Tim Edey & Ross Ainslie – Diad

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Tim Edey and Ross Ainslie are well-known as two of the most enthusiastic collaborators on the English and Scottish folk scene. Anyone who’s seen Tim at a festival will have registered his delight when performing with artists of just about any genre, and the extensive lists of collaborators and guests on any of Ross’s three “solo” albums tell their own story. It seems there is a queue of top-rank musicians waiting patiently to join him. They’ve been gigging together, usually around Scotland, for the last couple of years, and now Diad has united them in the studio, producing an album of startlingly original arrangements designed to raise anyone’s spirits. With Tim contributing guitar and melodeon, pipes, whistles and cittern coming from Ross, only one guest was needed, Donald Shaw playing the harmonium on three tracks.

Diad opens with a “Here we go!” call from Tim while he’s tapping finger percussion on the guitar body. It’s only a few seconds, but it is enough to set the tone; this is going to be music from two players who will be thoroughly enjoying their work and anticipating listeners will soon be relaxing into a similarly euphoric state. The music starts with two Donal Lunny tunes followed by an Irish trad. piece, the set given the overall title of Lunny. “1, 2, 3, 4…” from Tim, and we’re into sprightly pipes over a rhythm from Tim’s guitar. As the pipes continue to build and the pulse quickens, the guitar contributes far more than a chord riff. First off, more guitar body percussion, a part of Tim’s playing style rather than a separate track added to the mix. Though, in fairness, in a recording as well engineered as this (by Andrea Gobbi at GloWorm), you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. Further into the 3-minute track and a guitar counter melody is added. It may be just one instrument, but in the hands of Tim Edey, a guitar contributes so much more.

The following track, another three-part set, Fred’s, sees Ross switching from pipes to whistle, and initially, that signals a change of mood. The first tune, Something for Gordon, composed by Ross, has whistle and guitar evenly matched in a gentle, lyrical interplay, guitar using chords to guide the rhythm and also picking out its own melody. The tempo quickens with the second tune, a trad piece, Ne’er Shall Wean Her and then the set really takes off with the third tune, Fred’s Advice, again written by Ross and with a swing rhythm that gives us a taste of the jazzy guitar style that Tim loves.

Next up, Independance, just two tunes, the trad Independence Hornpipe, followed by Tim’s composition, Celtic Thunder. Both feature Tim on the melodeon, and while on the hornpipe, he shares the melody line with whistle, the second tune gives the melodeon a solo spot. The rhythms and tempo for both are set by the guitar and Celtic Thunder, in particular, cracks on at speed. This leads into a calm interval as Alasdair’s Tune, a Charlie Mckerron composition, opens with a gentle whistle melody backed by equally restrained guitar chords and arpeggios. As the tune develops, the whistle/guitar combination is complemented by lengthy, sustained chords from Donald Shaw on harmonium—four minutes of blissful calm.

On an album from such a high-energy combination as Tim and Ross, you’d not expect the calm to last for long, and indeed, the title of the next track gives fair warning. Hornpipes and Jigs lives up to its name, with pipes building up a head of steam, later supplemented by some breakneck melodeon. It’s a set of four tunes that first get the heart beating faster and then take the album into a sequence of tracks nicely alternating more relaxed with more frenetic pieces. The first is Tommy Emmanuel’s Angelina, gently led by Ross on whistle; it develops into an intriguing interplay between whistle and guitar, a pairing that continues with the opening tune of the next three-tune set, Barrisdale. This first tune, Delboy’s, is from Ross, and the second, Funghi’s Jig from Tim, immediately accelerates the pace, picked guitar introducing a melody that is taken over by the whistle and eventually developing into the third tune, Ross’s Barrisdale Boys.

It is time for everyone to catch their breath, a goal beautifully achieved by Ross’s Lullaby for Mel. Whistle, guitar and a second appearance for the harmonium develop a tune that fully lives up to its title. Even when Ross changes from whistle to pipes, the lullaby’s spell isn’t broken; it just becomes a little louder.

The final three tracks continue the theme of alternating lively with calming. The four tunes of the Dad set steadily build pace until the final piece, Donald Shaw’s Tour de Harris is quite definitely a whistle-led sprint to the finishing line. The tune from Tim that follows, Little Bird, is the calm before the storm of the final track. Simply titled Spanish, it comprises three traditional Spanish tunes Muineira De Poio, Muineira De Ourense and A Composa. The muineira is a traditional dance from Galicia, and as soon as Ross starts to play, his pipes give us that traditional Galician sound. The sleeve notes give no indication he is playing the gaita, the Galician pipes, but he’s undoubtedly evoking the right atmosphere. The muineira can be a fairly stately dance, and while the second tune does speed up somewhat, it’s not until the third that the pipes and melodeon build up the pace to give the album the rousing ending that you just knew was coming.

The numerous awards that both Tim and Ross have received over the years are a testament to the exceptional quality of their musicianship; they are both recognised as masters of their instruments. With Diad, they’ve successfully captured the freshness and spontaneity that has long been a hallmark of their live performances. It’s an album to be enjoyed again and again.