Christmas music on guitar: Tim Edey

Winter season’s closing in brings with it both many things to do, and time to rest. It brings fast paced activities, and it can bring slowing down and time to reflect. Winter brings gathering; it brings solitude.

Each of these is an aspect of Advent, of preparation, of contemplation.

Music is a fine companion to all these things.

The Sleeping Tunes, Vol 2: Christmas and Celtic Music played on Guitar may have a rather long title, but it gets its point across. It comes from Tim Edey, and it is a recording which should certainly join your holiday plans for listening.

Though Tim Edey can play many instruments, guitar is perhaps his favoured one, and, as the album title says, his choice for this recording. In performance, Tim comes across as a gifted and versatile player, a man who holds these talents with humility, and an artist who loves to share his joy in the varied aspects of music.

Those things come across clearly in this recording, as well.

On it, you will find eighteen tracks of Christmas and Celtic music, thoughtfully and engagingly presented. Edey offer a journey which begins with I Saw Three Ships paired with a slide from County Kerry. There’s also Irish tune Coinnle an Linbh Íosa, a title in Irish which translates as The Lights or Candles of the Child Jesus. In the Bleak Midwinter leads into the Scottish tune Annie Laurie, there are stops along the way at O Little Town of Bethlehem, an O’Carolan tune, Silent Night, The First Noel, and several others. before closing with Griogar’s Tune, a song written by Enda McCabe for Tim’s young son.

It’s true that many of these pieces will call up memories of their words; that is part of their charm. It’s fine to hear them as instrumental pieces, though. It makes the depth of melody and the grace of Edey’s playing all the more evident. If you’ve guitar player on your holiday gift list, too, this could be just the thing. In addition to his own solo albums, Edey is in demand to work with other artists. If you’d like to hear a different aspect of Edey’s work, you may find him in collaboration with top Cape Breton fiddle player Natalie MacMaster on her recent release called Sketches. There will be more to come about that recording here along the music road in future, too. If you are attending Celtic Connections in Glasgow, you will find Edey as part of collaborations at two concerts, as well.

Tim Edey is grew up in a musical family in Broadstairs, in Kent, in England. He has lived in Ireland and is now based in Perthshire n Scotland. Those places and experiences find their way way into his understanding of music, and his presentation of them on this recording.

You may also wish to see
First week in Advent: music and quiet
Listening to Winter: Aine Minogue, Cara Dillon, Matt Heaton
Alison Brown Quartet: Evergreen

-->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.

Scotland's Music: Patsy Reid: A Glint o' Scottish Fiddle

A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle—that is the name Patsy Reid has chosen for her most recent recording. It is a title that fits the music she’s chosen. It fits  the point in her work she’s chosen to record a new solo album, too.  

The sets – there are ten of them -- include both music from the tradition and more recently composed music.  

Reid was a founding member of the award winning group Breabach. Time came when she chose to step back from that work – and what she stepped into was a career as one of the most in demand fiddle players and arrangers working in Scotland.

 

She has visited India a number of times and collaborated with Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi musicians. She’s played with Zakir Hussein’s Pulse of the World in London, with the Celtic big band The Unusual Suspects, and participated in the Cecil Sharpe Project.  

At the 2018 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow she appeared as part of Scotland's Wild Heart, at Innes White’s New Voices concert, and in support of award winning Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis. Recently she supported US folk and country songwriter Gretchen Peters at the Southern Fried Festival in Perth. Reid has also worked on record and in performance with Donald Shaw, RANT, Ross Ainslie, Ali Hutton, Robyn Stapleton, Hamish Napier, and others.  

It’s been several years since Reid last released a solo album ( Brightest Path, in 2014). She has had in mind and been working on another solo album for some time. As much as she loves creating music with others, she wanted to focus on her own sound for a bit. “I had reached a stage where I could see myself only working on other people’s projects and never having enough time to so something of my own. So I’m taking the risk that I might have to say no to something exciting, and I’m investing in my own music. I wouldn’t want to regret not giving myself the chance to do that,” she said.  

For her listeners, and one would expect, for her own musical path, A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle proves a worthwhile investment. Update: patsy has also co;;abrates with cellist Alice Allen on two Strathspey Queens albums. If ever you have the hcance to see the two of them play that music live, take it.

The music Reid chose for this recording was in some ways a look back. It includes music she's known since childhood, and pieces she learned and played while attending Alasdair Fraser’s fiddle camps, winning the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship, and studying for her university degrees.   

That's not to say these are simple tunes, nor is the feeling nostalgic. What Reid offers is a clear eyed and clear hearted take on a well chosen gathering of tunes which move within the history of the fiddle in Scotland and at times reach its diaspora.  

The works of James Scott Skinner, Niel Gow, and the unnamed composers of Scotland’s long held fiddle traditions were companions of Reid's own learning and of her finding her own sound in music. She has repaid that favor, honoring the tunes while adding her own mark to them.  

Most of the tunes come from Scotland’s east coast traditions, whether they are from the likes of named composers or not.  Reid well knows how to balance tunes which invite the step of the dancer with those which suggest the more contemplative and thoughful side of the life of Scotland.  

The opener for the first set, Strathearn, is a strathspey from the tradition with which Reid invites thoughts of the wilder sort of Scotland’s landscape and weather, before heading into a lively collection of old reels. Another notable set includes The Quartz Jig from Grainne Brady, The Double Rise, composed by Phil Cunningham, and Halloween Jig composed by Donald Shaw. Two more especially outstanding tunes are the haunting slow air Mrs. Jameson’s Favourite and a nod to the late Angus R. Grant with his composition 2:50 to Vigo.  

On these as through all the tracks, Reid is accompanied by Alastair Iain Patterson on piano. This makes an excellent collaboration which allows both participants to be fully in service to the music, and to their creativity.  

Every set on A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle is a keeper. It’s no wonder Reid is in such demand as a collaborator for concerts and recordings. It’s great that she also chooses to take the time and focus to create solo projects as well. If you’ve interest in the fiddle, the music of Scotland, or fine acoustic music well played, then A Glint o’ Scottish Fiddle is your album.  

A note on the photos: I was fortunate to be at the Celtic Connections concert in 2018 when Reid and Patterson debuted this album. That’s where these photos were made.  

You may also wish to see
Julie Fowlis: Alterum
Hamish Napier: The River
Capercaillie: At the Heart of It All

-->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.

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

Music and stories from Scotland: In Our Day

Songs arise from day to day living, from the stories we tell ourselves and each other as we make our way through the day, the seasons, the year. They might be, at times, wildly abstract, and at other times down to earth and quite concrete. Music, certainly the sort of music we talk about here along the music road, continues the conversations of daily life and, if it is doing its job well, turns a new light on the events, emotions, connections, and memories of the day. That is something Margaret Bennett and Doris Rougvie know well, and it is an aspect of music and of history that comes through clearly in their book'In Our Day...': Reminiscences and Songs from Rural Perthshire. Bennett is a folklorist and musician; Rougvie is a musician and artist. Both traveled their home ground of rural Perthshire in central Scotland, gathering memories and stories from farmers, shepherds, crofters, trades people, professionals, gardeners, housewives -- all sorts of people, really. The memories they gathered are for the most part those which are beginning to be at the edge of forgotten time: day to day stories of how people lived their lives and made their days in the 1920s, and thirties, and forties, and what they remember now, what stories they’ve told their own children. It is clear that Bennett and Rougvie went at the task of seeking out and speaking with these folk with great care and concern, and respect for their stories. They have chosen excerpts of the transcripts of the stories to make up this book, and what is more, the two of them, along with several friends and some students from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, have recorded fifteen songs that come in for mention in the book, and a CD of these is included with it. It is not a song for every story, story for every song sort of thing, but rather a fine interweaving of song and story. There are fifteen tracks on the CD altogether, including the Loch Tay Boat Song, Queen Among the Heather, and The Lass of Glenshee. The book’s text is also enhanced by the occasional engaging illustration drawn by Rougvie. You do not need to be acquainted with rural Perthshire to appreciate what Bennett and Rougvie offer here. It is a fine tribute to the interconnection of music, memory and day to day life, whatever the location. You may follow the link to Amazon, above, or alternatively write to gonzalo at gracenotereading dot co dot uk for further information about where to purchase In Our Day you may also wish to see Music Road: season of change: music for autumn Music Road: Music for St Andrew's Day: music of Scotland Music Road: Julie Fowlis: Live at Perthsire Amber

-->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.

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

-->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.