Maggie MacInnes, Spiorad Beatha (The Spirit Of Life) (Marram/R2, 2001)
I recently changed my email signature to read "I may not like folk music now, but I liked it 30 years ago." In doing so, I recognized the fact that I haven't enjoyed most of the folk/roots discs to which I've listened over the past few years. I'm not too sure whether this is due to my musical tastes changing as my arteries harden (although I'm still faithful to the prog-rock discs of my youth), or whether this is simply due to the folk revival dying out.
There were a few tracks on this CD that gave credence to the latter theory, but there were also a few jewels which have rekindled my taste for folk music. Maggie and co-producer Graeme Hughes have managed to find new angles from which to illuminate traditional music, and have created some excellent interpretations along with stirring instrumental breaks worthy of the best.
As you might be able to guess by the disc's title, all twelve songs on this
CD are sung in the Gaelic language (although translations are provided in the
enclosed booklet), and Maggie has been singing Gaelic songs all her life, having
learnt all the songs on this disc from her mother, Flora
MacNeil M.B.E., who lives in the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides
of Scotland. Maggie has her own web
site, which contains a more extensive biography than I have room for
here, as well as information about this and her previous disc. Whilst one can
purchase the discs on-line, no sound samples are provided; I was, however, able
to uncover a sound sample here.
Although the opening song ("I Am Full Of Grief", to use its English title) did nothing for me, being composed of a simple lyric sung by Maggie and the Glasgow Gaelic Primary School choir, accompanied by her clarsach (Scottish harp), my ears perked up at the sound of the instrumental interludes of the following song, "Greetings And Blessings From Across The Ocean". Maybe it's just as well that the songs are sung in Gaelic, because I find the translations of these traditional lyrics to be on the simple side and slightly embarrassing; by not being able to assimilate the lyrics, I can much more appreciate Maggie's soaring and floating voice, placing it as part of the instrumental texture.
Fine accordion and violin playing are to be found in the fourth track, "The Sailor's Song," and the flowing piano accompaniment by Brian McAlpine conjures up the rhythmic nature of the waves. This track is one of the longest on the disc, weighing in at a lengthy six and a half minutes (out of 54 minutes total playing time), and only for brief moments do the dynamics sag.
But the real standout for me is the penultimate song, "Little Callum," which features a repeated asymmetrical instrumental section (which I analysed as three bars of 5/4 followed by one of 6/4) married to a simple tune in common time (or maybe it's 12/8). This is where the Scottish Small Pipes of Keith Easdale get a chance to "let their hair down," and that 5/4 time signature can be most enervating! Modulations in the lengthy instrumental coda heighten the excitement which I derive from this all too brief (a sliver under three minutes) track.
Looking at the disc as a whole, I realize that I very much enjoyed most of the instrumental parts, especially if one counts Maggie's voice as an instrument and not simple as a means of singing a lyric. What I didn't like were the more vocal songs, especially the few sung with the school choir. One's mileage, of course, may vary.
"I may not like folk music now, but I did thirty years ago"
Purchase or find out more about Maggie MacInnes's music here, including sound samples. Maggie also has her own web site.
