Holiday Gift Ideas: 3 New Recordings

Music: it is part of the holidays, and part of every day.

Music is also a great gift, one which may be enjoyed alone or in company.

Winter is often a time for gift giving. I’ve ideas to help with that, which will unfold over several pieces i the upcoming days.

Some will be from artists you have met here along the Music Road, while others will be projects you will learn more about in the coming months.

They are all well worth your time, and you may find something for yourself as well as those on your gift lists. There will be a bit of seasonal music upcoming, in another story too.

To begin, here are three newer albums to get you started on your holiday gift explorations

You’ve met the Spell Songs folk here before: inspired by art form Jackie Morris and words from Robert Macfarlane in the book The Lost Words, they created a mystical, magical collection of music celebrating nature -- calling parts of the natural world that were mean to to be forgotten back to life, as it were. The artists -- JIm Molyneux, Bath Porter, Julie Fowlis, Rachel Newton, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, and Karine Polwart -- are back with a Spell Songs II: Let the Light In. The mystery, the magic, and the great music continue.

Speaking of magic: in times when touring has been restricted or non-existent. musicians faced all kinds of challenges in keeping their lives, their creativity, and their music going. One way Sarah McQuaid decided to do this was to record live (although without an audience other than those making the recording) in a place she knows well, a historic church not far from where McQuaid lives in Cornwall. “We set her up as if it were a regular gig,” Sarah’s manager and sound engineer, Martin Stansbury told Hot Press. He and Sarah knew it would make a fine setting for a live recording, while engaging their creativity in ways both new and familiar. Indeed it does, and the result is well worth repeated listening. The album is called The Saint Buryan Sessions.

The musicians who make up the band Staran had their own recording challenges, too. They are a recently formed group, brought together by keyboard player John Lowrie. He had worked with fiddler Jack Smedley, guitarist Innes White, bass player James Lindsay, and singer Kim Carnie on other projects but the five had not played together as a five piece. With limited opportunities to gather in person, they nevertheless came up with an excellent debut album. It includes original tunes as well as song in both English and Gaelic. They decided to call it Staran after the band, whose name means path or stepping stone in Scottish Gaelic.

Stay along the music road for more gift ideas to come as this winter holiday season unfolds.

You may also enjoy
About the first Spell Songs recording
If you are considering late autumn, Thanksgiving in the US, Saint Andrew’s day in Scotland: Music for Autumn’s Landscapes at Wandering Educators offer good things to explore
Another holiday gift list from a few years back at Perceptive Travel. Music for many interests...
About the book The Lost Spells

In times when you are able to listen to much music at no cost, if you enjoy this music, I encourage you to help support the work of these artists and the cause of good, thoughtful music everywhere by purchasing their music. Direct purchase from an artist’s site is one way. Bandcamp is also a platform which supports artists’ work.

Speaking of support, if you’re in a position to do so this holiday season, your support for Music Road is most welcome. Here’s one way:

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The Lost Words: Spell Songs

Bluebell, snow hare, heather, owl, otter, acorn, conker, dandelion, kingfisher, wren...

Words contain images, history, stories. When words become names, that is even more so.

Artist Jackie Morris learned that a number of words were to be dropped from a popular children’s dictionary in the UK, where she lives. Most of those words had to do with nature and wilderness.

An award winning illustrator and author, Morris decided to create book with images from a selection of these words. She contacted well known nature writer Robert Macfarlane to see if he would write a forward to the book. He came back with another idea: what if he wrote spells, incantations so to speak, calling the words and what they named back to life -- back into imagination? Morris and Macfarlane created such a book, called The Lost Words.

The idea caught fire. Children and adults responded to the book. Two of those who were inspired were Adam and Caroline Slough of Folk by the Oak, who often commission music projects. The Lost Words: Spell Songs became their next endeavour.

Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Kerry Andrew, Rachel Newton, Beth Pos addressed and connected with nature, place, and wild lands in their work. Among them, their work has touched a range of genres, spanned a number of instruments, included Scots, Mandinka, and Gaelic languages. It seemed they would make fine collaborators to create music that would, in essence, sing these bits of nature back to life,

That is true. The work they created is called The Lost Words: Spell Songs.

Each artist brings a distinct physical voice as well and distinctive musical skills, points of view, and backgrounds to the work. After an initial meeting and a time of mulling over each on his or her own whilst involved in other projects, the eight gathered for a week of residency, a time of collaboration to write and record what became the fourteen tracks on Spell Songs.

As with the illustrations by Jackie Morris, there is both intricacy and directness in the music they have created.

As with the spells of Robert Macfarlane’s words, there is pattern and breaking of pattern.

With all these, there is mystery and clarity, discovery and recognition, sorrow and hope.

The music is grounded in Celtic tradition and draws in elements of many other traditions. Classical music and music of Seckou Keita’s Senegalese griot background are among those which appear. Gaelic song, which is very often grounded in place,is present, as is Scots tradition of rhythm in service of story come in; four of the artists, Polwart, Fowlis, Newton, and Drever, are from Scotland.

As to the lyrics, some come directly from Macfarlane’s writing, some use phrases or words from his work, some are inspired by what’s written rather than speaking directly from it. Some, too, draw inspiration from the art by Morris, or the interplay between art and words.

It’s a recording that bears listening far more than once. As with a kaleidoscope, different colours and patterns and intersections come to the fore with each listening, and different stories resonate and connect with each other as these change. Producer Andy Bell has woven sounds of the natural world in with a light touch, too.

There is Heartwood, with Karine Polwart taking the lead voice in the song of a tree speaking to those who would -- those who will -- cut it down. It’s not a plea so much as a a story, a request, a knowledge that both tree and cutter exist in a shared space of time.

Time is an element that threads through all the stories, in varying ways: the Kingfisher darts and flashes in and out of landscape as Julie Fowlis sings lead and others’ voices come in. Fowlis, who comes from the Western Isles, has long had interest in folklore of the seal people, so it’s right hat she also takes lead on the story of the Selkie as he goes through his own changes in time, place, and being, finding his home with his water borne kin. The Snow Hare’s life is embedded in and connected to the change of seasons, which are themselves changing with climate change, a story told in haunting unison singing by Polwart and Fowlis.

Sadness and hope are both present. In Little Astronaut Jim Molyneux seeks seeks solace in looking to hear agin the song of the wren, and in Bethany Porter’s graceful Charm On Goldfinch, there is the lively joy of present birdsong and questioning of what may come. With the story of Scatterseed, ‘fallen hero of the football field,’ Kris Drever frames the story of the lost names of the dandelion.

Mystical aspects of the Heron are illuminated in intertwining songlines by Rachel Newton and Seckou Keita; their harp and kora, respectively, twine as do their voices and languages. The Ghost Owl haunts in melody and sound. There’s a bright snap of humour in the story of Conker. Newton brings light and image to Macfarlane’s words with her take on Acorn. Fowlis and Keita connect languages in Papa Keyba, which takes inspiration from the ideas the book rather than drawing directly from its word and image.

Drawing the recording to a close is The Blessing. Images, ideas, and characters from the songs and the book make a story, a journey if you will. which includes bright flashes of hope and darker threads of sorrow, and perhaps, a hint of warning, too.

What, after all, would the woods and waters, birds and animals have to tell us about our times now? How would we speak in that conversation? Spell Songs may be that answer.

Good places to purchase Spell Songs and to find out more about the project are at the Lost Words site and at the Folk by the Oak shop. The music comes with a book, as well. Though I’ve heard the music in several contexts I’ve not had opportunity to see the book, but I understand it includes lyrics and further written material, as well as artwork Morris created during the residency that conneets musicians and their instruments with nature.

You will also find tour posters for sale with art work from Morris, as well as a no cost download on the project for educators. There’s also a fine gallery of photographs by Elly Lucas from the residency where the music was created and recorded, and from several of the live concerts which followed.

You may also want to know: word is that there will be a volume two of Spell Songs, perhaps to be released in the autumn.

--> Speaking of concerts, Folk by the Oak is taking their summer festival online this year. .The Spell Songs collaborative as well as several of the individual artists are set to take part. This all happens on 19 July, and there’s further information at the Folk by the Oak link in the sentence just above.

You may also wish to see
A story about Alterum from Julie Fowlis
A story about Laws of Motion from Karine Polwart
A story about another nature related recording: The Woods, from Hamish Napier
Journeys through Landscape in Music, part of the Music for Shifting Times series at Wandering Educators

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Celtic Connections 2020: 5 highlights for the first days of the festival

Winter is often a time for gathering in, for sharing stories. Winter in Scotland especially invites this, which is one of the reasons for the continuing success of Celtic Connections, which takes place for eighteen days beginning in mid January in Glasgow.

Collaboration, both planned and spontaneous, is also a hallmark of Celtic Connections. This year, the festival runs from 16 January through 2 February. There will be concerts, workshops, talks, walks, and even a mini festival within a festival in venues across Glasgow. Here is bit about what’s planned for the early days of the festival.

Grit Orchestra, an 80-piece ensemble of folk, jazz and classical musician originally founded to perform and celebrate the late Martyn Bennett’s musicUnder the baton of founding conductor Greg Lawson, the orchestra will première pieces by multi-instrumentalist Fraser Fifield, saxophonist Paul Towndrow, fiddlers Chris Stout and Patsy Reid, harpist Catriona McKay and cellist Rudi de Groot. The pieces will draw from each composer’s reflections on the Declaration of Arbroath. Scotland will mark the 700th anniversary of this document of freedom in April.

Another highlight will see the band Breabach marking its 15th anniversary, a journey which saw them winning an award for up and coming musicians at Celtic Connections in 2005 and this year finds the five musicians, known as one of Scotland’s most innovative groups, headlining the main stage at the Royal Concert Hall. Special guests including former band members will join Breabach and The Seamus Egan Project will debut their new album in support on the night, too.

The first Saturday of the Festival will see a mini festival celebrating Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters, with talks, plays, and music, all with connections to Scotland’s waters, coasts, and islands. Musicians will include Gillian Frame, Fara, Daimh, Julie Fowlis, Capercaillie, and others.

Julie Fowlis will appear later that evening too, when she joins Eamon Doorley, Zoe Conway, and John McIntyre for a rare performance of their stellar collaborative project, Allt, in which the four explore connection of Scottish Gaelic and Irish language music.

On another evening, Hamish Napier will introduce his nature focused project The Woods, and Sarah-Jane Summers will offer music from her album Owerset, which comprises music she’s composed inspired by connections between words in Scots and words in Old Norse.

That’s a taste of a few highlights of what’s on the schedule just in the first few days of this year’s Celtic Connections Festival. More to come...

You may also wish to see
Celtic Connections Festival website
What’s ahead in Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters, at Perceptive Travel
More about the album Allt
Hamish Napier’s project The Railway
Frenzy of the Meeting from Breabach

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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: Julie Fowlis: Alterum

Alterum: the music begins with a woman’s plea to her sister for help. In the stories handed down on the Hebridean island of Barra from which the song comes, it is said that the woman who composed the song was being held prisoner in a fairy mound.

Julie Fowlis sings this song, A Phiuthrag ‘s a Phiuthar, in Scottish Gaelic. She is known for that, both for her gifts in the arranging and singing of songs from past and present, and her intelligence and skill in seeking out and choosing such songs.

The album Alterum began for her as a project exploring Gaelic songs of the otherworld, Fowlis writes in her sleeve notes. There are stories of fairies and water horses, legends and myth, unexplained natural events, and places that may be real or not. As she explored and expanded this idea into choosing songs for recording, for the first time on an album of her own, Fowlis decided to include songs in English as well, and a song which includes both Gaelic and Galician lyrics, too.

She has sung in English and in other languages on different projects (for the Disney/Pixar film Brave, for instance). When preparing her own albums, though, Fowlis had never felt any particular pull to include songs in English -- until this time. Woven as they are into the theme of otherworld, Go Your Way by Annie Briggs and Windward Away by Archie Fisher offer, in different yet related ways, explorations of love, mystery, and time.

That could be said of each of the songs on the album, and indeed the sequence of all the songs played out as Fowlis has set them. There’s that call for help from a fairy hill to begin things. Gilllebride MacMillan joins in on Camariñas, a traditional Galician song which brings a ray of sunlight to the proceedings, as does the lively combination of two pieces of mouth music, Fear a’ bhrochain and Dòmhnall Bin.

There is an indeed otherworldly story and sound to Dh’èirich mi moch, b’fheàrr nach d’ dh’èirich (I arose early, would that I hadn’t). It is a story of legend entwined a story of grief and change.

There is that song of lost love, Go Your Way, a seal song, another rather mysterious love song in Gaelic called Dh’èirich mi moch madainn cheòthar ( I arose early on a misty morning). There are several other songs in Gaelic, and there is Windward Away, which holds enough mystery for several stories all on its own.

Cearcall mun Ghealaich(Circle about the Moon) with words by Scottish writer Catriona Montgomery which Fowlis has put to music closes things out. Speaking an introduction in English, Fowlis then sings in Gaelic. Both, as she remarks in her sleeve notes, play out the idea that “When you see a circle around the moon, it is often a warning of change – usually not for the better.”

Fowlis sings each of these songs with intelligence and grace. You needn’t know Scottish Gaelic to appreciate the power of emotion and story she brings to this well thought out and well sequenced collection. She is well supported too: Eamon Doorley on bouzouki and other instruments, Donald Shaw on piano and harmonium, Tony Byrne on guitar, Ewan Vernal on double bass, Duncan Chisholm on fiddle, and Su-a Lee on cello are among those who add their instrumental gifts. In addition to Gillebride MacMillan (if you are thinking his name sounds familiar, you might be recalling that he appeared as the bard in Outlander ), award winning singers Mary Chapin Carpenter from the US and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh from Ireland add harmonies on several tracks.

Alterum: that title is a word which may mean difference, change, other. Scottish Gaelic is a language not many speak; legend and mystery of the Celtic world (any world, for that matter) are paths not many tread through music or in other arts. Along the way through the music she has chosen for Alterum, Julie Fowlis leads her listeners on a meditative, spirit infused, and spiritual journey which draws on story, language, voice, and music.

Photographs of Julie Fowlis in concert at City Halls during Celtic Connections by Kerry Dexter, made with permission of the artist, the venue, and the festival. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Julie Fowlis: Every Story/Gach Sguel
Scotland’s Music: Nicola Benedetti: Homecoming on which Julie Fowlis appears as a guest
Ireland;s Music: Cara Dillon: Wanderer
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Julie Fowlis: Dual

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Ireland's Music: Murieann Nic Amhlaoibh: Foxglove & Fuschia

As she was planning the project which would become her album Foxglove & Fuschia, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh decided she wanted the music to be a bit like what she might do if she were planning for a gig in a pub near her home in Corca Duibhne, the Dingle peninsula, in the west of Ireland. It’s a situation she knows well, as she grew up in Dingle, surrounded by music and going to sessions from a young age.

As ancient stones and worn paths through mountain and along coast attest, people have been calling the Dingle peninsula in the west of Ireland home for thousands upon thousands of years. Rain and mist and wind, mountain and sea meet in a landscapes that suggests and evokes history and story.

Those stories are often told, shared, and forged through music.

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh has studied in Dublin, taught in LImerick, and traveled the world with her music. For thirteen years she was lead singer and flute player with the top Irish band Danu. I came time, though, to return to to her native west Kerry, to live again in the Irish speaking region of the far west of Dingle where she herself had grown up and begun her life in music,

She also thought at the time that stepping away from Danu might be the end of her public career as a musician. It wasn’t.

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A sure and steady vision of where she is and what she wishes to create as an artist is at the heart of Foxglove & Fuschia, which is Nic Amhlaoibh’s third solo album. There are songs in English and in Irish, and a few well chosen tune sets too.

Some of the music has its origin in west Kerry. Other songs and stories make their way in from father afield. They all, though, relate in some way to that life of water and mist, music and mountain and story found in Dingle.

There is the gentle joy of word and lyric in Muirisin Deas is Nora, a song from The Great Blasket Island, which lies just to the west of the tip of Dingle. It is about a couple who have been married a long time and are still very much in love. The words in Irish are from a traditional poem, set to a new melody by guitarist Gerry O’ Beirne. O’Beirne, who often plays with Nic Amhloaibh when she goes on the road with her music, supports her on the song for the recording.He also wrote the image filled song Where Foxglove, from which Nic Amhlaoibh drew the title for the recording.

For most pieces on Foxglove & Fuschia, there are just one two musicians joining Nic Amhlaoibh. That still leaves good scope for family and friends to sit in, though: there’s a set of reels with Nic Amhlaoibh’s husband Billy Mag Fhlionn on bouzouki and a friend from her days with Danu, Donnchadh Gough, on bodhran, and on a set of polkas with her father, Feargal MacAmhlaoibh, as the fiddler, and with longtime friends, Padraig O se on accordion and Donough Hennessey on guitars. Donal O’Connor, Seamus Begley, Pauline Sclanlon. Eilis Kennedy and John McSherry are among those who sit in on various tracks, too.

It is Nic Amhlaoibh’s voice and vision which define what’s happening on the album, though. Nowhere is that more evident than on The Final Trawl, a song of the sea by Scotland’s Archie Fisher. As part of her working co presenting the television programme Port for BBC Alba with Scottish singer Julie Fowlis, Nic Amhlaoibh had the chance to meet and sing with Fisher, who wrote the song with ideas and images drawn from his experience of seafaring.

Another song that weaves together the album’s ideas is Bean Dubh an Ghleanna. It is Nic Amhlaoibh says, one of the big songs which to her mind make up the classical tradition of Ireland’s folk music. Nic Amhlaoibh grew up in Dingle, in the Gaeltacht, where, she points out, you don’t actually study the traditional style of sean nos, you’re given the words and the melody and expected to find your own way into them.

Indeed, so she has, through each of the tracks on the recording. There are eleven of them, and each invites repeated listening. Tune, song, and story shared in ways which honor tradition and create it anew in one of Ireland’s most interesting and creative voices: this is what you will find on Foxglove & Fuschia.

Photographs of Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and friends in concert at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland, by Kerry Dexter, made by permission of the artists, the festival, and the venue. Thank you for respecting copyright

You may also wish to see
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh & Julie Fowlis: Dual
Musireann Nic Amhlaoibh: The Small Hours
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s web site
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind & Rain

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Ireland's music: Danu: Buan

One of the hallmarks of the music of Ireland is connection, and another is conversation. Between musicians, with listeners, with the strands of irish tradition, with contemporary music which draws on tradition -- connection and conversation happen in al these ways. For twenty years, the musicians who join together as the band Danu have been working on this. Their album Buan clearly shows that they just keep getting better at these connections and conversations.

Across the years and through a few changes in membership, the band has retained the bright fire with which it began in Waterford those years ago and added the seasoning and maturity that twenty more years of living and playing music will bring. With musicians coming from Waterford, Dublin, Donegal, and Kerry they choose music which draws the range of Irish landscape into the conversation.

They invite listeners into the musical conversation of Buan with an opening set of slides and reels in which the traditions of Donegal meet those of Kerry. Bouzouki joins with flute, accordion takes its place as the tunes unfold and fiddle leads a lyrical dance on the closing tune as all the while bodhran speaks of the beat. Musical conversation continues with Nic Amhloaibh singing a song from Dingle in Irish. A lively set of jigs including two from McAuley’s pen flows into Nic Amlaoibh’s thoughtful rendition of Lord Gregory, a story of star crossed lovers which shows well not only Nic Amhloaibh’s fine voice but also the players’ ability and skill in supporting and illuminating a story told in song.

That skill is also evident in another and very different song. Donal Clancy’s choices in singing and phrasing work brilliantly to tell the story of Willie Crotty, an eighteenth century outlaw from the Waterford area whose colorful life is told in a song written by Clancy’s cousin Robbie O’Connell. The fast paced melody and upbeat playing only enhance Clancy’s storytelling flair.

The musical conversation in Buan continues in equally interesting fashion through a set of reels and a set of two lighthearted songs in Irish that the band dedicates to their children. The men of Ireland’s east and north were inspired by the west as well as a lovely set of a waltz composed by McAuley leads into a march composed by Clancy, both written after the band spent a week of rehearsal in West Kerry last spring.

The enigmatic, poetic, and image filled song Passage West by John Spillane of Cork provides a gorgeous showcase not only for Nic Amhlaioibh’s voice but for all the band members working together to create a vibrant story told as much through melody as through word -- and the words and singing themselves are powerful enough that they could stand alone.

Reels and hornpipes taken over from pipes music make up a set following Passage West, which makes a graceful bridge to The Willow Tree, a quiet song which weaves modern day love song with myth, legend, and landscape and which Nic Amhlaoibh learned from the singing of its composer, Padragian Ni Uallachain. That makes a fitting close to this conversation in music -- rather than a close an invitation to a quiet pause to reflect on the journey the conversation has taken, really -- a pause which will very likely lead to repeated listening.

Danu are: Éamon Doorley, guitar and bouzouki, Oisín McAuley, fiddle, Benny McCarthy, Accordion, Dónal Clancy, guitar, voice, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, voice, flute, and whistles.

Joining them on Buan are producer Donal Lunny on buzouki, zook, harmonium and bass bodhran as well as former band members Tom Doorley on flute and whistle and Donnachadh Gough on pipes and bodhran. For the concert at which the photographs were made, Oisin McAuley was delayed by weather from arriving in Glasgow, so former member Darragh Doyle stepped in. Phil Cunningham on accordion and Julie Fowlis on voice and whistles were also guests at the concert in Glasgow.

Photographs were made by Kerry Dexter at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, with permission of the artists, venue, and festival. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Ireland's Music: The Small Hours: Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
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Music for an Easter Weekend

Two meditative pieces which go well with the contemplative nature of Easter weekend, though neither of them has precisely to do with Easter itself.

Classical violinist Nicola Benedetti plays The Lark Ascending, which she has recorded on her album Fantasie.

Julie Fowlis sings the lament/song in praise of Calum, called Do Chalum. She has recorded this on her album Gach Sgeul / Every Story.

you may also wish to see
Scotland's Music: Julie Fowlis: Every Story more about this album
Scotland's Music: Nicola Benedetti: Homecoming -- A Scottish Fantasy a different album from Nicola Benedetti, on which Julie Fowlis also appears
Lessons from an Old Lament thoughts on an Irish song often sung at this season

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Music, connection, education: Nicola Benedetti

“Your sound is what you speak through. It should be like telling a story. Be as present as you can be -- and make it sound like you’re making things up as you go, like a painter painting a story.” That's classical violinist Nicola Benedetti speaking, during a master class she taught for students at Florida State University. As with any such class, quite a bit of the time was devoted to specific and detailed comment and explanation on technique. As a natural part of this part of things, though, Benedetti continued to remind students that techniques -- and understanding of techniques -- are tools, at the service of the spirit and ideas of music.

“It’s up to you,” she continued, “it’s up to your imagination to dig deep into the music and come up with a story the way you want to tell it. People can suggest things, but it is completely up to you.” That may involve as much reflection as it does time with instrument in hand, she added. “ If you were to listen outside my practice room, what you’d hear is a lot of silence. You have to slow your thought processes down...”

Benedetti is passionately convinced of the power of music, as a means of expression, a means of connection, and a way of centering, and a way of learning about one’s self in the world. She began finding all these thing early in her own life. At the age of four, growing up in Ayrshire in Scotland, she followed her older sister into studying the violin. A dozen or so years later, on winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award, she found many opportunities offered her. Some of them, it turned out, were not leading her in ways she felt honored the music she was called to make. She went more deeply into the music she was called to play to renew and refresh her perspective, to guide her focus as she made decisions going forward.

Benedetti speaks about this, and directions resulting from her choices

Part of her calling is going deep into the heart of music, and part of it is sharing her passion for the importance of music -- not classical music alone -- in life and education. On the education side, she is Big Sister with Sistema Scotland, which helps bring music to children, especially those who might not otherwise have a chance to encounter it, she gives master classes as her concert schedule takes her across the world, and she’s recently begun and another educational initiative called The Benedetti Sessions, which allows children to work together in a concentrated period of time of learning what it’s like to play music, about the value of practice and focus, and about working together and alone to make music.

Then there’s that concert and recording schedule. Benedetti has a clear-- and it’s apparent from her choices -- adventurous focus on what sort of music she’s called upon to create and share, and a clear view too of the fact that interpretation is as creative and demanding a music practice as is composition.

In addition to classical repertoire including Tchaikovsky, Tavener, and Vivaldi, she has recorded an album of film music, The Silver Violin (you may find the piece she plays in the video above included there) and, honoring her native land, an album called Homecoming - A Scottish Fantasy, in which Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy appears alongside music from contemporary Scottish composer Phil Cunningham, songs from the Gaelic tradition with Julie Fowlis as singer, melodies from Scotland’s national bard Robert Burns, and a fresh and graceful take on the well loved piece The Banks of Loch Lomond. A beautiful and creative joining of musical talents from the classical nd folk traditions, Homecoming is a project which is likely to open both to new audiences -- and indeed at present is in the top twenty and climbing in pop charts in the UK, an unusual feat for a classical album.

A gifted and creative musician, an artist with passion for sharing her own creativity and opening doors for others to experience their own gifts: that is Nicola Benedetti.

In an interview with The Spectator she said: “I’m absolutely convinced – and I want the world to know what I know – that there is something in the music itself that can bring you to a place of substance. And from that place, I truly believe that anything is possible.”

photograph of Nicola Benedetti and Phil Cunningham at Celtic Connections is by Kerry Dexter, and is copyrighted. It was made with permission of the artists, the festival, and the venue..

You may also wish to see
Julie Fowlis: Every Story
Scotland's Music: Nicola Benedetti: Homecoming -- A Scottish Fantasy
Celtic and classical: Tony McManus

Homecoming: A Scottish Fantasy [US link]

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Scotland's Music: Nicola Benedetti: Homecoming -- A Scottish Fantasy

Folk music and classical music: both traditions go back long into the work and life of Scotland, yet rarely are they heard together. That happened at the opening concert of the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow in 2014, when top classical violinist Nicola Benedetti and top folk musicians including Phil Cunningham, Julie Fowlis, Duncan Chisholm, Aly Bain, and Eamon Doorley shared parts of a project they had been working on, a project which has become Benedetti’s recording Homecoming - A Scottish Fantasy.

Though she’s a native Scot, from West Kilbride in Ayrshire, Benedetti’s gift and passion for classical music took her away from the west of Scotland to study in London by the age of ten. Her music training took her in other directions than traditional jigs and reels, too, but Benedetti has always had Scotland in the back of her mind. She’s recorded top albums of classical music from Taverner to Tchaikovsky to Vivaldi as well as an album of film music which made pop as well as classical charts, and played her music with orchestras, in recitals, and in chamber music configurations from India to Hong Kong to South America -- and often back in her native Scotland.

Benedetti always receives a warm welcome when she plays in Scotland, whether she is appearing in concert or following another aspect of her musical passion, sharing her work with younger players as part of the program Sistema Scotland and in other educational settings, including her emerging program of master classes called the Benedetti Sessions

It was time to for her to bring classical and traditional music of her native land together. Drawing on emerging friendships in the traditional music scene in Scotland (“I think the sense of togetherness that traditional musicians have is one things I’ll take away from this, and hope to repeat,” she says) she came up with a program which deftly intertwines the classical (Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, part of which is based on four Scottish folk tunes), well known and loved traditional music of Scotland with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as backing band (the Robert Burns tune My Love is Like a Red Red Rose, Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond), and traditional and contemporary folk music including tunes composed by Phil Cunningham (Aberlady, The Gentle Light that Wakes Me), a traditional hornpipe, a set of tunes from Scottish folk icon James Scott Skinner, variations on Auld Lang Syne, and a Gaelic song from the Hebrides with Julie Fowlis as vocalist.

Whatever your taste in music, it’s worth the cost of the disc just to hear these musicians, all at the very top of their game and from very differing points of the musical compass, collaborate on music they all hold as vibrant and important. They bring thoughtful, powerful, and fresh interpretations to the well known and often played pieces and weave them gracefully with the ideas and sounds of those less widely known.

You will feel the mist rising off the water at Loch Lomond in Benedetti’s interpretation, and hear the connections, as well, among the sounds of Gaelic as Julie Fowlis sings it, the classical forms of Bruch compositions, and the melody of another Burns song, Ae Fond Kiss. Homecoming - A Scottish Fantasy is a well done, beautifully thought out and brilliantly played collaboration. If you love Scotland you’ll certainly want it, and if you don’t know Scotland, Homecoming might just inspire a visit.

“I have a constant yearning for Scotland,” Nicola Benedetti told an interviewer for the Telegraph newspaper. “The music on this album comes from a very deep, emotional place. Recording it was a very moving experience.”

Photograph of Nicola Benedetti at Celtic Connections is by Kerry Dexter, and was made with permission of the festival, the artist, and the venue.

Stay tuned here at Music Road for more on each of the musicians mentioned in this story

You may also wish to see
Julie Fowlis: Every Story
Celtic Connections 2014
Phil Cunningham and Scott-Land at Celtic Connections
Scotland's Highlands in music: Duncan Chisholm
Alterum from Julie Fowlis

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