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.

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Exploring Ireland through fiddle, flute, and guitar, at Perceptive Travel

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Three from Scotland: Music without words

Music has so many aspects: harmony, melody, all the instruments with their sounds, all the singers with their voices and how they convey the words.

There are times, as well, when music speaks most clearly when there are no words. It is not that words get in the way. It’s just a different conversation, or, if you will, another way of speaking about an idea.

Marie Fielding, Kevin Henderson, Neil Perlman, David Foley. and Jack Smedley have conversations in music to share that re well worth your listening.

Marie Fielding’s instruments are fiddle, five string fiddle, and hardanger fiddle. With them, she traces journeys to places which have inspired her. Mayo2Manchester honours both her Irish ancestors and her connection to flute player Michael McGoldrick as mentor and composer. The Connemara Reel Set comprises three original tunes evoking and honoring both Scotland and Ireland.

There’s the quiet of Gracie’s Lullaby, and the lively Muriel’s Oatcakes set. Most of the tunes are of Fielding’s own composition, and almost all of the tracks were recorded, as she writes in her sleeve note, “in the moment,” with just a few carefully noted touches added later on. The tunes are bookended by the title track Spectrum and Spectrum Outro, flowing tunes which are intended to highlight the circular flow of ideas in Fielding’s choices.

Immersed in traditional music from any early age, Fielding has a long understanding and a long time of thinking about the tradition to draw on in creating her own music,

A lecturer in Fiddle and Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, Fielding has a confident and distinctive mastery of her medium. She is also a visual artist andsome of that sort of connection with the listener comes through in her music on The Spectrum Project as well.

Kevin Henderson, who comes from Shetland, and Neil Pearlman who is from New England by way of Atlantic Canada, know well how to explore landscapes through their instruments. In Henderson’s case that’s the fiddle. For Pearlman it’s keyboards and mandolin.

It’s a contrast and blending of styles and backgrounds that works. Their album is called Burden Lake. Henderson’s fiddle playing is precise, clear, and draws on his Shetland and Nordic background. Pearman’s inventive style, influenced perhaps by his Cape Breton fiddle piano duo history as well as his background studying and playing jazz, makes both subtle and generous compliment to the fiddle lines. Many of the pieces are of Henderson’s composition, and there are several from Pearlman and a traditional one. The duo handles both fast paced and quieter tunes with equal grace and interest. Listen out especially for Da Trowie Burn, the San Simon set, and Liam’s.

Also listen out for their other work. Each always has several projects on the go. among them the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc for Kevin Henderson and The Katie McNally Trio for Neil Pearlman. Both of these groups have new recordings upcoming.

David Foley and Jack Smedley have an ongoing group commitment: both are members to the award winning Scottish band RURA, founding members in fact. Foley, who plays flute, and Smedley, whose instrument is fiddle, enjoy the challenge that such collaboration presents, but they have also had the wish to play tunes in a more intimate way. They were invited to perform a duo gig at Celtic Connections in 2018.

The idea that has become their album Time to Fly was planted then, but their duo collabration has also been a long time growing. “With RURA we have been lucky enough to play big festival stage across the world and it is these experiences, alongside the travel opportunities that these performances allow, that have inspired a lot of the work on Tine to Fly,” David Foley says. “This album has been a great opportunity to get back to the fundamentals of our musicianship and explore the stripped back, acoustic sound we can created when it is just us and the instruments.”

Explore they do, with tunes both driving and lyrical. They well know how to do this, too. Jack Smedley comes from Cullen, where he grew up immersed in traditional fiddle music of the northeast of Scotland and of the Highlands. David Foley grew up in and around the Irish music scene in Glasgow. They met as students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before stepping up to help found RURA.

These varied strands of background and present interests inform the eleven sets they have chosen for Time to Fly. The title track honours the fact that though Jack and David have been studying and then playing together for more than a dozen years now, first at RCS and then as members of RURA, this is their debut album as a duo.

Through eleven tracks Jack and David lead a journey which travels from a quiet tune coming from a story from history that took place on the shore near Cullen where Jack grew up to a lively set that begins with tune inspired during the recording of the album by a microphone, a piece of metal, and...a hacksaw.

The music Foley and Smedley offer along the way is intricate and engaging. Each track is complete on its own, while at the same time creating a progression that leaves you looking forward to what will come next. All of it is original music by one or the other of the duo, as well as one track Drift, which they wrote together. Their longtime connection with musical tradition and their enjoyment of making music together come across clearly through all of the tracks. Joining the duo on the journey are long time musical colleagues and friends John Lowrie on drums, James Lindsay on double bass, and Jenn Butterworth on guitar.

With or without words, music speaks clearly. Give a listen to these three recordings -- give more than one listening -- and you will find many engaging paths to follow.

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Katie McNally Trio: The Boston States
Music from Ireland & Scotland: Sitting in on the Session
Homecoming: A Scottish Fanatasy from Nicola Benedetti
Hope as a companion: music for the journey at Wandering Educators -- a performance video from Time to Fly is part of this story
Sarah Jane Summers: Solo more music without words to explore

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Scotland and New Zealand: Inge Thomson and Maisey Rika

Fair Isle, Scotland, is a small place, lying about half way between Orkney and Shetland to the far north of mainland Scotland. North Island, New Zealand, is quite a bit larger in area and ar distant from Fair Isle, lying as it does at the opposite end of the world in the southern hemisphere off the coast of Australia. Both places, though, are connected and bound to sea and weather and distance. Those things arise in and influence their music, as well.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons the music of Maisey Rika, who is of the Maori people indigenous to North Island, and Inge Thomson, who comes from Fair Isle, seemed to resonate one with the other on a winter evening in Glasgow.

The two artists did not perform together at their concert at The Tron, which was part of Celtic Connections. Yet there was resonance.

Rika began the evening with a song in Maori telling of the legends of the sea and how the Maori people came to be in New Zealand. Many of her songs through evening were in Maori -- she has won many awards for her work as a songwriter and a tradition keeper in that language -- and, recognizing that however international the audience at Celtic Connections concerts often is, not many would be fluent in Maori, she gave gracious and thoughtful and occasionally witty insights into the meaning of the words she sang. Sharing several songs she has recorded in English showed another side of her music, a more easy listening sort of sound. While listeners at The Tron enjoyed both aspects of Rika’s music, it was the music of her native language and the stories told with that music that clearly kept the audience engaged. Rika also often shared the spotlight with her supporting musicians, stepping aside as they took lead voice or instrument, and at times supporting them with harmonies as well. It was, however, Rika’s powerful voice and engaging storytelling through music which anchored the time -- and the audience enjoyed her inclusion of swirling the traditional poi, as well.

Rika’s most recent recording at this writing is Whitiora with all songs in the Maori (Te reo) language, which includes a song referencing the earthquake in Christchurch and that song telling of Maori legend with which she opened her Celtic Connections concert, called Tangaroa Whakamauta.

For her part of the evening, Inge Thomson focused on the music of her project Da Fishing Hands.

Inspired by consideration of the geography, natural environment, and stories of Fair Isle, the music she and her bandmates offered readily evoked wind, water, sea, northern travels, and the interconnection of these things. Thomson herself sang, in a light soprano, and played accordion as well as the occasional bit of electronic addition to the atmosphere, which fit in surprisingly well with acoustic instruments and human voices. The songs she offered, with lyrics of her own and also ones by her cousin poet Lise Sinclair, who passed away as they were working on the project together, included Wind and Weather/The Fishermen and The Sea, The Snowstorm, Dark Stacks, and Here We’ve Landed.

As Rika did in her set, Thomson also made the music a truly collaborative journey with her supporting musicians, who included Sarah Hayes on flute and vocals, Fraser Fifield on sax, pipes and other instruments, and Steven Polwart on guitar and vocals. Thomson, who was perhaps best known to most of the audience as member of songwriter Karine Polwart’s band, delivered music and stories creative, thoughtful, and unusual, and showed that she is well able to carry a concert in her own right.

Both Maisey Rika and Inge Thomson offered music that draws from their home lands and their knowledge and love for the stories told in word, music, landscape, weather, and change drawn from those lands. Stories of an island in the South Pacific and one the North Sea: differing one from the other, but connected by experience of water, weather, time, and music. Indeed, this concert offered just the sort of thoughtful and unexpected -- and not so likely to occur elsewhere -- connection and resonance that marks out Celtic Connections as one of Europe’s top music festivals.

At this writing, World Oceans Day is on the near horizon. Listening to the art of these two talented musicians would be a good way to celebrate.

“From a cultural point of view the sea has always been a life giver to the island, it is so important we look after our marine resources for future generations.” ~ Inge Thomson in an interview with Folk Radio UK.

Photographs are by Kerry Dexter and were made with permission of the artists, the festival, and the venue. Thank you for respecting copyright.

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Laws of Motion from karien Polwart, Inge Thomson, and Steven Polwart
Scotland's music: Capercaillie: At the Heart of It All

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Song of Solstice: music for changing seasons

What is the sound of seasons changing? It could be what you hear as you listen to Song of Solstice from Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra.

With a gathering of music from Celtic traditions along with songs she’s written, Cutting offers a vision of that which invites contemplation and celebration, consideration of darkness and light in both spiritual and natural realms that accompanies the turn of earth’s time from autumn through winter and back to spring again. To do this, she weaves in strands of musical ideas from Celtic to classical to steampunk, and creates a sound that’s immediately inviting.

Drawing on the gifts of artists from her own Ocean Orchestra as well as a range of guests, many of them from the thriving Washington DC area music scene, Cutting offers complex and layered arrangements which serve the music and open new ways of hearing it. Complex does not mean stuffy or hard to understand: there’s a very good chance you’ll be singing along with several of the pieces, and that the music will stay in your mind long after you've played the recording.

Song of Solstice, the title track, offers a rousing take on celebrating the joys of the colder seasons of the year, and gives a nod to wisdom to be gained from contemplation and patience in the calendar’s darker seasons. As well there's an affirmation of the joys of friendship, whose gifts are often strengthened by winter’s connections. Christmas Day in the Morning, a traditional tune from Shetland set as a quiet instrumental with harp from Sue Richards and bodhran from Myron Bretholz, leads into Song of Solstice, a paring which enhances both.

Green Man is another piece you’ll not forget, a lively song whose origins Cutting drew from ancient Celtic tales as well as ideas that appear in the story of King Arthur. You do not have to know anything about either of those, though, to enjoy Steve Winnick’s cheerful and inviting lead vocal. He is backed by Highland bagpipes, bouzouki, electric guitar, fiddle, bodhran, other percussion instruments, and vocal harmony. Turning of seasons, death and rebirth, and the vibrancy of nature in the midst of winter are just a few of the things touched upon in the song, which offers a fine mood and beat for dancing and drumming as well as for singing.

Time to Remember the Poor suggests a different avenue for contemplation. Gothic steam punk psychedelia fusion is what Cutting had in mind. The words are from a Victorian era broadside, set to a haunting soundscape of voice, guitar, keyboard, samples, bass, and drums, It all seems quite contemporary yet evokes the the atmosphere of Victorian times and the thoughts in the lyrics as well. Lisa Mosciatello is the voice, Al Petteway plays electric and acoustic guitars, Juan Dudley is the drummer, Rico Petrocelli plays bass, and Cutting provides the samples and plays keyboards on the piece.

Putting classic, folk -- especially Celtic -- and rock ideas in conversation and collaboration with each other is a a way of approaching music which has long interested Cutting. For ten years she was bandleader for the award winning Washington DC area based British folk rock group The New Saint George. Later, Jennifer founded The Ocean Orchestra, which has allowed her to take her composing, arranging, and performing ideas of creating music drawing on varied genres in a more Celtic direction, and to invite in the talents of changing casts of musicians in the United States and overseas. “Celtic music for ancient moderns” is how she describes her work.

“I think of myself as a soundscape architect -- I try to get the structures and textures from my imagination out onto the recorded sound canvas, with the help of many amazingly gifted people who all add their own genius into the mix, “ Cutting says. “Creating a song or an arrangement is a lot like putting up a building or designing a landscape, except that my materials are instruments and voices. Hearing it build layer by layer is the ultimate thrill.”

Listening to the result is fascinating, too. Song of Solstice includes six originals by Jennifer Cutting, and varied other works, among them pieces from Celtic tradition including music from France and from Shetland. As with a well designed building or landscape, all the elements enhance each other and invite repeated exploration.

Listen to excerpts from Song of Solstice


photograph of Jennifer Cutting by Irene Young

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Music Road: late summer, early autumn, music, Ireland

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