doorley, Zoe Conway, and John McIntyre investigate and respect in their recording Allt.

The stories they choose to explore for this recording come from the traditions of Ireland and Scotland. There are songs and tunes from history, alongside songs with words from contemporary and historic poetry for which the musicians have made new music, and new compositions of their own creation drawing on traditional style.

That may sound like quite a bit to pack into a cohesive whole on a recording of eleven tracks. It is, and if anyone is well qualified to take that on, it is these four.

Each of these musicians is well known for a particular aspect of their creative gifts. Those come into play here -- and they each go beyond those to share other aspects of their talents. Julie Fowlis is known as a lead singer; here she sings harmony and plays whistles as well. Êamon Doorley’s work on the bouzouki has marked him as one of the best on that instrument in the Celtic world. Here he sings and plays fiddle as well. Zoe Conway is well known and much in demand for her work on Irish fiddle and on classical violin; for this project her lead and harmony vocals and her skills on the whistles also come into play. John McIntyre, best known as a guitarist, steps up to sing here as well as adding in his piano skills.

As the recording opens, each takes it in turn to lead the music, and they each step in to support the others as the music progresses. Fowlis sings lead on Port Dannsaidh Hiortach the lively Saint Kilda Dance Song, which is paired with Deora Dé, a tune from Conway. You can hear Conway’s singing on Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa, a gentle, searching ballad with words by Máirtín Ó Direáin whose title means I will Find Solace. McIntyre steps up for a song called An Ghaelige, which as its title might suggest is in praise of (and in part lament for) the language. This is followed by a set which sees two tunes by Doorley bookending one by Conway.

Those descriptions do not begin to do justice to the thoughtful, insightful way these stories are told through music, and the way the musicians support each other. Clearly these are artists who are deeply grounded in their own gifts and tradition, and well able to focus and listen to each other as the tunes unfold.

Add to that the way this project was recorded.

"Êamon and I were fresh from recording with Calum Malcolm,” Fowlis says “and I couldn’t see past working with him again!  I enjoyed working with him so much.  He is such an intuitive engineer and enjoys recording live, and in different settings.  As a quartet, we were keen to make this a live, honest and spontaneous recording.  And that’s what happened.  Calum set it up in such a way that we felt comfortable and inspired to play.  We used vintage mics, and recorded in the round. "

The project began from conversations between the two women.

Conway comes from and still lives in County Louth in Ireland. So does McIntyre. The two are married, as are Fowlis and Doorley, who come from Scotland and Ireland respectively, and make their home in the Highlands of Scotland.

Along with Irish musician Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Fowlis presents Port, a television series which traces connections among Celtic music and musicians. “Zoe and I worked together on one of the Port series on BBC ALBA.  She came to Ross Shire in the Highlands as a visiting artist, and it was then we really got chatting (and playing!) together,” Fowlis recalls. “Our paths had crossed before, on one of Bill Whelan’s performances in Belfast for example, but this was when we really got to know one another.  Sometimes you just really click with someone, and we both said that it would be great to do more together after that shoot.”

The pair stayed in touch and began discussing ideas. They liked the idea of writing new music together, and of honouring the languages and traditions of the landscapes they knew and loved. Support from Creative Louth, The Arts Council Of Ireland, and Iomairt Columcille allowed the four musicians time to research traditional and contemporary poetry they wanted to frame with new music, and to compose that music as well. “We searched out poetry to set music to, and ideas for tunes between us and started sending ideas back and forth,” Fowlis says. “We love the tradition but also the idea of adding to the store of songs and tunes and so we quickly settled on the idea of composing new music in a traditional style.”

There are fine lively pieces -- Dúirt Bean Liom in Irish paired with the tune Ríl Eóin and Na Hú Bhithinn paired with Hó Ró Na Priobaidean in Scottish Gaelic show the musicians’ joy in picking up the pace. A more reflective piece is Air an Somme, with words by Donald MacDonald.

There are instances of fine harmony work through many tracks on the project. This comes to the fore especially on the closing piece, An t-Earrach Thiar, a title which translates as spring in the west.

Bringing together tradition and inspiration, along with respect for language, history, and place: Julie Fowlis, Êamon Doorley, Zoe Conway and John McIntyre have created a lasting legacy with their work on Allt. "There are such beautiful poems out there, some hundreds of years old, some contemporary, and we felt really inspired to set these words to new music to bring them to life as songs, " Julie Fowlis says.

You may also wish to see
Julie Fowlis and Muireann Nic Amhloaoibh made an album exploring connections between songs in Scottish Gaelic and Irish called Dual.
Alterum from Julie Fowlis
Êamon Doorley is a member of the band Danu. Learn about their album Buan.

Photograph of Zoe Conway and John McIntyre and Julie Fowlis courtesy of the artists. Photograph of Eamon Doorleys by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

If you enjoy what you’ve been reading here, a way to support more of it: Thank you!

Scotland's Music: Hamish Napier: The Railway

Trains.

Perhaps you ride one every day on your way to work or school. Maybe you take a lighthearted ride at holiday time. Perhaps you know trains mainly from children’s toys or pictures in books.

Trains hold a combination of grit and romance. They pass through landscapes, and are part of them. Trains help create community, and communities. Trains and train tracks are of the present, and evoke stories of other times.

Whatever way you’ve come to know trains, you will find much to enjoy in Hamish Napier’s recording The Railway.

He draws from the stories of one specific railway line in one specific place and time, the Great North of Scotland Railway in the Speyside region of Scotland’s Highlands. To research ideas that would inspire his music, he read accounts of the railway’s history. He interviewed three men who had worked the railway, all now in their nineties and with many stories to tell. He walked the landscapes the trains had traversed, and drew on his own memories of growing up in the Speyside area.

That grounding in specifics allows the tunes and songs to reach beyond the Great North Railway’s story and draw in the imagination of anyone who has ever taken a train journey, or dreamed of taking one.

Hamish Napier is a composer, performer, and music tutor who grew up in the northeast Highlands of Scotland. His main instruments are the piano and the flute. He has supported musicians including Gary Innes, Eddi Reader, Karen Matheson, and Donald Shaw, appearing often in concert and on more than forty recordings. His own recording The River explores and celebrates landscapes, experiences, and people along the River Spey.

When he was performing music from that recording in a series of concerts across Scotland, the new owners of Grantown East: Highland Heritage and Cultural Centre came to one of the shows and knew that Napier was just the person to compose the soundtrack to go along with their project, the restoration of the Grantown East Railway Station into a place marking this history of this Highland railway line, which had ceased operation in the 1960s.

The music on The Railway indeed takes listeners on a journey -- several journeys, rather. The opener, The Speyside Line, draws one in to a musical journey with cadences which suggest Highland landscape. The Firebox, as lively and flickering as its title may suggest, draws on the history of the steam powered trains and the stories told to Hamish by driver Jimmy Gray, driver Jocky Hay, and signalman James Telfer. So does a tale of races between trains back in the day called Jocky the Mole, which is a song with lyrics Hamish’s brother, Findlay Napier.

Fire and water, smoke and steam
A train is like a living thing
Driver, engine, fireman
It takes us three to make her sing

Findlay sings in the chorus as the story unfolds.

The lighthearted tune Cheery Groove pays tribute to Hamish and Findlay’s parents and their home at Number 2 Cherry Grove, where it’s said many great house ceilidhs were to be had.

Mixing respect for history with love for the land and its people and regret for some changes seen, there’s another song with lyrics from Findlay called The World Came In by Rail...

We walk along the railway line
Among birch and wild rose
And all that’s left are outposts
Of an empire no one knows

A different look at a related idea is found in the tune The Old Ways, a slow march written to honour those who respect and keep up the traditional crafts, stories, language -- and music -- of, Napier writes in the sleeve notes “what is unique and special about our culture.”

Those joining Hamish Napier on the recording include Fraser Stone on percussion, Gillian Frame on backing vocals, James Lindsay on double bass, and Patsy Reid on fiddle. There are also cameo appearances by the sounds of a fireplace, Broomhill sheep, and whistle, brakes, wheels, and other railway sounds. Andrea Gobbi co-produced the album with Napier and recorded and mixed it. You will also enjoy the album artwork and design, which are by Somhairle MacDonald.

There are many more gems among the music -- every track is a keeper, and the journeys of history, music, landscape, and reflection are well worth the taking as Hamish Napier has organized them. He draws things to a close with The Railwayman, and three part suite inspired by the story of driver Jimmy Gray’s career on the railway.

Take the journey on The Railway. Take all of the journeys offered through this music. You’ll come away with much to reflect on and much to enjoy.

Also of note: at this writing word comes that Hamish Napier is at work on his third album, to be called The Woods.

You may also wish to see
Hamish Napier: The River
Eddi Reader: Cavalier
Scotland’s music: Sarah-Jane Summers: Solo

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, 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.