Glasgow-based singer and guitarist Alasdair Roberts has shared his latest single ‘Eppie Morrie’, taken from his forthcoming new album Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, his fifth full-length collection of traditional folk songs.
Roberts is a formidable solo artist, songwriter, interpreter and guitarist, and, as noted in these pages by Thomas Blake, who has reviewed a number of Alasdair’s albums over the years, “he has always seemed to be treading two parallel career paths: on one hand, the wordy, experimental singer-songwriter and on the other, the folklorist and interpreter.” This alternation is something that his label Drag City also highlights alongside another achievement when laying the press groundwork for his latest offering, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall (out on 31st March 2023 – DC862 LP/CD).
“For the past twenty years, his recordings have alternated between these two complementary poles, with ‘pop’ records such as The Amber Gatherers and A Wonder Working Stone nestling in his expansive back catalogue alongside “folk” albums such as No Earthly Man and What News (with Amble Skuse and David McGuinness). Additionally, all of these records possess a further dimension, derived from their collation of songs into one album-length statement. This is part of Alasdair’s great achievement in his career — for him, this thing of music and song hasn’t come the eons it’s travelled to simply entertain.”
His last album, The Old Fabled River (2021), found him collaborating with Norwegian experimental folk collective Völvur to work on a selection of his own songs and traditional material. The previous year, he gave us a double helping with The Songs Of My Boyhood, on which he looked back at some of his earliest creations, and on Fretted And Indebted, he paid homage to the traditional music that has inspired him. His new album falls into the latter category; Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall is his fifth full-length collection of traditional song, but, as is ever the case, these old folk songs are not all familiar, as the tracklisting below shows. We are given our first taster with the dramatic and more familiar Eppie Morrie.
Eppie Morrie is a Scottish ballad, telling a tale of kidnapping and would-be assault with swift tempo. Young Eppie is no victim, though; she faces down her attacker with defiance and scorn. Sung by many over the years, from Ewan MacColl to Fotheringhay to Isla St. Clair to The Shee, it’s an ancient parable, smoothly picked and belted with brio here.
Recorded live in the studio in entirely solo performances, the twelve traditional ballads and songs were sparsely arranged, for acoustic guitar, piano and voice alone. Collectively, the songs treat of various conflicts and tensions — those of gender; of class, status and position; and of geography and tribal belonging — and the roles and responsibilities expected at the various intersections of these constructs. So that we might never forget!
Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall Tracklisting
- The Wonderful Grey Horse
- Eppie Morrie
- Kilbogie
- The Lichtbob’s Lassie
- Young Airly
- Bob Norris
- Drimindown
- The Convict Maid
- The Bonny Moorhen
- The Baron o’Brackley
- Mary Mild
- The Holland Handkerchief
Pre-Order Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall
UK TOUR DATES
23rd March – Summerhall – Edinburgh, Scotland
24th March – The Tangled Parrot – Carmarthen, Wales
25th March – Bluestone Brewery – Cilgwyn, Newport, Wales
26th March – Wardrobe Theatre – Bristol, England
28th March – Sutton House – London, England
29th March – Sutton House – London, England
31st March – South Street Arts Centre – Reading, England
1st April – The Blue Moon – Cambridge, England
4th April – The Hug and Pint – Glasgow, Scotland
5th April – Kitchen Garden Cafe – Birmingham, England
6th April – Hyde Tavern – Winchester, England
7th April – Florence Park Community Centre – Oxford, England
8th April – Medina Bookshop – Cowes, Isle of Wight, England