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Earlier this year, Laura Jane Wilkie, a celebrated fiddle player from Tain in the Highlands of Scotland, released her debut album ‘Vent’. The album was one of KLOF’s Featured Albums of the Month, reviewed here by Glenn Kimpton who opened:
Vent…is a great concept. Laura has focused the project around ancient women’s working songs, known as waulking songs, which she spent time studying from archives and had passed on to her by Scottish bagpiper and singer Rona Lightfoot (the songs originate from a collection from Rona’s mother, Kate MacDonald). …Laura has taken the spirit of these songs and arranged them for the first time as sympathetic instrumentals, enlisting the services of Ian Carr, Sarah Hayes, Joe Rattray, Hannah Read, Rachel Sermanni and Alice Allen, as well as using improvised vocal samples by Pippa Blundell, Hannah Findlay, Gillian Fleetwood, Imogen Macleod and Rona Lightfoot herself.
He concludes: The playing is also pretty damn great throughout, with each musician bringing character to the tunes, resulting in a sound that is far more than the sum of its parts. Check this album out; the amount of surprises and delights throughout its nine tracks and thirty-six minutes will demand many listens, each bringing something new.
Of the many highlights on the album, The Sailor Has Good Chat was a favourite: “…just a beautifully pure piece of music full of the wonder of life and love.” Laura has just shared a live video of her performing the tune with guitarist extraordinaire Ian Carr (they will be performing at this year’s Scots Trad Music Awards in Inverness – on 30th November).
The Sailor Has Good Chat, our tune of the day, is described as a love song and sea song relating a voyage down the west coast of Scotland, from Greenock down to the Isle of Man, avoiding the Corryvreckan whirlpool and heading for Barra.
Laura Wilkie will also support Kris Drever on four of the last five shows of his November tour (details here).
…an album of rare beauty and personality
Kris Drever talking about Vent
Order Vent: https://hudsonrecords.ffm.to/vent
