Mo nighean donn, ho gù is a traditional Gaelic waulking song. The track leans into the rhythmic aspects of the tradition and plays around with the accompaniment, with the backing vocals also imitating and exaggerating the beat-driven feel of a waulking song, which would have been sung during the tweed or tartan-making process. Bringing the […]
Cat and Mouse by James Duncan Mackenzie
Cat and Mouse is the first single from James’ third solo album. The single features two tunes, The Trapper and The Midnight Mouse. The Midnight Mouse refers to an incident of a mouse in the house in the early hours! Fìbhig was written and largely recorded from home over a two year period like no […]
St Valery by Alex MacDonald
This is the tragic story of the 51st Highland Division’s encirclement and capture at St Valery en Caux in Northern France in June 1940. I grew up in Kildonan Strath, Sutherland, where I loved the psalms and hymns and the old folk songs my father had learned from his drover grand uncle.Went on to Cash, […]
Iolair Iolaire by Alex MacDonald
On New Year’s Day 1919, hundreds of sailors were returning home to Stornoway after the horrors of the First World War. Looking forward to being reunited with family and friends, little did any of them think that the last tragedy of the war would be played out on their home shore. I grew up in […]
Alba My Homeland feat. George Duff by Oaks of Dunadd
Poet William J. Swain-Nisbet began composing this song whilst passing Loch Lomond in 1981 when he and his wife left Glasgow for Oban. Frustrated by what he felt were backward looking themes in some of the popular folk songs of this time, William was inspired by the idea of songs like Matt McGinn’s The Rolling […]
The Lion of Donegal by Alex MacDonald
James Duffy from Donegal was my distant relation by marriage. He won the Victoria Cross (the highest British military award for bravery) during World War I. His life in returning to a changed Ireland after the war was not easy. Alex MacDonald comes originally from the Strath of Kildonan in Sutherland, but has spent most […]
Leis a’ Bhàta by WHYTE
This song survives in the oral tradition of Mull and is considered there to be of local origin. Verses not current in Mull tradition are preserved in published versions and verse 4 is a nod to the version published in 1879 in An t-Òranaiche. The version in An t-Òranaiche makes it clear that the subject […]
Chilled Maggie by Teannaich
Chilled Maggie is a track from the rock ceilidh band Teannaich’s 2nd album Energised, the exemplifies the bands blending of traditional music with funk and jazz. Tunes on the track are: Sleepy Maggie (trad), Trip to Pakistan (Nial Kenny), A’ choked up (Mike Ross). Teannaich are a 5 piece rock ceilidh band who have been […]
Masters by Treacherous Orchestra
Masters is a brand new track from one of Scotland’s finest and most explosive live bands, Treacherous Orchestra. New album “Grind” will be released in February by Reveal Records. Masters by Treacherous Orchestra from the album Grind The Treacherous Orchestra story is one of many strands, a tale told spanning the length and breadth of […]
Big Al’s by Stuart Cassells
A rockin set of tunes from BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award winner and founder of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers Stuart Cassells. b. 1979, Falkirk, Scotland. Cassells was one of the finest young pipers to emerge from the Scottish folk scene at the start of the twenty-first century. He began playing the pipes […]
