Paul Anderson, Home and Beauty (Greentrax recordings, 2009)
They take their traditional music seriously in Scotland. For this very reason Scotland produces some very fine musicians that seem to have an in-bred flair for their music. Paul Anderson is not just an ordinary run-of-the-mill fiddle player; he excels, to say the very least, and on this album he demonstrates his dexterity on the fiddle with not just Scottish traditional tunes, but other quite unexpected material.
When the album opened with "The Duke of Fife" I thought 'Oh! another White Heather album,' but taking the time to play it through a couple of times, I realised there was so much more.
Paul is from Tarland in the far north of Scotland on the edge of Cairngorms National Park. It is indeed an area of outstanding natural beauty, so for him 'Home and Beauty', and so it is only natural Paul has taken influence from living in this part of the world in his own compositions.
Back in 1800s, Tarland was once notorious for being the home of the 'Tarland Tykes,' bare knuckle fighting men who would often take on men from other parishes in the town square. Not uncommon for up to 100 of these ruffians to fight it out in the square. Nowadays this sort of thing only happens at football matches with the supporters -- so, no change there!
Of all musical instruments, the violin must be one of the most versatile and expressive instruments there is. Paul demonstrates this on the album that has no less than 22 tracks. Ranging from jigs, reels, waltz to Hungarian Dance, to heavy metal folk rock. About half are traditional or from contemporary writers and the other half written by Paul. Various musicians tastefully accompany all. Perhaps the most surprising, is at track 7 "Ghost Dancers" which has Paul playing with the Aberdeen heavy metal rock band Pallas -- simply brilliant. I liked the way the track faded out with a native American chant, then the next track "A Waltz for Alice / An Anderson's Waltz" two lovely tunes, simple but very effective.
Only two vocal tracks on the album, and on each the vocal is provided by Jim Reid. At track 15 "By the Mountain Streams" and at track 18 "The Black Velvet Band" these add the essential light and shade that only goes to complement the album.
So if you fan of traditional Scottish fiddle music Ð with a twist, this is an album for you. You learn more about Paul here or buy the album on-line here. You might just do that or I'll set the Tarland Tykes on ye Jimmy!
