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.