WHERE RAVENS REEL

1. From Gulabeinn
2. Thomas Rymer
3. The Factory Girl
4. Love Song
5. Tam Chambers
6. Mary Slessor
7. Clydes Water
8. Burns and Highland Mary
9. The Lights of Home
10. The Cruel Grave
11. The Tryst
12. Winter in Glencoe
13. Gloomy Winter's Noo Awa
14. Where Ravens Reel [HEAR IT]

Includes informative notes.

"McIntyre's sensitively robust buff lending understated dignity to originals like 'The Lights of Home' and 'Tam Chambers', rooted in the Glasgow of the first half of the last century.

McMorland's voice in contrast, is that of the wind over the empty hills, both captivating and chilling, particularly on the Child Ballads 'Thomas Rhymer' and 'The Cruel Grave'... instrumentation is spare with unadorned guitar commenting on the songs' moods and some effective bone-rattling banjo on on 'Clydes Water' underpinning the narrative.

Authorative performances that allow the stories within the songs to unfold at their own pace - and they are songs fully deserving of such an approach."

Oz Hardwick
Rock 'n' Reel, June 2011

Where Ravens Reel is the title of one of Geordie McIntyre's songs featured in this new album which combines traditional songs and ballads with five of McIntyre's distinctive compositions. From Gulabeinn, a stirring account of the scattering of the late Hamish Henderson's ashes on the Perthshire mountain that he loved so well. Tam Chambers and Mary Slessor a portrayal of their heroic lives and the touching Lights of Home which celebrates Andy Coogan, war veteran and to whom the album is jointly dedicated along with Elizabeth Stewart of the renowned singing Fetterangus Traveller family.

Ballads are well represented and 'in which these two excel'. Alison's close relationship with Elizabeth inspired her to record The Cruel Grave and Burns and Highland Mary. Her own version of Thomas Rymer stems from the text of Anna Gordon or Mrs Brown of Falkland (1747 - 1810). Daughter Kirsty Potts highlight the close singing that is found within family and joins her on the Irish Factory Girl and Mary Slessor.

As in previous albums recorded by Alison and Geordie the songs of Helen Fullerton are featured here in Winter in Glencoe while poems by two of Scotlands great poets are given new settings. The previously unrecorded Love Song written by Hamish Henderson during his time in North Africa and the exquisite and much anthologised The Tryst by Perth born Willie Soutar set to an original tune by Geordie.

Alison and Geordie are known for their impassioned and moving live performances and this CD captures an intimate portrayal of just that.

"It just oozes authenticity and integrity..................These two have stayed at the top of the tree for a long time because they have character in spades and very special voices "

Living Tradition, October 2010

MEDIA COVERAGE

Folk Roundabout (2012) - [ review ]
English Dance and Song (2011) - [ review ]
The Scotsman (2/9/2010) - [ review ]
The Living Tradition - [ review ]

WHITE WINGS

1. White Wings [HEAR IT]
2. The Rocks O Gibraltar
3. The Virginia Maid
4. The Shoreheid Boat
5. Time Wears Awa
6. Here's A Health To All True Lovers
7. The Gairdner
8. John Barleycorn
9. The Shira Dam
10. MacCrimmon's Lament
11. Farewell To the Bens
12. In Freenship's Name
13. Our Ship Is Ready
14. Last Farewell Tae Stirling

also featuring:
Kirsty Potts (vocals), Derek Hoy* (fiddle, viola), Norman Chalmers* (concertina, whistle, mouth organ, jaws harp).

* - both members of Jock Tamson's Bairns.
Includes full texts and informative notes.

Alison and Geordie's selection of songs and ballads demonstrates their individual involvement in the Scottish Song Tradition over a 40 years span.

Represented here are Geordie's songwriting - White Wings - to his settings of poems and song texts; Farewell To the Bens, The Virginnia Maid and John Barleycorn. The Shira Dam is a poem written by his close friend, the late Helen Fullerton. Over the years Geordie's own songs have been recorded by others and most recently White Wings by the Johnson Girls, a New York based 'maritime' group.

Alison's close association with Willie Scott and the Stewarts of Fetterangus connect her directly to the older singing style and repertoire such as The Rocks O Gibraltar sung here.

The CD features Alison singing Time wears Awa and In Freenship's Name, both songs learnt from her old friend Willie Scott, the late, great shepherd, crookmaker and singer.

MEDIA COVERAGE

The Scotsman (Fri 4th May) - [ editorial ]
The Herald (21st April) - [ review ]
Scotland on Sunday (15th April) - [ review ]
The Scotsman (20th April) - [ review ]

BALLAD TREE

1. The Wife of Ushers Well
2. Lamkin
3. The Two Brothers
4. May Colvin
5. Braes o' Yarrow
6. Lover's Ghost
7. The Wee Toon Clerk
8. Tam Lin
9. Clerk Saunders
10. The Daemon Lover
11. King Orfeo [HEAR IT]

Includes full texts, a select bibliography, glossary and notes.

The traditional ballads of the classic form have been decribed by some scholars, but not singers, as the aristocrats of folk song.

In 1950 the American ballad scholar Evelyn Wells wrote with remarkable insight and bouyant optimism. "The ballad tree, rooted in the past, living today will send forth its branches into tomorrow"

Alison & Geordie

An outstanding example of how great singing and a light hand with accompaniment really can make a moss-backed ballad come alive for a new generation. .... will inspire others to explore and learn the 'auld tunes'.

Sing Out, Winter 2005 vol 48

ROWAN IN THE ROCK

1. The A83
2. Wild Geese/Norland Wind
3. Backies
4. Inveroran
5. Seven Men of Knoydart
6. Westlin' Winds
7. The Silkie of Sule Skerry
8. Joy of Living
9. Another Valley
10. Braes o' Balquidder
11. Quiet River
12. Mother Earth
13. John Muir [HEAR IT]
14. Rowan in the Rock [HEAR IT]

Includes full texts, a select bibliography, glossary and notes.

On this album they have blended older songs with recently written songs including several from the pen of Geordie himself.

.... a testament to the writers and singers and their place in a long unbroken tradition.

Living Tradition

Geordie's strong bold ballad style serves the robust outdoor themes excellently, while his versatility allows him to also address more tenderly, the poignant ...

Hector Christie

CLOUDBERRY DAY

1. Traiveller's Joy
2. Sailin's a Wearie Life
3. Edom o' Gordon
4. Be Guid Tae Me
5. The Twa Sisters (The Swans Swim Sae Bonnie)
6. Twa Years Ower Young
7. Hap and Row
8. The Flyting o' Life and Daith
9. The American Stranger
10. Skippin' Bar'fit Through the Heather
11. Belt wi Colours Three
12. Pullin Hard Against the Stream
13. Cloudberry Day [HEAR IT]

Includes detailed notes.

Alison McMorland demonstrated yet again that she is one of the most riveting interpreters of the Lowland ballads.

Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman


Alison is one of Scotland's finest living ballad singers .... who unites scrupulous traditional fidelity with versatile and creative artistry.

Hamish Henderson

"This collection of songs represents a constant inspiration interwoven through my life, and a love and commitment to the Scots song tradition.

The songs and ballads here are full of association and meaning for me: they evoke a sense of family, many fine singers and collectors, past generations and their history, children (including my own), times and occasions in my own life and love of the land into which I was born."

Earlier Recordings

BELT WI' COLOURS THREE

Tangent Records Ltd (1977)

ALISON MCMORLAND AND PETA WEBB

Placed in the Top 10 in the Melody Maker's Records of the Year, 1980.

THE FUNNY FAMILY

Big Ben Records (1977)

MY SONG IS MY OWN

Fuse Recordings (1980)

Albums with Various Artists

Featuring Alison & Geordie

SCOTS IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

Greentrax Recordings Ltd (2012)

A' THE BAIRNS O ADAM

Greentrax Recordings Ltd (2003)

GLASGOW HORIZONS

Produced by Geordie McIntyre

(Sunrise in South Africa, Lament of a Working Class Hero's Wife, Out by the Isle, Time Wears Awa)

Featuring Alison

OUT OF THE STONES

Orkney Museums and Heritage (2005)

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO SCOTTISH MUSIC - SECOND EDITION

REAL, THE SCOTTISH BORDERS

SCOTS WOMEN

Greentrax Recordings Ltd (2001)

NUCLEAR POWER NO THANKS

Fuse Records (1981)

THE GOOD OLD WAY - BRITISH FOLK MUSIC TODAY

Topic Records (1980)

FREEDOM COME ALL YE

Claddagh Records (1977)

SONGS AND RHYMES FROM LISTEN WITH MOTHER

SCOTS SONGS AND MUSIC - LIVE FROM KINROSS

Featuring Geordie

GLASGOW HORIZONS

(Inveroran, The Leaving Song)

Lismor Recordings (1990)

THE STREETS OF GLASGOW

(The Sports o' Glasgow Green, O'Reilly and the Big MacNeill, Three Nights and a Sunday Double Time, The Works Outing)

Topic Records (1973)