2014 is the 700TH Anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn and this album is released to mark this important event and the historical period of the Wars of Independence. 2014 is also the year of The Scottish Referendum for Independence and the album also recognises this historical event. The title of the album ‘For Freedom […]
Maiden Stone by Jenny Sturgeon
‘Maiden Stone’ is the opening track on ‘From the Skein’, one of several songs on the album inspired by regional folklore. The Maiden Stone is a Pictish standing stone which is located at the back of Bennachie Hill, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This track tells the local tale of how the standing stone came to be […]
Usher’s Well by Barbara Dymock
A fusion of styles and cultures, Child Ballad 79, The Wife of Usher’s Well is sung in Scots but set to a melody composed by Fatoumata Diawara from Mali resulting in an intriguing combination of comtemporary African music and rhythms with 17th century lyrics. Scots singer Barbara Dymock based in Dundee was brought up in […]
The Bothy Lads by Claire Hastings
The Bothy Lads features on Claire’s debut album ‘Between River and Railway’ released 29th April 2016 on Luckenbooth Records. Produced by Ali Hutton, recorded by Keir Long at Carrier waves Studio. Vocals – Claire Hastings Guitar & vocals – Jenn Butterworth Accordion – Andrew Waite Fiddle – Laura Wilkie Bass – Duncan Lyall Percussion – […]
My Love is like a Red Red Rose by Sheena Wellington
A Red, Red Rose” is a 1794 song in Scots by Robert Burns based on traditional sources. The song is also referred to by the title “Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose”, “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose” or “Red, Red Rose” and is often published as a poem. This […]
Ae Fond Kiss by Corrina Hewitt
A beautiful song written by Robert Burns and sung by Corrina Hewat. Saxophone is played by Phil Bancroft. Burns wrote ‘Ae fond kiss’ after his final meeting with Mrs McLehose (Clarinda) on 27 December 1791 before she departed Edinburgh for Jamaica to be with her estranged husband. Corrina Hewat is a Scottish harpist and composer[ […]
Kinnoull Hill by Alan Dickson
Kinnoull Hill is a song from the album ‘Traces of Freedom’, which is the second in the series of five albums from Alan Dickson’s solo music project ‘Strains of Eden’. Kinnoull Hill was inspired by Scots town planner and social activist Patrick Geddes’s period of self-reflection in Mexico, brought on as a result of a […]
King Orfeo by Emily Smith
On her 2014 album release, Emily Smith continues to draw on her talent as one of the finest interpreters of traditional song in the UK presenting an album that is unshakeably Scottish but with farther, wider horizons. New settings of time worn texts weave beautifully alongside contemporary covers blurring the borders of old and new. […]
It’s Ower by Gerda Stevenson
It’s Ower is the penultimate track (12) from Gerda’s album of her own songs NIGHT TOUCHES DAY, described by The Guardian as having “the power of a great Scottish ballad”. Rory Macdonald of Runrig says: “The final two tracks It’s Ower and Aye the Gean truly deserve to become classics in their field, and if […]
All The Prayer by Gerda Stevenson
All the Prayer is track 4 from Gerda’s album of her own songs NIGHT TOUCHES DAY, described by Rory Macdonald of Runrig as “a new Humanist anthem, a really groundbreaking, important song”; by Folk Radio UK as “an ancient enchantment. Backed up by strings, drones and layered vocals, the song implores us to live for […]