Shooglenifty – Acid Croft Vol 9
Independent – Out Now
Shooglenifty’s reputation is well-founded on an uncanny ability to seamlessly blend driving dance rhythms with traditional and traditional-sounding tunes, the essence of their self-proclaimed acid croft genre. A quick trawl through the back catalogue, though, confirms my suspicion, they’re rather fond of opening tracks that first ease the listener into a much quieter happy space before unleashing their full fire-power. And so it is that Acid Croft Vol 9 begins with a gentle guitar riff from Malcolm Crosbie, shortly backed up by crisp, clean notes from the mandolin of Ewan MacPherson. Eventually, Eilidh Shaw’s fiddle joins, taking the lead on Euphoricishness, the first tune in a 3-part set. The mood stays gently relaxed as fiddle and mandolin weave around each other until a snare beat from drummer James Mackintosh, subdued at first but quickly building, announces the arrival of tune 2, Billy’s Birthday Tune. Things really get going as the fiddle changes up a gear or two and we’re off to a classic Shooglenifty party. The birthday tune merges into the even livelier and intriguingly titled Colonel Sig of the 2-2-6. Vocalist Kaela Rowan briefly joins in with a few sounds that really can’t be described in words and later there’s a first solo for that staple of the Shooglenifty sound, Garry Finlayson’s banjax. The three tunes collectively have the track title Billy’s and writing credits for all of them belong to the newest member of the band, fiddler, Eilidh Shaw, guitarist Malcolm Crosbie sharing credit on the opening tune. It’s a great start to the album, the next 45 minutes listening is going to be a rare treat.
At this point, I’d better ensure everyone’s up to speed on what led to Eilidh joining Shooglenifty. Losing their iconic frontman and fiddler, Angus R Grant, to cancer in October 2016, forced the remaining members to hit the pause button and take stock. There must have been times when it was hard to see the way forward, but two events helped them through. The emotional but ultimately uplifting tribute Night for Angus held at 2017’s Celtic Connections (reviewed here) and, in October 2017, the recording of a collaborative album, Written in Water (reviewed here) with Rajasthani supergroup Dhun Dhora, the realisation of a project long dear to Angus’s heart. Widely respected Glasgow-based fiddler Laura Wilkie was brought in for that recording. But it wasn’t until February 2018 that Eilidh, who’s long been part of the all-female quartet, The Poozies, joined Shooglenifty as their permanent fiddle player and they were back to a complete lineup.
So, Acid CroftVol 9 is Eilidh’s first recording with Shooglenifty and it’s surely a resounding measure of how well she’s blended with the band, as composer as well as performer, that one of her compositions was the pick to lead off the album. Billy’s is a great illustration of the range of talents that she has brought. As the set starts off, her fiddle doesn’t merely define the gentle pace, it brings a level of intricacy to the melody that promises much for future Shooglenifty tunes. Seven to eight minutes later, as Billy’s reaches its finale, Ewan’s mandolin and Eilidh’s fiddle lead the last run through the melody, not so much weaving around the phrases as darting about, like children in a playground game of tag. No one could directly replace the larger than life figure of Angus R Grant, but in this first eight minutes, Eilidh shows she’s brought in her own brand of fiddle magic, magic that’s driven by enough energy to more than keep pace with the rest of the band.
I may be living in the last century, but I still really value physical CDs and Vol 9 is an example to treasure. A three-section card sleeve with spectacular cover art by Ashley Cook, it contains an eight-page glossy booklet with notes on the origins of each track. I’ve tried to be sparing in my use of that information so as not to spoil your reading pleasure when your copy of the album arrives. The booklet doesn’t include song lyrics, but these are on the Shooglenifty web pages with English and Gaelic translations as appropriate. Also available to stream on Vimeo is a 57-minute video of the virtual gig they played on album launch day, five of the eight album tracks plus one older song. Until the day I can see the band playing live again, I’ll treasure this as the next best thing (rent or buy it here).
The album’s second track, Black Dog, turns a spotlight on two slightly less recent additions to the Shooglenifty armoury. Since 2012, the band has regularly been at Jodhpur’s RIFF festival in northern India. This, and in particular, their burgeoning friendship with members of Dhun Dhora, led to the Written in Water album. But the influence on their own music has been profound, as the opening tune of the Black Dog set illustrates. This first tune’s title, Black Dog on the Balcony, tells much of the story. An evening spent on a guest house balcony in Jodhpur, drinking Black Dog, a concoction that, bizarrely, can legally be called “whisky” in India, led Ewan to compose this piece. It has Malcolm’s guitar and a strongly percussive beat setting a suitably eastern rhythm while the melody, explored principally by Ewan on tenor banjo and Eilidh’s fiddle, juggles classic Western scales with Indian tones. It seems this is a musical form that Shooglenifty can slip into with ever greater ease.
The second part of the Black Dog track sees that spotlight firmly on Kaela. Already a well-established Gaelic singer with her own band, she joined Shooglenifty in time for her songs to make a startling impression on the 2015 album, The Untied Knot (reviewed here). Her first song on Vol 9, the traditional Tìll an Crodh Laochain, tells of an interruption to the nuptials of a clan chief’s daughter due to the need to retrieve the chief’s stolen cows. Kaela’s vocal starts with wordless phrases that continue the Indian vibe but soon changes to a hypnotically repetitive Gaelic song. The liner note says this song has been used to pacify cows during milking and that’s quite believable, it has that effect on the band. Behind Kaela’s voice, there’s a drum rhythm that’s possibly the calmest of the entire album, along with dreamy guitar riffs. But there’s no keeping Shooglenifty quiet for long. It’s the fiddle that wakes up first, guiding the band into a lively closing tune, led once more by tenor banjo and fiddle along with the banjax, Kaela’s voice still heard in the background but no longer sufficient to quell the cows. Kaela has two more Gaelic songs on the album and sings a few brief lines in English on a couple of other tracks. Her contributions aren’t limited to the vocals though, she has an array of percussion instruments to keep her busy when not singing. Plus, when you’re next able to see Shooglenifty live, you’ll quickly realise she’s rarely still. She’s taken on the rôle of ensuring there’s near-constant movement on stage, engaging the eyes as well as the ears, the rôle that Angus so memorably filled.
Naturally enough, Angus’s spirit lurks beneath the surface of the entire album, its presence more tangible on a couple of tracks and most obviously on Hunting for Angus. In life, one of his more inconvenient traits, at least for his bandmates, was the love of a walkabout, a gallivant. As he never owned a mobile phone, he could very easily disappear, and so hunting for Angus has far more significance than just the title of a tune. The track begins with a poem, written and narrated by the bard of Balquhidder, Magi MacGlyn a man with a very similar outlook on life to Angus. For the last few lines of the poem, the fiddle gently plays behind the voice, growing in volume until it’s joined by the sharp snap of a drum beat, then a few guitar chords, all forming a bridge to more spoken words, this time from Kaela. These words turn out to be an inventory of the many places where Angus may, perhaps, might have been found. If the thought of this doesn’t immediately appeal, bear in mind that Kaela’s breathy, West Highland voice could be reciting the phone book and still grab anyone’s attention. Kaela was the one to compose this list as she and Angus had been friends since childhood. It seems to have held a few surprises for other band members.
It’s no surprise that Angus was never far from the minds of his former bandmates during the making of Vol 9 and as part of the final track they’ve included one of his last, and previously unrecorded, tunes. Initially written during one of the many “pauses” in the long-running saga of Edinburgh’s tram line, the Silence of the Trams pulls off one of Shooglenifty’s favourite tricks, a title that brings on a smile even before the tune starts. It’s paired with Tom and Lisa’s, a tribute to the proprietors of Mhor 84, a motel in Balquhidder, Angus frequently dropped by there to join in a session.
It’s inevitable, when writing about specific tracks from an album such as this, the focus falls first on the frontline instruments and voices. But the power of Shooglenifty’s music is equally dependent on the often complex but always tight rhythms set up behind that frontline. The most obvious contribution comes from James Mackintosh, both with his full drum kit and a variety of percussion. We also get to hear James’ voice on Sùil a ‘Ghobair when he reads Lindsay Warrack’s poem Suilven Solo. Just as vital, but never intrusive, are the bass lines put down by Quee MacArthur. I’ve already mentioned Malcolm Crosbie’s guitar, highlighting where it starts off a track or provides a bridge, but the fact is, it’s always there, just as significant a component as the drums and bass. These three may sometimes feel like the unsung heroes of Shooglenifty, but let’s tip our hats to them, they are the bedrock on which all this fine music is built.
After a first listen to Acid Croft Vol 9, I felt slightly bemused as to why they’d chosen that title, it seemed to put the emphasis on continuity with what the band had produced over the last 30 years. Well, of course, there is continuity, the music here will surely satisfy their legion of devoted followers just as thoroughly as the previous eight albums. But, after the tumult of the last few years, nothing could or should be quite the same and, thankfully, Vol 9 also delivers novelty in abundance. Eilidh has brought with her a freshness and vitality that perfectly matches and amplifies the Shooglenifty vibe, while the pairing of her fiddle with Ewan’s mandolin and banjo is producing tunes that are pure joy. Plus, even though it’s five years since Kaela joined, we’re still discovering just how much her voice and personality adds to the band. When Garry was asked how he felt about the new album, his response was “It feels very much like another first album. It’s got life in it… and enthusiasm and love that our first album had. So, it’s like a new start, it’s great.” Does that help make sense of the album title? Not really, but I guess that’s just the Shoogle way. The thought of Shooglenifty heading out on a new start brings a warm glow and, having heard its first fruits, I know the magic is brighter than ever. I can look forward to many more tunes that will get the family dancing around the kitchen. With song firmly embedded in the repertoire, they’re even including pauses to catch breath and appreciate the beauty of the Gaelic oral tradition, a tradition presented with that special Shooglenifty twist.
Acid Croft Vol 9 is out now.
Order it here: https://www.shooglenifty.com/shoogle-shop/
Website: https://www.shooglenifty.com/