Scotland,The Southeast

Before leaving Edinburgh we hook up with fiddler Aly Bain and accordion player Phil Cunningham.  Aly is actually from Lerwick on the Shetland islands.  The duo recorded some 8 albums between 1995 and 2012, but the highlights are captured on their 2004 Best of album.  Here's a good tune by them including a lengthy and hilarious introduction.  

Just south of Edinburgh we stop in the small village of Penicuick in Midlothian, where folk singer Siobhan Miller was born.  This is the song that goes with the title of this blog, The Rambling Rover from her 2017 album Strata:

Moving south we enter the Scottish Borders region where Dr. Lori Watson hails from.  She actually has a doctorate in Artistic Research in Scottish Music, which I think is mighty impressive!  She has also recorded numerous albums as well as lecturing at Edinburgh university. She is considered an authority on contemporary traditional music practices in Scotland.  I think this song from her latest album Yarrow Acoustic Sessions demonstrates that point.  The song is called Yarrow (A Charm) and here's me showing off some yarrow, a magical healing plant:

Finally before we leave Scotland we encounter Songs of Separation, a collaboration of 10 female musicians from both Scotland and England including some we have already met such as Karine Polwart and others we are yet to meet in England such as Eliza Carthy and Rowan Rheingans amongst others.  They actually met up on the Isle of Eigg in 2015 to explore the similarities and differences between the folk traditions of Scotland and England.  This is their story:

And this is the opening track of the resulting album, Echo Mocks the Corncrake:

That concludes our tour of Scotland, next up we'll be exploring the music of England.  As usual, you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.

Scotland, Edinburgh

Before we head into the bright lights of Edinburgh we take a wee detour to the small Stirlingshire village of Banknock, where singer-songwriter Karine Polwart is from.  Many of her songs deal with social and political issues, from alcoholism and modern parenthood to genocide and Donald Trump's corporate megalomania.  Here's a set from the npr tiny desk series.  Two of the songs she plays here are featured on her 2018 Laws of Motion album:

And another little detour takes us to Buckhaven in Fife, where Janet Russell was born.  She was active on the Scottish folk scene during the 1980's.  She recorded just one beautiful album together with Christine Kydd in 1988, from which this following song is from.  It's a Robert Burns song called The Deil's Awa wi' th'exciseman, The devil is away with the excise man.  Of course famously the great bard himself was an excise man sniffing out illegal whisky stills in the wild Scottish countryside.

Karine Polwart was also a founding member of Edinburgh based band Malinky, but she left them in 2005. Here's a live performance of their song The Broomfield Hill, which features on their 2008 album Flower and Iron:

Edinburgh band Silly Wizard were active from 1970 onward.  Sadly key members of the group have died since then, including lead singer Andy Stewart.  Here they are in action with the song Donald McGillavry, which features on their 2002 Live Again album:

Alison Kinnaird is not only an excellent glass sculptor, she also is an accomplished player of the small Scottish harp known as the clarsach.  Here's a tune from her 2008 album The Harp Key called The Kid on the Mountain:

Finally we meet the legendary Waterboys.  Although the members hail from all over the UK and Ireland, they launched in Edinburgh and Mike Scott, the only constant member of the band since their inception in 1983, was born and bred here.  This is a live version of their classic Fisherman's Blues from the 1988 album of the same name.

As usual, you can follow my virtual trip on this link.