The RGM Inbox – Scottish Edition
We head north of the border for our latest edition of the RGM Inbox, where just lately we’ve been hearing some very fine things. Like all fine things, they are best shared. I know. We spoil you.
We begin with news of Rory Matheson & Graham Rorie who, despite having passed up the opportunity to name their act Rory, Rorie (Tell Us A Story), haven’t missed a trick with their debut album, We Have Won The Land, which will be released on April 22nd. Both gentlemen are celebrated musicians in their own right, with their respective piano and string talents being nurtured at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and their fingers in various other musical pies. Powered by a preposterously accomplished band and perfectly captured performances, the record is inspired by the Assynt Crofter’s Trust buyout of the North Lochinver Estate back in 1993, which has enabled the local people who live and work on the land to remain its custodians ever since. With its story told via eight instrumental originals and two traditional songs, WHWTL has an unmistakably Celtic heart that yearns and thunders in equal measure.
Though Daisy Chute may be best known as a member of All Angels, the Edinburgh-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter has successfully straddled the classical and folk genres under her own steam to some acclaim since recording her debut album at the ripe old age of, um, fifteen. With her music finding its way into various film and TV shows (and even into a Caffé Nero near you) it’s no wonder there is a comfortable familiarity to her, deep, ethereal voice. Her latest EP, Cradle Songs, was released just after Burns Night and saw her collaborating with composer Michael Csányi-Wills on settings of works by three female Scottish poets. These lush, pastoral arrangements are the perfect partner to Chute’s delicate delivery and give the EP an otherworldliness that is instantly and irresistibly transportive.
For something altogether more barnstorming, look no further than Highlands seven-piece Hò-rò, who are set to release their third album, New Moon, on April 22nd. With a rejigged lineup, the band have crafted a stunning LP which balances braw energy and raw emotion on a mix of traditional Gaelic and newly-penned original pieces. Calum MacPhail and Hannah Macrae’s voices blend superbly on the tender balladry of the record’s lead single ‘Isle Of Eigg’ while elsewhere, there are epic, soaring instrumentals like ‘Little Bird’ sitting alongside the high-octane, floor-thumping fiddleree of ‘Spot On’ and ‘Kaylins’. Topping off with the beautifully spare piano of ‘Oran An Amadain Bhoidhich’, this is a vital and rich record you really mustn’t miss.
Eddi Reader Copyright © Sean Purser
We finish by turning to a woman who needs no introduction. With a career that spans almost four decades, Eddi Reader is a bona fide Scottish national treasure and for her new single ‘Light Is In The Horizon Yet’, we find her teamed with long-time compadres Boo Hewerdine, Roy Dodds and John Douglas. Dodd’s easy-brushed drums and Steve Hamilton’s waterfalling piano underpin Reader’s beloved lilting, soaring and quavering vocal. The track, a setting of a poem by Thomas Moore, provides a little chink of hope in our increasingly precarious times and is taken from an upcoming album of unreleased material from the Cavalier and Vagabond album sessions. It also kicks off Reader’s ten-date Scottish tour which begins on April 1st (no joke) so, if you find yourself on Scottish soil around then, you’d be a fool not to.
Light Is In The Horizon Yet is available to buy, stream and download from Bandcamp:
Visit https://eddireader.bandcamp.com/.
Catch Eddi Reader as she tours Scotland in April for 40 Years live:
● 14th April 2022 – Albert Halls, Stirling
● 15th April 2022 – Memorial Hall, Lanark
● 16th April 2022 – Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries
● 19th April 2022 – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
● 21st April 2022 – Music Hall, Aberdeen
● 22nd April 2022 – Motherwell Theatre, Motherwell
● 23rd April 2022 – The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
We hope you’ve enjoyed this Scottish edition of the RGM Inbox. Will it become as successful as its Canadian cousin The Maple Leaf? Only time will tell.
This edition of the RGM Inbox is a Rich Barnard production for Red Guitar Music.
We head north of the border for our latest edition of the RGM Inbox, where just lately we’ve been hearing some very fine things. Like all fine things, they are best shared. I know. We spoil you.