Polished recording from a musically mature group

By Kenny Smith | October 4, 2018

Released last month, Free One is the debut album from five thoroughly seasoned musicians. Each is highly accomplished in their art, with the mandolin of Laura-Beth Salter and guitarist Jenn Butterworth providing the rhythmic drive to support the silky fiddles provided by Aileen Gobbi, Fiona MacAskill and Laura Wilkie. From the opening atmospheric strains of Aileen’s Nonna Pina…

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Scots fiddler and Austrian piper produce a sumptuous nugget

By Kenny Smith | May 22, 2018

The Pipe Slang is a translation from the Gaelic song Feadan glan a’ phiobair, a tune of which Simon Fraser comments in the appendix to his famous 1874 collection. “In the words of the pipe slang, the noisy rattling piper of a country wedding draws a ridiculous comparison betwixt his own music and that of…

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New release will get the blood pumping

By Kenny Smith | March 27, 2018

Renowned chef Jamie Oliver modestly quipped in his first cookery shows “It’s not me, it’s the food!” Whilst there is an element of truth in what the Naked Chef said, we know that that is only part of the story. So it is with this delightful album by Eilidh Shaw and Ross Martin recorded in…

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