Radio Four's Desert Island Discs kindly allows castaways eight discs, although I am never sure whether this is eight tracks or eight full LPs, as it were. Since we're not on DID I'm limiting myself to five: five CDs I could listen to forever, my five favourites. They are all very Scottish and very folky - but don't actually all include pipes.
Ossian - The Carrying Stream.
I love Ossian. I love Borders, Sealsong, St Kilda Wedding and their eponymous album. Which is five in itself, but for this list we're just considering The Carrying Stream. It has Mr MacInnes, and some serious piping sets.
Smalltalk - Smalltalk. Yes, yes, more Mr MacInnes, and to be honest I'd happily take my Iain MacInnes list instead of this. It also has some lovely Scots fiddle, and one of my favourite songs: Rosie Anderson, which I love for many reasons, including the marvellous line "I only brought her safely home, from the dangers on the way."
James Duncan Mackenzie. The more I hear this the more I love it. Plenty of traditional tunes, including the beautiful closing pibroch, and JDM himself writes a very nice tune in the traditional style.
A' Jock Tamson's Bairns - The Lasses Fashion/Jock Tamson's Bairns. I have both of these on one CD, so tend to think of them as one item. Some great pipe tunes (I do like The Hills of Perth) although, sadly, without any actual pipes. Some more nice fiddle playing. Some interesting arrangements, good mix of instruments and a general lively and upbeat air. I like Rod Paterson's voice and Lady Keith's Lament is one of my favourite songs.
Whistlebinkies - Inner Sound. Actually I could live without hearing the first track, which always seems rather muddled, and I tend to skip it. Oran Mor is worth the price of the CD alone: a slow and stately funeral march, that makes me think of a CD I have of music for the death of Queen Mary (not of Scots), and all it really needs is a muffled drum. The band clearly love it too as it also appears on Albanach, disguised as Coronach, and played on GHB. The whole album is a little slow and stately, polished and precise. The fan categorises this sort of thing as "chamber music", but I love it. It does also include pipes, albeit border pipes.
I would love to have a Kevin MacLeod CD on this list. My Christmas stocking this year included Dorney Rock and I confidently expect it to become a favourite. Santa also brought me Gary West's The Islay Ball, the eponymous album by Skippinish, and Alasdair Gillies' Lochbroom. Maybe one of those will end up on a future DID list. They certainly need to be added to my CD shelf listing.
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