The Tannahill Weavers, Arnish Light (Green Linnet Records, Inc., 2003)
Arnish Light is a good, solid CD from a good, solid Scots group. The Tannahill Weavers are experts at what they do, and Arnish Light has everything one would expect from one of their recordings.
The mix of instrumental sets to vocals, five to seven, provides balance. The breakdown of subject matter in the songs is also balanced: one Jacobite anthem ("Cam Ye by Athol"), two serious love songs ("Lassie wi' the Lintwhite Locks" and "The Rose amang the Thorn"), two comic love songs ("Ower the Hills and Faur Awa'" and "Fair Gallowa'") and two comic songs ("The Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" and "Up in the Mornin's No' for Me").
All of the songs are traditional except for "The Rose amang the Thorn" by the Tannahill Weavers' own Roy Gullane. Its tune and style are very much in the tradition of what the group normally sings. The only telltale clue to its age is "she's ta'en a heart that widnae flee/And steired it oot amang the staurn" -- an image more of the 21st century than of the 17th.
This version of "Ower the Hills and Faur Awa'" isn't exactly the children's ditty "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son," though hero Jocky is the son of a piper as well. I hesitated on whether or not to call it a comic love song, as the verses tell a sad tale of betrayal, but the chorus decided me: "the wind has blawn my plaid awa'." The naked and depressed piper on the hill just has to be joke.
I must confess a great affinity for "Up in the Mornin's No' for Me." The description of the sun which "peeps ower you southland hills like one timerous carlie/Just blinks a wee then sinks again" reminds me all too strongly of short winter days in the north (I spent my youth in roughly the same latitudes as Scotland).
There's nothing flashy or spectacular about Arnish Light, and that's meant as a compliment. It's good, enjoyable music, played and sung with skill and talent. It's comfort food for the ear, something much more likely to be played over and over than the flash and spectacle.
The Tannahill Weavers do a good job on liner notes, too, including lyrics, a glossary (very welcome to those of us who don't speak Scots) and notes on each cut. This set isn't quite up to their usual standard, unfortunately, with a couple of reversed lines in "Cam Ye By Athol" and the total omission of "Romy Therese/Tune for Mary." The latter error is corrected on their Web site, the former is not (either they sang the lines in the wrong order or the liner notes are wrong -- something only an obsessed reviewer is going to notice anyway, right?).
The Tannahill Weavers' Web site merits a visit, with its bios, tour dates, lyrics, glossary and more.
The Tannahill Weavers have been together for well over twenty years, and according to their discography this is their sixteenth recording. As of this writing, The Green Man Review has reviewed two others, Epona and Alchemy.
