Scotland's Music: Joy and Andrew Dunlop: Dithis/Duo

Sister and brother Joy and Andrew Dunlop have been making music together since they were children growing up in Connel in Argyll in Scotland’s Western Highlands. Their musical interests led them on different paths, however. Joy’s deep love and curiosity for Gaelic culture led her to study at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye. Andrew was drawn to classical music, studying at Manchester and receiving his doctorate from Eastman School of Music in New York. They’ve each created flourishing careers and received top awards and honours in their fields of music over the past decade.

They had not made a record together, though, and they decided it was time. For it, they set themselves a challenge.. “Despite Andrew and I having performed together for many years and having an extensive back catalogue, we actually chose to arrange and record repertoire that were new to us as a duo,” Joy said. As many musicians do “I’m constantly making lists of songs to learn,” she said. “When we decided to record an album together, I hauled out the lists and started singing through them. Since this wasn’t a themed album, I just chose songs that I loved to record on the album!”

The album is called Dithis/Duo. On it you will find quite a varied collection of song, told in English, Gaelic, and Scots.

Andrew’s work on the piano both supports Joy’s voice and carries the stories as well. It’s an intriguing combination.

Love of story is one of the through lines of the album. There’s a song based on testimony of a young woman who worked in the mines in 1842, one written for a priest who left his home in the Western Isles to serve in Ecuador, and another which comes from the perspective of man reflecting on the changes in his faith as he hears church bells ring, as well as one from a woman musing on motherhood. These are contemporary songs, written by Frank Higgins, Blair Douglas, David Francey, and Carol Ann Duffy and Esther Swift, respectively.

There’s a good helping of songs from the tradition, too. These include love stories from several perspectives, a set of puirt a beul, and a Robert Burns song.

“I like songs that tell stories - it doesn’t matter to me from whose viewpoint they are being told but there needs to be something there to which I can relate,” Joy said. “I love the story of A Mhairead Òg, where the man is heartbroken after accidentally killing his love, when his mother sent him out to hunt for ducks. We find out that it was also his mother who sent the girl that very pool to bathe and I always enjoy how the story unfolds in the song.”

One song that’s certainly not a love song. unless perhaps that comes in a young woman’s respect for her own dignity. is that one that comes from the mine worker’s words. “The lyrics are based on the actual testimony that Patience Kershaw of Halifax gave to the Children’s Employment Commission in 1842, by which time she had been working in the mines for over 6 years,” Joy said. “The dignity and understanding that she has for her terrible situation never fails to move me. This was actually a song that Andrew suggested trying, and I love it more and more every time that I sing it.”

I Wonder What’s Keeping My True Love Tonight is, like the tale in A Mhairead Òg, a story that shows up in many versions across the Celtic lands and their emigrant communities. The answer to that question comes in various forms too. Joy chose her favourite verses from several versions to tell the tale, and remarks that as a Gael, she was naturally drawn to the sadder one.

Also listen out especially for

Solas M’aigh/My Hope’s Light, an haunting and lovely song that evokes both loving a place and leaving it Saints and Sinners, David Francey’s song of distance and faith, which Joy says caught her attention when first she heard it. She and Andrew bring their own gifts to the quiet, thought provoking story.

Ae Fond Kiss. You will have heard this Robert Burns song before. Joy and Andrew add to the fine canon of Scottish artists who’ve taken it on and put their own stamp on it, offering some verses as Burns wrote them in Scots and some in Gaelic. In the sleeve notes you’ll find the full text of both versions if you wish.

Each of the eleven tracks is well worth repeated listening. You will no doubt find your own favourites.

What’s clear is that Joy and Andrew Dunlop are thoughtful creators in music, master storytellers both. They have joined their paths on record for the first time on Dithis. One would hope that there will be many more such creative collaborations yet to come

You may also wish to see
Joy and Andrew’s website
Joy focuses on songs from Argyll on her album Faileasan/Reflections
Hamish Napier’s album The River, where you’’ find more excellent, though quite different, piano creativity
Another excellnt, though again very different, album Gaelic song: Alterum from Julie Fowlis

-->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.

Another way to support: you could