Irish, Scottish, folk, and country music from many different neighbourhoods, and sometimes, from behind the scenes
Monday, April 17, 2017
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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Musicians and poets and others who create with ideas and music at times have the best and the deepest things to say about what happens in the world. There is such deep and lasting music from the tradition -- the traditions -- of many countries, handed down the generations, changed and adapted and yet holding truth that resonates.
There's music newly written too, pieces that speak to immediacy of event and feeling and yet hold ideas and connections and ways of thinking that last beyond a specific moment.
These two songs, written in very different times and places each from the other and from what is happening in the world as I write this, yet resonate with each other, and offer hope in times of sorrow and anger as well as in times of peace. Take a listen -- take several.
Carrie Newcomer wrote I Heard an Owl as part of her response to the events of September 11. You may find it on her album The Gathering of Spirits.
Amazing Grace was written in English originally, as a reflection on conversion to faith. Karen Matheson sings it here in Scottish Gaelic. You may find it recorded on Celtic Women of Scotland: Songs of Love & Reflection.
"The only word is courage and the only answer love..."
Music has its place in healing, in connection, in understanding, in crossing borders -- and in hope.
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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.
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.
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Winter: it’s a time for reflection, for contemplation, for spending time in solitude and for seeking out good company. Music is a part of all this, and it also makes a fine gift. Here are ideas as you plan your holiday listening and giving. Some of these albums and artists you have met here before along the music road, and for others, there’s more to come. Either way, follow the links to learn more of the music.
If you’ve someone on your list or if you yourself love the music of Scotland, then Karen Matheson’s solo album Urram< will fill a spot on your list. It is the first solo album Matheson has released in some time -- she’s often involved with her work as part of the band Capercaillie. She was working on an album of contemporary songs in English and Gaelic but found the deaths of her parents, and coming across family photographs from times past in the wake of that, turned her in another direction. The songs of Urram are in Gaelic, some Matheson would have known from her childhood, others that she searched out in song archives. Spare arrangements from longtime band mates as well as unexpected guests frame Matheson’s musical storytelling.
Jenna Moynihan draws on the music of Scotland as well, both music from the tradition and as source to frame her own compositions. Growing up in New York state, two years into studying violin at eight years of age Moynihan encountered the fiddle music of Scotland, and that set her on her musical path one she has followed thus far all the way up through a degree at Berklee College of Music and the release of her album Woven, It’s a fine collection, comprising music that shows both Moynihan’s lyrical touch as well as flashes of wit -- which you may also see in her descriptions of the tunes in her liner notes. It is a journey worth the taking al the way through the album as it’s been been sequenced by Moynihan and producer Maeve Gilchrist. For a hint of what’s in store, standout tracks include the Kendall Tavern set, Haven, and Dolina MacKay.
Oisin Mac Diarmada knows the fiddle, too. In his case the background is Ireland, and in his recording The Green Branch the music of the Sligo region. You’ll have met Mac Diarmada’s music though his work in the band Teada, in his duo recordings with Seamus Begley, and with his Irish Christmas in America projects. For The Green Branch his musical partner is Samantha Harvey, whose piano work proves a fine backing and at times rhythm section for the energy of Oisin’s fiddle as he makes his way through sets of jigs, reels, hornpipes, and flings, including Jacke Coleman’s paired with Mayor Harrison’s Fedora and Bright May Morning paired with Fowler on the Moor. Harvey’s first way into irish music (she is originally from America, now resident in Ireland) was through irish dance, and a particularly engaging set, Veronica McNamara’s/The Professor/Charlie Dolan’s, includes the sound of her dancing feet along with fiddle and piano.
Alison Brown’s instrument of choice is the banjo. In her mind and spirit and hands it’s an adventurous instrument, melodic more than percussive, part of an ensemble more often than claiming the sole spotlight. On her album Song of the Banjo her original pieces are most composed for an acoustic ensemble, with deft placing of the colors of instruments to tell the stories she has in mind. That’s true of the varied selection of covers as well including several in which she backs singers in re invented versions of songs from writers as varied as Michael Martin Murphey, Bacharach and David, and (on the deluxe edition of the album) Marvin Gaye.
If you’ve heard Brown’s tone and an voice (so to speak) with the banjo you’ll recognize it through the tracks on Song of the Banjo; if you are new to her work, listen and follow it as the thread that pulls through.
There will be more to come on these recordings and artists here along the music road, but they are too good to have you miss out on them during this season of listening, sharing, and giving.
Season of giving, you say? What about some seasonal music? Of course...
With her Quartet, the aforementioned Alison Brown has a fine seasonal album called Evergreen. There’s a nice blending of Carol of the Bells with We Three Kings, and Two Santas comprises two Santa themed songs you’l recognize. There’s a livley reinvention of The Little Drummer Boy among the other gems.
For On Christmas Night from Cherish the Ladies Heidi Talbot handles lead singing for The Castle of Dromore, a song that always evokes winter for me. Talbot makes the often done over the top O Holy Night sound as welcoming as if it were done around the fireside. too. Excellent instrumentals led by Joanie Madden’s flute, among them the title track, Old Apples in Winter, and the Kerry Reel, weave in stories and sound of Ireland with the carols and songs of the season
Speaking of the flute...you will hear some fine flute playing from Shannon Heaton on the album Fine Winter's Night which she’s done with her husband, guitar player Matt Heaton. They each sing, too, and they each have original songs of the season, tunes and carols and contemporary pieces. Listen out especially for Matt’s original First Snow Fall of December, Shannon’s title song, and their takes on the Wexford Carol and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.
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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
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Ivanhoe, Lady of the Lake, Rob Roy, The Bride of Lammermoor -- even if you’ve never read any of these, they have very likely influenced your view of Scotland and its history. Sir Walter Scott wrote all of them. His cinematic descriptions of Scottish landscapes have caused him to be called Scotland’s first travel writer. His novels, poems and plays were wildly popular when they were written in the early nineteenth century -- at one point during that time his novels were said to be the most read books in the United States. They are still read today.
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is the landscape Scott drew on for Lady of the Lake. As part of the park’s celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the poem, composer Phil Cunningham wrote a new instrumental work, The Trossachs Suite.
It’s always a challenge to write instrumental music about something, to create music that is neither too literal nor too abstract. Cunningham did this very well, drawing on his deep connection with traditional music as well as touches of classical influence. As the program had its first performance at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall during Celtic Connections, the six sections of music were interspersed with readings from Scott’s work by actor Bill Paterson. Cunningham, on accordion, was well assisted by band members including Michael McGoldrick on flutes and whistles, Kathleen Boyle on piano and keyboards, Ian Carr and John Doyle on guitar, Martin O’Neill on bodhran, and Fiona Johnson and John McCusker on fiddle.
The Trossachs Suite was the first half of the evening in Glasgow. For the second half, singers Karen Matheson and Eddi Reader joined in to offer songs written by Scott, and ones, as Cunningham said, “we think he would have liked, and ones that we like!”
It proved a stellar selection and a varied one as well, with Reader starting things off with with Jock O’ Hazeldean, and Matheson continuing with McGregor’s Gathering. The two then joined together for what at first might seem an unexpected choice, Schubert’s setting for the hymn Ave Maria. It was, in fact, Schubert’s reading about the song in Lady of the Lake which inspired the composition, and two of the best voices in Scotland had the audience in cheers and in tears as they ended the piece. Wild Mountainsde, a contemporary piece on homecoming and choices and a Reader favourite, was also on the program, and Matheson brought her Gaelic background with Ailein Duinn. The two singers joined forces for a lively set of Puirt a Buel to conclude the music -- almost.. Things finished off with an encore of all on stage and in the audience joining in singing Loch Lomond.
You have to think that Walter Scott would’ve enjoyed the evening.
photographs are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.
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If you like the idea of books which inspire travel, check out what’s happening over at A Traveler’s Library. We’ve been suggesting music ideas to go along with the Library’s choices for book and film on The Great American Road Trip -- there are still a few states to go -- and you will find books and film ideas for places from Iraq to South Dakota to Normandy, and thought provoking conversations about them, at A Traveler’s Library as well.
-->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.
-->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.
