Scottish Traditions

While all of the recordings have liner notes and commentaries on the music, several of them have supplemental booklets with more detailed notes that are available for an additional cost.

Recordings with additional booklets are denoted with an (*) after the catalogue number.

The School of Scottish Studies CD Series
(The following recordings are available in both CD and cassette formats)

Scottish Tradition 5 -The Muckle Sangs
Greentrax CDTRAX 9005* (1992)

Perhaps the best place to start in this series is with this recording, because many of the tunes (all Child ballads) will be familiar to even the casual Celtic music enthusiast. Those familiar with Dick Gaughan's rendition of "Glenlogie" will find John Adams' version (recorded in 1956) fascinating. Variants of "The Gypsy Laddies" have been sung by everyone from Archie Fisher and Sandy Denny to Mike Heron and Donovan, but this version by the great Scots singer Jeannie Robertson is among the best. "The False Knight on the Road" is sung by Bella Higgins, 19-year-old campfire singer Duncan MacPhee, and Aberdeen native Nellie MacGregor, all in 1955. "Tam Lin" is sung in its original slow, very eerie, unaccompanied form by Betsy Johnston and Aberdeen Traveller Willie Whyte. Other highlights include Willie Scott's singing of "Jamie Teffer o' the Fair Dodhead"; Jimmy MacBeath's distinctive versions of "The Keach in the Kreel" and "The Broom o' the Cowdenknowes"; and "The Jollie Beggar" as sung by Jeannie Robertson's daughter, Lizzie Higgins.

The bothy system took effect in the late Victorian and Edwardian era. Farm servants and field hands were hired at local hiring fairs, were paid a shamefully small wage and were subjected to a harsh life of heavy labor. Unmarried men were frequently housed in bothies, which were small, but solid, stone-built out-houses. What the bothy workers lacked in comfort, they gained in the rich oral traditions and songs that they learned, swapped, sung, remade and improvised to help the time pass more quickly. Most of the tracks on this CD were recorded in the early to late 50s with a few from the early 70s to round out the selection. The singers were mostly old men, recalling the songs of their youth. Some of the finest and most well-respected singers, such as Jimmy Macbeath, Jamie Taylor and Charlie Murray, are represented, as well as such classic unaccompanied songs (all sung in broad Scots) as "The Bold Princess Royal," "Mrs. Grieg," and "The Haill Week o' the Fair." There is also a good selection of fiddle and mouth organ music and a delightful set of mouth tunes, diddling and nonsense rhymes.

Scottish Tradition 3 - Waulking Songs From Barra
Greentrax CDTRAX 9003* (1993)

Waulking songs (or orain-luaidh as they are known in the Gaelic language) were songs that served to accompany the waulking, or fulling, of homemade cloth. Both of these recordings were collected in the 50s and early 70s and contain mostly simulated waulking, as many of the participants were quite elderly and the actual art is almost never practiced anymore. There are several fine examples of waulking songs on the disc Music from the Western Isles. Even when translated to English (in the booklet) the lyrics of many of the songs contain some of the loveliest poetry ever found in song. This disc features a wide variety of vocal traditions sung among the Western Isles, including some arresting male choral céilidh singing (Murdo MacLeod and John Murray); puirt a beul singing by both men and women; Ossianic folklore sung by Annie Arnott, Mary Morrison and Calum Johnston; pibroch song (by Archie MacDonald); and even an Evangelical hymn sung by Murdina MacDonald.

Waulking Songs of Barra contains almost exclusively the songs and traditions as preserved on the western island of Barra in the Hebrides. The first three rounds of song are performed by Mary Morrison and chorus and they are among the most lively and spirited singing you will hear in any tradition. The women slowly build the rhythm up to a breakneck speed, yipping, screeching and laughing with great joy in earthened, craggy voices. The words are in Gaelic but there is no problem in understanding the elemental joy these women are experiencing. The rest of the CD is devoted to other music related to the waulking tradition, including celebratory piping for work's end by Calum Johnston. He joins the women for a gentle version of "A bhean ad thrall a rinn arinn an gáre" ("Woman over there who laughed") which was a minor hit for the group Mouth Music under the title "Mist Covered Mountain." Elsewhere Kate Buchannan and chorus perform a lovely all-choral version of "An fhìdeag airid," or "The Silver Whistle." The CD closes with the scratchy voices and wool thumping of Flora Boyd and chorus singing "Is moch an diugh a rinn mi gluasad" ("Early today I set out").

Scottish Tradition 9 -The Fiddler and His Art
Greentrax CDTRAX 9009* (1993)

Fiddles of one sort or another have been widely played in Scotland's northernmost islands for centuries. Prior to the arrival of a proper fiddle in the Eighteenth Century, the gue was a Shetland version of a type of bowed lyre, once in wide use in Celtic Britain and by the Shetland's nearby Scandinavian neighbors. Its influence can be heard in the now-trademark Shetland fiddling techniques of using unstopped strings as drones both above and below the melody line.

Some of the Islands' finest fiddlers were assembled during the period of 1970-73 and the subsequent thirteen tracks represent many of the staples of the Shetland tradition. Highlights include Willy B. Henderson and Bobby Jamieson's fiddling, stomping and shrieking on "Soldier's Joy" and "Deil among the Tailors." Andrew Polson relates his early days of learning the fiddle before breaking into a set of reels, including "Black Jock" and "The lady's breast knots." Bobby Peterson offers "The Fairy Reel," as well as another set of four reels, while fiddler Jimmy Johnston is joined by harmonium player Pat Sutherland on "Auchdon House." The accompanying booklet expands on the CD booklet's commentaries, biographical notes and conversations with the fiddlers.

The Fiddler and His Art is one of the most musically lyrical of all the series. It draws on the distinctive styles of five different regions, from the Orkney and Shetland islands to the North Western Highlands and the eastern region of Aberdeenshire. Most of the tracks include piano accompaniment, which adds to the stately nature of these strathspeys, marches, waltzes, reels and slow airs. Most of the recordings date from the early 70s and fiddlers represented include Donald McDonnell, Hugh Inkster, Paul Shearer, John Reid, the fabulous Andrew Poleson, Albert Stewart (who hails from the travellers folk tradition), and virtuoso Hector MacAndrew. While most of the recordings in this series have the unpolished nature of field recordings, there is a particularly warm and intimate feel to this beautiful album.

The reading of the Bible by non-clergy and the use of congregational praise (as opposed to choirs) became permissible after the Reformation. Drawing on the Psalms of David, the English Puritans translated these into a ballad meter with one melody note per syllable. This form of highly metrical Gaelic psalm singing has been well preserved in the extensively religious isles of Harris and Lewis. For this recording, the School of Scottish Studies chose to focus on the very highly ornamented singing style found on Lewis and by Lowland Scots who are descendants of Lewis folk. Eight tracks are included, sung by Murdina and Effie MacDonald, Donald, Norman and Murdo MacLeod, Alasdair Graham, and various congregations. The overall effect is both mediative and hypnotic, not unlike monastic singing, but in a far more ornamented style.

Greentrax Recordings/Cockenzie Business Centre, Edinburgh Road/ Cockenzie, East Lothian EH32 0HL/ Scotland
School of Scottish Studies/ University of Edinburgh/27 George Square/Edinburgh, EH8 9LD/Scotland