Opening this week’s Folk Show is The Herring Girls and the Barra Boys from Aidan O’Rourke‘s latest album, Iorram, also a Featured Album of the Month. The track, which also features Brighde Chaimbeul on Scottish Smallpipes, forms part of the score for the documentary film Iorram (Boat Song), which Alastair Cole directed; “…a deft, subtle and strangely moving portrayal of Gaelic-speaking Hebridean fishermen.” In his recent review of the album, Thomas Blake concludes that Aidan’s film score is “…a truly magical listening experience, one that, for all its outward quietness, is bursting with ideas and ripe with the history of an often neglected part of British culture. Even without the context of the film it accompanies, O’Rourke’s masterful document has a vividness that is almost visual in its own right.”
The selection of music I’ve chosen for this week’s offering is heavily influenced by this strong opener and follows with a track from Hirta Songs (reviewed here), a collaborative album from Alasdair Roberts and poet Robin Robertson released in 2013 on Stone Tape Recordings. Hirta is the largest of four islands that form St. Kilda and has the highest sea cliffs in the United Kingdom.
As Robin explains, “I travelled to St Kilda with my partner, Karin Altenberg. She has a doctorate in archaeology and heard about relatively recent excavations on the archipelago, which prompted her initial interest. She had done a lot of research, particularly into the Church of Scotland minister, Neil MacKenzie, and his young wife Lizzie, who were sent to the islands in the 1830s, and had decided to try and write a novel based on their story.
“Being an archaeologist, she needed first-hand experience of St Kilda, so we decided to spend a fortnight in the Outer Hebrides and to book a passage with Tim Pickering, on his boat 58 Degrees North, due to sail west from the Sound of Harris in early August 2007.
“That trip was an incredible – and very productive – experience for both of us. She wrote Island of Wings, a novel that was published in the UK, America and Canada and was long-listed for the Orange Prize, and I wrote a long poem Leaving St Kilda and then, years later, the words to these Hirta Songs.”
We also interviewed Alasdair Roberts about the collaboration, which you can read here.
A track from Brìghde Chaimbeul‘s River Lea debut album The Reeling (reviewed here) was a must and A Bhriogais Uallach / Nighean Donn nan Gobhar is a personal favourite. Aidan O’Rourke also played fiddle on that album alongside the likes of Radie Peat of Lankum on concertina and Rona Lightfoot (canntaireachd & song).
Taken from Rachel Newton‘s latest album, To The Awe, is a traditional Gaelic waulking song Chaidil Mi-A-Raoir air an Airigh. In the review of the album by Billy Rough here, he concludes: “To The Awe is a striking, pertinent, and entirely enthralling album. A powerful testament to the experiences of women through the ages.”
There are several older tracks included which are accompanied by spoken word pieces including Joe Heaney talking about the West of Ireland and performing Bean Pháidín as well as a reading by the much-missed Irish poet Seamus Heaney taken from The Poet & The Piper, a collaboration with the late Irish uilleann piper Liam O’Flynn.
There’s also a tune from The Boys of the Lough‘s 1973 self-titled debut album on Trailer…it’s from my vinyl collection, so excuse the slight crackles. Jackson and Jane is sung here by Robin Morton, and it’s a Co. Monaghan song from Frank Smith of Rockorry. As Robin says, “If England and America can have a talking racehorse then why shouldn’t Ireland? Jane is Ulster’s CReeping or Stewball”. For decades, Robin Morton has made a massive contribution to traditional music. As a founder member and player-manager of the early Boys of the Lough, he helped take traditional music to huge audiences worldwide. Read our in-depth interview with him about those early formative years here.
As I mentioned here, Martin Simpson is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his album The Bramble Briar this year, so I thought I join the celebration with one of my favourites, ‘Fair Annie’.
And of course, I had to include another track from John Francis Flynn, our Artist of the Month. His debut album “I Would Not Live Always” is also released on the aforementioned River Lea record label. Be sure to read our album review here, in which David Weir declared it an album that was “without a doubt one of the most deeply affecting folk debuts of recent years.” With An Buachailin Ban, we hear sean nós singer Saileog Ní Ceannabháin…this is actually one of three songs that Flynn ties together under the title of “Bring Me Home”.
We have a tune from Gaelic supergroup Dàimh, taken from their last album, The Rough Bounds, reviewed here (plus check our recent news piece on them here).
From Northumbria, we have Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening and a track from their album Hollowbone, released in 2019; an album that connects music and song with history, geography and people; music that transcends barriers, draws on ancient and contemporary voices, in a work that is as elemental as it is sophisticated.
The remainder of the songs featured are made up of a strong Irish contingent of top-notch artists that I love to revisit: Lankum, Tim Dennehy, Skipper’s Alley and The Bonny Men.
We are played out by Rónán Ó Snodaigh and a track from his new album Tá Go Maith which was released on Friday and also features Myles O’Reilly which I recently spoke about. You can order the album from Bandcamp here.
Folk Show Playlist
- Aidan O’Rourke – The Herring Girls and the Barra Boys
- Alasdair Roberts and Robin Robertson – Leaving St Kilda
- Brìghde Chaimbeul – A Bhriogais Uallach / Nighean Donn nan Gobhar
- Rachel Newton – Chaidil Mi A-Raoir air an Airigh
- Joe Heaney – The West of Ireland
- Joe Heaney – Bean Pháidín
- Lankum – The Dark Eyed Gypsy
- John Francis Flynn – Bring Me Home pt.3 An Buachailin Ban
- Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening – Hushabye Birdie / Hexham Lasses
- Dàimh – ‘S Trusaidh mi na Coilleagan
- Tim Dennehy – An Nollaig Theas
- Martin Simpson – Fair Annie
- Seamus Heaney – The Otter
- Liam O’Flynn – The Rolling Wave/The Hag’s Money
- The Boys of the Lough – Jackson and Jane
- Skipper’s Alley – Francie Manus Byrne’s/Bill The Weaver’s
- The Bonny Men – The Broken Pledge
- Rónán Ó Snodaigh – Yan Tyan
Photo Credit: Timothy Muza