Five things - songs

I used to prefer songs , as I've mentioned before. I suppose it's easier to be exposed to songs than to tunes, the repetition of chorus aids memorability, songs are maybe less challenging than tunes because we're all familiar with words.

I suppose, as well, that as a Literature student I've always been drawn to lyrics, to words. In folk, however, the songs tend to be ballads, my least favourite wodge of the poetry spectrum. They tell often unlikely stories in a simple manner: there's not a whole lot of metaphor, striking imagery, or other literary tricks. 

That said, I am reasonably intrigued by songs that have clearly changed over time, split, or merged, maybe got a little garbled along the way. I like the way that songs - stories - travel, and each place they come to changes them, so that the story suits the locality. I suppose ballads are a form of urban legend, and urban legends never tell tales of long ago in a far off land: the whole point is that this happened to my neighbour's sister's cousin. Somehow we feel that a story must be true when it has happened so near to us. Not only could it be true, but the same thing could happen to us. We want our musical stories to feel local, relevant.

If I listed all the CD tracks I skip on every playing, on repeat playings, or when I have the CD on permanent loop every last one of those tracks would be songs. They aren't all bad. Here are five I don't really tire of.

Road to Drumleman. (Ossian - Seal Song.) There is nothing like a tale of homesickness, the wonders of the old land, to bring out the Celt in me. I love the rather domestic scale of this: it's not mountains and drama he misses, but the people, and the chance of "a dram and a wee cup of tea". 

Rosie Anderson. (Smalltalk - Smalltalk) I love some of the marvellous turns of phrase in this: "I'm all in to surprise he said” and “I only brought her safely home from the dangers on the way”. Like many sad songs, it seems, it closes with a repeat of the opening, just to remind you of the pleasant days that have gone, the days when Hay Marshall loved Rosie as his life. There's also a comic note, as in all the best tragedies, with Rosie on the lookout for an officer, her "broken heart to cheer". It's rather reminiscent of Lydia Bennet.  Note, also, the Jean Redpath version (linked from the song title) has an extra  verse about Rosie's maid, and that the errant Rosie "played the loon" after a month in London, whereas Billy Ross has her languishing long enough in London ("months but barely  nine") to have "gotten a son".

Cruel Lowland Maid. (Caladh Nua - Next Stop). This is a bit of a cheat because it’s the tune I love, all boppy and uplifting, despite the grim tale of murder, with a cheerful "whoop!" at the end to underline the hanging of the cruel lowland maid. 

Bonnie Earl of Moray. (Jock Tamson's Bairns - Rare). Another where the tune is almost the main draw, the lovely Swedish tune that the Bairns use for it, the interesting arrangement with the song surrounded by tune. And again the conceit of coming back at the end to the beginning, although here not reminding us of good times before the tragedy, but just underlining again the woefulness of the situation. This, of course, is the song that gave the world the Mondegreen.

Little Musgrave. (Billy Ross - Shore Street). I've heard Fairport sing Little Matty Groves unplugged. In their hands it's a rock anthem with a twist each time ("How do you like my brand new curtains, that I got in Ikea last week?" was one memorable lyric variation). It's different each time, and it's lots of fun. Little Musgrave is an Appalachian version, a sweet and sorry tale. There seems to be lots of other verions of this, and much discussion about its history. It's an English song, though, no links to Scotland at all, it seems.

Five novels about musicians

Novels don't tend to cover the world of work much. Somehow the 9 to 5 grind lacks literary possibilities. In children's fiction it is normally the school holidays, and parents are conveniently abroad or dead, allowing children to get on with fun and adventure.

In adult fiction characters are perhaps off work sick, have inherited a lot of money, or do something vaguely creative in a freelance way. Even in police procedurals, where you might expect a dose of realism, the cops rarely sit at a desk answering emails or filling forms for any length of time. Similarly, apart from Sherlock Holmes pottering about with a bit of chemistry, you don't often come across characters in novels with much in the way of hobbies.

Not many novels have musicians as the protagonists, which is odd, as they don't lead the 9 to 5 office life. Perhaps novelists aren't generally musical, or don't know many musicians. Perhaps it's the difficulty of writing meaningfully about music that no one can hear, although I can think of novels about artists that include detailed descriptions of non-existent paintings...

Here are five novels that do involve musicans, two (or possibly three), include folk music, two focus on pianists, two have composers, and there is a fair smattering of fiddlers and violinists. This isn't an exhaustive list. There are no pipers (but there could be if I included a book I meant to reread and meant to write about here: Kirsty Gunn's The Big Music).

The Fountain Overflows - Rebecca West. We get to hear a lot about the super talented Richard Quin, who can't quite be bothered, amd the terribly untalented Cordeila with her "greasy tone". Of the talented twins we are only told that they practice a lot and will be concert pianists one day, but somehow we never really know what it is to love music, to enjoy playing it.

The Song Collector - Natasha Solomons
The protaginist here, Harry Fox-Talbot, is a collector of folk song, musician, and composer. Solomons talks of him losing music when his wife dies, of getting tunes stuck in his head, of the joy and frustrations of music. It makes me feel as though she is either a musician herself or knows musicans well.

Under the Greenwood Tree - Thomas Hardy
The tale of the choir (or quire) of Mellstock village and how their voices, violoncello, treble and tenor fiddles and are ousted from  the church by flighty Fancy Day and her harmonium. There is much about the importance of music for dance and community gatherings and about folk song.

Casanova's Chinese Restaurant - Anthony Powell. Despite the series to which this novel belongs being known as A Dance to the Music of Time there are lots of pictorial references in it and not much of music. However, a key character is the composer Hugh Moreland, who drifts in and out of several of the books in this series. He doesn't seem to do much composing and the focus is on his drinking and difficult relationships with women. Moreland was based on Constant Lambert.

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle. We like our fictional detectives to have some sort of quirk, aside from the usually abysmal home life. Some paint, some grow orchids and some listen to music but there is only one I can think of who plays music - the great Sherlock Holmes. Although, apparently, he doesn't play very well (although what he does play may be folk music).

Five things - pipes in the Great Tapestry of Scotland

I discovered the Great Tapestry through one of the knitting blogs that I follow and had a book detailing each of the panels for Christmas. The embroidered panels tell the history of Scotland, from rocks rising out of the ceaseless sea to the reconvening of the Scottish parliament. Along the way it takes in new towns, whaling, tenements, Dolly the sheep, paisley shawls, the King James bible, the Jacobite rising and Pytheas the Greek.

There isn't a panel that specifically addresses music or piping, but pipes make appearances in several panels, mostly in the borders rather than in the main design.

Panel 38 - Blind Harry. Pipes in one of the border motifs.

Panel 40. Flodden. The central figure is playing a rather odd, single-droned bagpipe. Text in the panel refers to the flooers of the forest, a pipe tune played at funerals, which I first knew of through the Fureys.

Panel 92. The Scots in India. A sets of pipes is one of the items in the panel's border alongside a mix of items including a steam train, a tea pot, an elephant and a tiger.

Panel 101. Highland games. You can't have games without pipes!

Panel 134. D-Day. A piper leads out other service men and women, playing Hieland Laddie. (Women feature in many of the panels...none of them playing pipes.)

Panel 135. The first Edinburgh festival. Relegated to the panel border again.

One fifth

I've got a few days off. I've been baking , knitting, reading, piping, listening to CDs. I've been thinking that The Yellow-haired Tinker has striking similarities to Miss Girdle, that I'd be interested in a CD of Hugh MacDiarmid's Haircut, and wondering why it is that the tune I like least is the one most likely to be going round my head at given moment (Last Waltz...).

I also had an excited moment, on noticing the tune called Fleshmarket Close, thinking that I could post a "five things" that would be five tunes that share a name with a Rebus novel, or even with a Rebus character (Big Ger surely deserves a march), or Rebus places (The Ox, of course), but sadly it looks like this would be a list of one. ...

Five things that go well with pipes

I've mentioned those things I feel add nothing to pipes, so it seems right to mention those things that do actually add something to pipes. I've used "five things" rather loosely here...to be perfectly honestly this is more of a list of four and one of those isn't really an item...

More pipes. No better than example than Ross and Jarlath, but I always love it at our sessions when the (Irish) piper plays along with me, mainly on My Home Town.

Fiddles. See, for example, The Waterhorse's Lament on The Desperate Battle of the Birds, but anything by Braebach, or the Mackenzie brothers, will illustrate my point.

Harpsichord. Not the obvious choice, perhaps, but it works astonishingly well. Hats off to Mr MacInnes for dreaming this one up.

Nothing. Much as I like these pairings there is really nothing to beat solo pipes, be that smallpipes or GHB. Many of Mr MacInnes's tracks on both his solo albums give you lone pipes, but for a full CD of unadulterated piping pleasure you need the Grand Concert of Scottish Piping or Alasdair Gillies' Lochbroom. Mr Gillies plays in a very measured style that brings out the forms of the tunes, so you can somehow hear the patterns very clearly. There is something rather zen, I find, listening to it. like Bach cello suites, they are, all different and yet somehow all the same, so that you can listen intently and nothing in the music or the playing of it distracts (except that Mr G is one of the perpetrators of the pointless twiddling at the end of tune....)

Five things I could live without

I'm not a purist, I don't think. I love Braebach's rendition of I am Proud to Play a Pipe, and the syncopated  percussion on The Whistlebinkies' version of Donald MacLennan's Tuning Phrase. I enjoy cellos or harpsichords with my SSP. I like change and innovation that adds something, not just fiddle for the sake of it. Like cookery, I'm happy to try new things but think that a few good, simple, fresh ingredients in season are better than any amount of cheffery, jus, foams, coulis and wilfully strange pairings of ingredients. And when it comes to CDs of pipe music I like to hear good tunes and good pipes. I don't need anything else...especially any of the following.

1. Electronic keyboards. To be fair I've only ever come across this on one CD (Enlightenment by PM David Barnes). It's one too many...

2. Guitars especially large, thumpy, chord-heavy guitars in the foreground. Really any rhythym instrument that is louder and clearer than the melody instruments, especially when those include pipes. I hate straining to hear pipes or fiddle behind some rumptety tump guitar or a thud thud of bodhran.

3.  Trilling about at the end of a tune or set. I've really only come across this on the Grand Concert CDs and on Alasdair Gillies' Lochbroom. I can't think of any need for this. There is no physical need: with bellows or blown pipes it is perfecty possible to come to a neat halt. It really takes the edge off a tune, like an actor rounding off a recitation from Hamlet with a nursery rhyme, or a singer sticking a chorus of The Day We Went to Bangor at the end of Nessun Dorma. Is it some sort of in joke? 

4.  Honkey tonk piano. The first time I heard this with pipes, on the Seadan CD, it was something really different and I loved it. Hearing it more, hearing it on almost every track of Piob is Fidheall, for example, the novelty has worn off.

5. Banjos. I blame the influence of the session and the fan, both of whom (or possibly which) purport to despise banjos. I'm certainly not keen on big, noisy banjo chords. Having said that a good banjo player can bring out the best in a pipe tune, especially if he's a piper himself (that'll be Martin MacDonald). Picking out the tune, rather than strumming, can also highlight the speed at which the piper is playing and foreground the gracenotes. It's why I love Kevin Macleod's CDs. Even without pipes, or pipe music, I can enjoy a thoughtfully played banjo. 

Five things - desert islands discs

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.

Five things - distractions

Five distractions that keep me from piping. 

The fan is very single minded. He'll happily spend all day doing one thing, and at any given point one of his hobbies will be to the fore, while others languish. I prefer to dot about, fitting in a bit of time for all my interests in one weekend. I'm sure I'd be a better piper if I played in every spare minute, but there is so much else I want to do. Perhaps I am just a procrastinator... However, here are some of the things I do when I am not finding time to pipe.

Work. To be fair, work is is a distraction that keeps me from life generally, although without it I wouldn't have the money to do some of the other things I do. Mind you, having paid for pipes it's a free hobby from there on in. 

Baking. I love to cook, and I love to bake, mostly because I love to eat. I'm not a great one for fondant icing, piping, sprinkles and so on. I like plain tea time cakes: crunchy top lemon cake, bara brith (generously spread with butter), gingerbread, coffee and walnut, chocolate brownies, and Victoria sponge, with really good jam, maybe some fresh fruit, and plenty of whipped cream is always going to be my favourite.  The fan, alas, blames my baking for his increasing girth, so my mixing bowl and spoon are languishing in the cupboard, along with a jar of sour cherries I bought with Black Forest gateau in mind...

The allotment. Luckily this is a seasonal pastime. It's also about the same age as my piping: I took possession of my plot in the hot and dry April of 2010. The plot is in a time zone of its own where hours whizz by. It also inhabits a lot of mental space as I spend a lot of time planning for the next crop, which is always going to be better than the last.

Knitting. I've knitted for so long I don't remember not being able to knit and I am not even sure who taught me. I assumed it was my mother until I realised that we hold our yarn totally differently... I usually seem to have a project on the go, and while I knit I can plan all the other knitting I will find time to do... 

Reading. I've been reading even longer than I have been knitting. I like to read about my hobbies, but also social history, biography, and mainly mid twentieth century fiction, mostly by women, and crime, but the type the American's call "cozy" with clues and a mystery and not too much blood, and the villain being duly caught at the end.

If work wasn't on the list the fifth would probably be sewing: needlepoint, quilting and dressmaking, but I don't get round to any of these much. 


Throw in some housework, blogging, seeing friends, writing letters and it's a miracle I ever find any time to pipe at all.

Five places to die in Scotland

I initially planned a post called "five writers/novels who/that evoke Scotland". I had in mind something literary and well written. I would start with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie...and then I got stuck. But it did occur to me that Ian Rankin's crime novels give you a chance to visit Edinburgh in imagination - even to follow Rebus around the city on a map. Then I remembered a couple of other crime series with Scottish settings, and tracked down a few more.

These books don't give you the Scottish tourist board view of the country, but they all give you a feel for the different cities and regions, including local dialect and delicacies. Despite showing the underbelly they all make me want to pack a bag and head North.

Ian Rankin. The Rebus novels - 19 of them in total. Set largely in Edinburgh and the Kingdom of Fife many of the places, down to the bars, are real and can be visited by the devotee. Expect views from the Forth bridge, bars, tenements, prisons and pints of 80/-.

Unlike Ian Rankin Anne Cleeves isn't actually from Scotland, and doesn't even live there. Her Shetland Quartet has crofting, incomers, tightly knit communities and island life.   

Aline Templeton grew up on the east of Scotland, but sets her D I Marjory Fleming novels in Galloway. Market towns, Glaswegian second-homers, lifeboats and lighthouses, and the reality of farming life give these books their flavour.

Denise Mina sets her Garnethill trilogy in Glasgow, the city where she lives. It's a city of Celtic shirts, views of the Campsie hills, burgers, bridies and hospitals.

Stuart MacBride  also sets his novels in his home town, the Granite City, aka Aberdeen.  D S Logan McRae eats stovies, drinks Irn Bru, everyone either chain smokes or lives on sweets, and it only stops raining when it snows.

Five things - fiddle CDs

The violin was one of the first instruments I came across in life. My father had one handed down from a family member, although I've no idea who, or what they played on it, nor why my father never learned himself. I always knew I would learn, and eventually I did for a few years, but never really got on with it. I didn't hear any fiddle playing: Dad's taste ran to Yehudi Menuhin, Aaron Rosand and the Mendelssohn  violin concerto. 

These days the fan is the one playing the fiddle and my preference is for Scottish, of course, although both Irish and Scandi figure in  my CD collection. Here are five of my favourites.

Eclection. Gabe McVarish. Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton...a truly eclectic mix, with the added bonus of Jarlath Henderson on pipes.

Welcome here again. Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill. One of my favourite duos. Not your usual Irish fiddle, this album is measured, slow and contemplative. Hearing tunes played this slowly, and so plainly  - just fiddle and very discrete guitar - makes you really listen and rethink Irish music.

All dressed in yellow. Fiddler’s Bid. Mostly Scottish, Shetland at that,  with the odd foray into Scandinavia, and one of the liveliest and most uplifting albums I have.  I make no apology for giving it its second five things mention.

Vamm. The album is eponymous. More Scots and Scandi stuff.  

Canaich. I've mentioned this - the first in a trilogy - in my five things on Scottish CDs. It's incredibly evocative of Scottish landscape, I love the use of the spoken word in it, shame about the wrong sort of pipes...

Just squeezing in Salmander by Bellevue Rendevous. Gavin Marwick composed some of the tunes and there are Brittany tunes  and some Klezmer among the Scandi stuff. 

Five things - more Mr Macinnes

Five CDs that feature not enough of Iain MacInnes.

I realise I run the risk of sounding a bit obsessive and stalkerish here, but heaven knows there are few enough CDs out there featuring smallpipes, and even fewer featuring Iain, who is my smallpiping hero because I love everything he does. Although he has only given us a miniscule number of CDs of his own he has appeared elsewhere over the years. If you want to hear more of MacInnes, and who wouldn't, these are the CDs you need to get hold of. 

1. Shore Street, Billy Ross. A CD showcasing Billy and a good range of Scottish songs, on which he is joined from the old crowd from Smalltalk and Ossian, among others. Iain is credited on the first track (The Heiland Sodger). He is most certainly also on track 3 (Fiollaigean) but oddly uncredited... The pipes are right at the end of the song: blink and you'll miss them. The CD is well worth listening to. Billy has a soft and clear voice and there are interesting notes on each song and the Appalachian version of Matty Groves is worth the price of the CD alone. You'll never think of Matty Groves in the same way again.

2. Canterach. The band and the CD share a name. Now really and truly this is no less an Iain MacInnes CD than Smalltalk or The Carrying Stream. He appears on 9 of 11 tracks on whistle, GHB and Scottish small pipes. Somehow it's not one of my favourites: it's the keyboards, electric guitar and various bits of percussion and other such embellishments I could live without. It's Iain's playing,but not his usual style in terms of choice of tunes, instruments or arrangements.

3. Grand Concert of Scottish Piping. Two tracks and 10 tunes featuring Iain on small pipes. The rest of the CD isn't bad either. Two more small pipe tracks (Martyn Bennett), one lot of border pipes, and as a bonus, Allan MacDonald.

4. and 5. Tannahill Weavers, Cullen Bay and Land of Light. I've got both these albums and if it wasn't for the pipe sets I'd probably never listen to them. As it is I skip a lot of tracks.  Lots of songs that don't sound trad, but apparently are, lots of strummy guitar. The pipe sets are good and include Ian playing stuff you don't hear him doing anywhere else: a Gordan Duncan tune, for instance. The smallpipes make a few brief contributions, in the main Iain is on GHB. 

I saw the Tannies, years ago, in Colchester. It was before I discovered pipes, although I already loved them. The Tannies were just one of the fan's old favourite folk bands then, and I think he enticed me along with the promise of pipes. I remember I'd not long learned to knit fair isle holding the two colours one in each hand and I spent much of the evening contemplating fair isle patterns I might knit, and remember very little of the concert itself. Thank heaven Iain had left them, otherwise think how I'd be kicking myself now.

Five things - GHB folk bands

Everyone knows GHB. Normally just known as “bagpipes” or “pipes” they are a clear part of Scotland’s international brand, along with haggis, whisky, heather, golf at St Andrews and the Glorious Twelfth . The pipes are always played by a man in a kilt. This man, and it is always a man,  is either a “lone piper” or else he’s with a band, marching. Whatever he’s playing, be it a loch-side lament or a rousing march, it will be loud. Pipes are so loud that they aren’t a natural choice for playing in bands alongside other instruments. They also play in an odd key. I suppose that was a driving factor behind the smallpipe revival. Despite their volume there are, and continue to be, folk bands that use GHB as a regular part of their line-up.

The Battlefield Band. This band has been going since 1969 and like grandfather's axe contains none of its original parts. I am not even sure if the line up has always included a piper, but several pipers have passed through during the course of 30 albums.  The albums I have (Ok - so they belong to the fan) generally stick to trad pipe stuff. The current piper, Mike Katz, has a ZZ Top beard, which must once have been wacky but nowadays makes him look like a hipster. He also plays smallpipes, made by the Monkey's maker.

The Tannahill Weavers describe themselves rather immodestly on their website as "Scotland's Finest Traditional Band". A year older than the Battlefield they released their first album in 1976. They once had a certain Mr MacInnes in their line up. I've seen them live once and I (Ok, Ok - the fan) have one of their CDs. 

Deaf Shepherd. Fabulous name for a great band. Once described as one of the most popular bands in Scotland they appear to have vanished leaving only three albums to show they were ever here. Fiddle and songs as well as pipes and I particularly enjoy their rendition of The Corncrake.

Braebach. Not only pipes, but two sets of pipes! The current line up pairs Calum MacCrimmon (who can be heard on the Seudan CD) with James Duncan MacKenzie, who can also be heard on his eponymous CD. They have old pipe tunes, new pipe tunes, some great interpretations of pibroch, prove that the fiddle and the pipes are a match made in heaven, and also throw in some songs of various sorts. Sometimes the pipes are full on, sometimes they are set in the mix with other things, sometimes just passing through a track, but always wonderful.

Ossian. Now, I love Ossian. They are - or were - one of the best Scottish folk bands ever. I love their choice of tunes, their settings, their arrangements. If I could only hear five CDs ever again there would definitely be an Ossian CD (or maybe two or three) on the list. But I don't think of them as being a band with pipes. There are the later CDs where they have the good sense to enlist Mr MacInnes. Before that there was a flirtation with Irish pipes. I do love Irish pipes, but they were not created for playing GHB tunes. When Braebach come out on to stage it's with, as it were, all pipes blazing. They are out and proud as pipers. Ossian are somehow embarrassed, reticent, bashful: their pipes are right down in the mix. You're never going to be blown out of of your seat by full on pipes from Ossian. 

You can find GHB on Light on a Distant Shore (my least favourite Ossian CD), Dove Across the Water (my other least favourite...) and on Borders.

Five things - duos

As Mies van der Rohe once noted, less is more. Sometimes (perhaps more often than we realise) we need very little. Sometimes just two things together is perfect: a glass of port and a slice of Christmas cake, a sofa and a good book, bread and cheese. It's not that the sofa and the book wouldn't benefit from the addition of a cup of tea, or maybe a glass of wine, or that a slick of butter and a pickled onion don't enhance bread and cheese, but in themselves, just as two, these things are good together.

Similarly in music. I am happy to hear the full works, I love an orchestra, but Bach cello suites played by a single cello and nothing else...perfection. I love a full trad band. But sometimes I want simplicity, just two things. These are the CDs I go to.

Doubling. Shouty Records. 2013.
This is a little bit of a cheat because although it's just Anna and Mairearad they manage to pack in a range of instruments. Mairearad plays box, pipes and piano, while Anna provides guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and, according to the CD blurb, percussion and hand clap/thigh slaps. If you see them live Anna also provides the jokes.

Dermot Byrne and Florian Blanke. 2012.
Dermot and Florian play mainly one box and one harp, although a piano, voice, and some guest musicians sneak in from time to time. A mix of French and Irish.

Single Track Road Trip. Living Tradition. 2010.
I saw this pair at Folk at the Oak. Martin plays both guitar and banjo, Carol plays fiddle. It's just the two of them playing pipe tunes and others, new and old, all in the best Scottish tradition, and you can't beat it.

Deadly Buzz. Mick O'Brien and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh. Irish Music Net. 2011.
Kitty Lie Over. Mick O'Brien and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh. ACM. 2003.
Irish pipes, this time, with hardanger fiddle. They throw in various pipes, a flute, a standard fiddle. Deadly Buzz is probably my favourite Irish music CD.

Welcome Here Again. Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill.Compass. 2008.
Or possibly this one is my favourite. Traditional jigs and reels taken slow and easy on fiddle accompanied very sensitively indeed by guitar. Despite my usual reservations about backing/rhythm instruments/strummy string things there is no point at all on this CD where I feel that someone ought to ask the guitarist to remove himself from the room.

And, just for the record, there is no way to improve on a glass of port and a slice of Christmas cake, except with another piece of cake and maybe just the teeniest drop more port. Cheers.

Five things - shopping

I'm not much of a one for shopping. From time to time I buy things because I need them, but schlepping round the shops stocking up on pointless tat is not my idea of fun. I have plenty of other ways to fill my time.

I've not spent much time shopping in Scotland, although I have visited the hallowed halls of Jenners simply because it's one of the sights and gets referenced in an Easy Club song, and despite the fact that it is actually a branch of House of Fraser these days. When I do shop I prefer independents to chains. Here are five of my favourites.

House of Bruar. The home of tweed and woolens in lovely colours evoking the Scottish landscape. Best not to think of the associations with "field sports". Just feel the lovely cloth. There is a food hall, too.

The Watermill at Blair Atholl. A real working mill where you can buy bread, flour, muesli or porridge oats...and lunch, too!

Valvona and Crolla. The best Italian deli anywhere, never mind Edinburgh. Best almond croissants and coffee, too. A tiny crammed frontage leads into a counter under goodies hung from the ceiling, there are dried goods, breads, wines and various fruit and veg. Lots of interesting history, and sometimes music, too.

The Old Bookshelf, Edinburgh. Tucked away under an arcade, it's packed with second hand books, mainly children's - but not exclusively. I've bought Angela Thirkells there. Friendly staff. I went in once on a wettish day and remarked that at least it was better than Glasgow, where I had been the day before and where it was distinctly wetter. "Oh aye", came the reply "everything's always worse in Glasgow." They they republish some marvellous books from the past, too in their guise as Greyladies. If you go as far as Bruntisfield Place there are more independent shops, a fabulous cafe, and another good bookshop.

Shilasdair. A small place, barely more than a shed, on the end of Skye. They stock mostly their own yarn in a variety of natural colours, as well as various kits. I wish that I could have a list of five favourite yarn shops in Scotland. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places, but for a country with a strong tradition of knitting it seems to offer very few good yarn shops.

Five things - Iain Macinnes

I've listened to as many smallpipers as I can find, hoping to hear ideas for new tunes to play, to learn how the pipes can be used, how they can sound, and to inspire me to carry on learning and improving. I also listen for the simple reason that I love the sound of the pipes, and the music they play.

Very early on I identified a favourite piper - Iain MacInnes. Why Iain? I enjoy his selection of tunes: he favours the old pipe tunes, quick steps and so on, and I enjoy hearing those.I also enjoy some of his more unusual choices: a spot of Handel, or some Northumbrian tunes.

I love the choice of instruments to accompany him, especially on his own CDs:  harpsichord isn't a standard pairing with smallpipes, but it's as wonderful as it is unexpected. I love his arrangements, and the CDs are all produced in a way that has the pipes sat with the other instruments, not drowned out by strumming guitars as happens elsewhere. It isn't all smallpipes: Iain himself plays GHB, border pipes and whistle on these CDs. He also uses smallpipes in a variety of keys (A, C and D)

As lists of five things go this is very much a list of four, and two of those may be cheating. Sadly Iain has only put out two CDs of his own. I've also included one made with Smalltalk and one with Ossian, just because they are very much in the same style: serious, low key, well-arranged, beautifully played traditional Scots music. I've excluded Canterach, which has just as much (or little) of Iain as the Smalltalk and Ossian CDs, because the style is very different indeed: more modern with a bit of a rock vibe.

So, just the four. There are other CDs that allow you a passing glimpse of Mr MacInnes, and I will list those in a further post. In the meantime these four are all you need for piping heaven. And Mr MacInnes, if you ever pass by this blog post may I humbly submit that a further CD really wouldn't go amiss. 

1. Sealbh. Greentrax 2009. 11 tracks, 10 of which involve smallpipes. Also GHB and whistles. Tunes encompass quicksteps, Ewan MacColl and Handel.

2. Tryst. Greentrax 1999. 11 tracks, of which 9 have smallpipes. Also GHB and whistles. Good sleeve notes with lots of interesting snippets about tunes.

3. Smalltalk.Greentrax 1994. This CD is by the band Smalltalk, which was Iain with Billy Ross and Stuart Morrison, all formerly of Ossian. 11 tracks.Some of them are songs, but when it's Billy singing you don't mind the break from pipes. Iain also plays whistle. 

4. The Carrying Stream. Greentrax 1997. My favourite Ossian CD. Iain, Billy and Stuart with the addition of William Jackson (harp, piano, whistles, vocals). Iain also plays whistle. As with Smalltalk some tracks are songs.

Five things

Everyone loves a list, it seems. A while ago I started on creating a list of CDs I love to guide those who are interested in hearing more smallpipes, more pipes or more Scottish music.  My main problem was that many of my CDs would overlap the categories I had in mind: CDs that have some Scottish tunes, or some smallpipes but aren’t normally exclusively pipes or Scottish.  I could have had items appearing under more than one category, which isn’t difficult, but I couldn’t find an elegant way of creating and presenting that variety of categorisation on one blog page. I could, yes I know I could, just have done an alphabetical list, but I'm a librarian, dammit - my professional pride is a stake.

So “Five things” will be a series of snippets, short lists, not exclusively CDs. I may also use it to talk about Scottish music, folk music or Scotland more generally.  It also lets me satisfy my blogging urge when I have nothing much to say in terms of piping. Five is flexible - the list will always be called five things, but sometimes there will be more than five, sometime less.

I'll kick off with five CDs of (mostly) Scottish music, No Ossian, because their CDs will turn up on other lists, and not A Jock Tanson's Bairns (which I am listening to as I type) since I've I've only just discovered them. 

1. Canaich. Counting all three CDs as a single item here. It took me a while to like it - I initially felt it had moments of You and The Night and The Music (in a radio 2 sort of a way) - but now I love it. It really evokes the spirit of the Scottish landscape for me. Mainly fiddle, in contemplative mood, there are also pipes, but sadly they are Irish pipes. It’s a failing, to my mind.

2. Fiddler’s Bid. This opens with the FB Ode to Joy and frankly the entire CD makes me feel that it’s good to be alive. They sound like they are having such fun. Great tunes, not all Scottish.

3. Springwell. For some reason I do very much enjoy pipe tunes played on strings, even banjos (although I profess to dislike banjos) and these are such good tunes. It's great to listen to pipe tunes on other instruments as I get to concentrate on the tune without being distracted by the piping. Mostly Scottish tunes, many pipe tunes.

4. Single Track Road Trip I love Scottish fiddle. I have some difficulty understanding why a man who can play pipes would waste his time on stringed things, but I do love his banjo interpretation of pipe tunes, complete with all the grace notes. All Scottish tunes.

5. Doubling. Despite not being mad about boxes, and despite the paucity of pipes I like this album: lots of Scottish tunes, old and new.