The McCalmans - The Greentrax Years
This is a double CD compilation of song highlights marking the folk vocal group's 24-year association with Greentrax Recordings. It clearly illustrates the strength of their vocal ability and songwriting skills.
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Mick West - Sark O' Snaw
One of Scotland's finest traditional-style singers and a lover of song since he was a child. It was after a move from Glasgow to Boscastle in Cornwall as a teenager that Mick's love of folk music was kindled - there he listened to local farmers singing their traditional songs. On return to Glasgow as a lad of nineteen, Mick's interest in Scottish folk song led to him forming his first band, Molindinar. He was responsible for starting the Partick Folk Club in Glasgow's West End in 2002, has been the man behind the annual Partick Folk Festival, and has also been traditional song tutor at The National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music (Plockton). Mick is equally at home singing traditional Irish songs, and has a great fondness for these.
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Recent releases on Greentrax
Poozies - Yellow Like Sunshine The Poozies began their career in 1990, after Patsy Seddon and Mary MacMaster - also known at the time as Scottish harp duo Sileas - had worked with singer Sally Barker on her second solo album. The Poozies have undergone lineup changes from time to time, but in 2009 their world turned full circle when original member Sally Barker rejoined the band. Seventeen years down the line, The Poozies seem to have found the secret of eternal youth. Still with the three original members, they have been energised by the perfectly compatible addition of Eilidh Shaw and Mairearad Green, and remain as fresh and delightful as ever.
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Brian McNeill - The Baltic Tae Byzantium
Brian McNeill released his groundbreaking album The Back O' The North Wind in 1991, on the theme of emigration from Scotland to North America. This time the theme is emigration from Scotland to Europe. Brian McNeill (fiddle, octave fiddle, guitar, mandocello, bouzouki, viola, mandolin, cittern, concertina, bass, hurdy gurdy) with Sylvia Barnes (vocals), Dominique Dodge (harp), Dick Gaughan (guitar, vocals), Lorne MacDougall (pipes), Patsy Seddon (vocals), Fraser Speirs (harmonica) and Mike Travis (drums).
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Paul Anderson - Home and Beauty
This compilation has been gleaned mainly from Paul’s solo albums released between 1993 and 2004, and is a selection of Paul's very own favourites. There is a mixture of classic Scots fiddle repertoire, his own compositions, accompaniment to the fine voice of the late, great Jim Reid and even one track with the Aberdonian rock band Pallas. Already something of a legend and revered virtuoso in the time honoured tradition of Scottish fiddle music, Paul Anderson began his training while at school on a fiddle found under his grandparents' spare bed. He can trace his teaching lineage directly to Niel Gow through his tutor Douglas Lawrence, the most acclaimed pupil of Hector MacAndrew. Hector was taught by his grandfather who was taught by the last pupil of Gow. The session musicians who joined Paul on the various albums included George Donald (piano), Margaret Smith (piano), Tony McManus (guitar) and Ali Napier (keyboards).
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Hector MacAndew - Legends of the Scottish Fiddle
The late, great Hector MacAndrew was born in 1903 and died in 1980. These recordings, made some 60 years ago in Hector’s home, were never meant for public release so some allowance must be made for the quality of the recordings, although not for the playing, which is brilliant and of an old Scottish style seldom heard nowadays. Hector MacAndrew was possibly the greatest exponent of the Scots fiddle tradition of his generation and although he died in 1980 he is still the benchmark by which all Scots fiddlers should be measured. It is impossible to meet a notable Scottish fiddler who doesn’t hold Hector in the highest regard and in many cases his interpretation of some of our Scots fiddle classics are regarded as being the final word on the matter.
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Eric Bogle - The Dreamer
The Dreamer is Eric Bogle's 15th album and is released as Eric prepares to hang up his 'touring boots' and embark on a final UK tour. As always, Eric will be accompanied by his long-time buddy John Munro, who has produced this and other Eric Bogle albums. A compulsive, almost obsessive songwriter for most of his adult life, Eric has written some songs that have pretty much become Australian (if not world) classics of their particular genre. Possibly his best known song is The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, which confirmed its status by appearing as a question in the Australian version of Trivial Pursuit!
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Fiona J Mackenzie - Deagh Dheis Aodaich (A Good Suit of Clothes)
A unique collection of Gaelic emigrant songs, traditional, contemporary and in a variety of styles, depicting the experiences of Highland emigrants over the past 300 years - both happy and nostalgic.
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Far, Far From Ypres - Songs, Poems And Music Of World War One (2CD)
Double CD of songs from the time of, and relating to, World War I. This album is a tribute to all the soldiers from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, and also their Commonwealth brothers in arms from all corners of the globe, who fought and suffered together in the Great War and, in particular, to all those who died. The album has a more Scottish perspective than any of its predecessors, but when one considers that Scotland suffered the most soldiers killed (per head of population) of any nation that fought in the conflict, such an album is greatly overdue. It is also doubtful if the songs, poems and music of WW1 have ever before been covered in such depth.
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The McCalmans - Coming Home (Live)
Ian McCalman will shortly retire from The McCalmans, and so the group that has been a part of the Scottish folk scene since 1964 will be no more. They have chosen a live format for Coming Home, that always has been their real strength. The album was recorded on tour in Scotland and Denmark in folk clubs, village halls and theatres.
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