Back in 1986, Jean recorded the album “Songs of Lady Nairne” in
the USA, on the Philo label of Rounder records. But the album was never
easily obtainable here in the UK. However, now Greentrax Records have
put matters right by licensing it from Rounder Records USA and
releasing it here in the UK, not just with a new title, but also with
re-designed artwork by John Slavin that includes wonderfully legible
liner notes which commendably have black type on a plain white
background (and golly, you perhaps don’t know how rare this is
becoming!)
These liner notes include incidentally, a very helpful glossary for Sassenachs.
So, I hear some of you ask, who was Lady Nairne?
Well, Carolina Oliphant, the Baroness Nairne (1766-1845), is
responsible for a surprising amount of material which is still in the
popular repertoire in Scotland. An incredibly prolific, talented and
melodic writer, she went to great lengths to remain anonymous during
her lifetime and has had little acclaim in the last 150 years for so
many well-loved songs. Jean’s intention with this album was “to see her
get credit for such staples as The Rowan Tree and Will Ye No Come Back
Again”.
A laudable intention. Certainly, the name Lady Nairne was one I had
heard often down the years, but had you asked me to name her
compositions, I confess to probably being reduced to a floundering
stutter. So I am in Ms Redpath’s debt for this knowledge. And songs
like The Auld House, Caller Herrin’ and the two Jean just mentioned,
now have their rightful origin in my mind, instead of me still thinking
of them as “trad”!
But, more than the new knowledge, I am in an even greater debt to Jean
for this album. It is a delight from start to finish. Her accompanists
(the cello of Abby Newton and the fiddle of David Gusakov) provide real
musical gravitas: but in truth, there is nothing more musical on this
CD than the glorious mezzo-soprano voice of Jean Redpath herself. Has
there been a better female voice since the advent of the Folk
Revival?
I ask the question with genuine puzzlement, since, Folk megastar in
Scotland though she is close to being, here in England where I live, it
is a different situation. Jean has never had the kudos here
that the great English Folk divas have had: I mean Mesdames Tabor,
Denny, Collins, Prior and Rusby. Could it be her many years spent in
the USA is a factor?
Perhaps. But golly, push me hard and I will still be unable to come up
with a better voice. It has such warmth in it. And here she is on the
top of her game.
The album kicks off with The Auld House. From the first bar, the Newton
cello tugs at the heartstrings as the singer takes us on a trip down
memory lane. Then, with Strathearn, she goes a cappella to show that
she has no superior in this department.
The album though reaches high water mark between tracks 6 and 9. The
magnificent Will Ye No Come Back Again? has me reaching for
superlatives. It is enough to make me a paid-up member of the Bonnie
Prince Charlie fan club. (Not for nothing was Lady Nairne – born 21
years after the 1745 Jacobite uprising - christened Carolina! It is of
course the female form of Charles.) Jean sings this song like she -
rather than her ladyship - wrote it: really makes it her own. Then The
Lass O’ Gowrie sees David Gusakov’s fiddle come to the fore on this
apparent foot-tapper which masks a heavyweight lyric.
Then The Rowan Tree, and track 9, Caller Herrin’, admirably show two
different sides of Carolina’s love: the first, her love of the
countryside; the second, her compassion for those less lucky, who toil
in dangerous conditions to put fish on the gentry’s table.
Toward the end, a couple of the songs seem a little lightweight, but
hey that is a minor problem. Above it all, triumphs the great soaring
voice of Ms Redpath: over 20 years since she was granted an MBE, but
long overdue for a damehood.
Dai Woosnam
Grimsby, England
daigress@hotmail.com
Copyright © 1998-2009 Kevin & Maxine’s Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews. All rights reserved by Dai Woosnam.
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