Musicians

Josie Vallely: vocals, shruti box

Tracks

1. The Sang (2.20)
2. The Gawk (Roud 413; G/D 6:1157; Henry H479) (2.39)
3. Gaitherin Shells (2.13)
4. Tammie Taddle (Roud 2497) (0.59)
5. Haar (3.50)
6. Sew Sewin’ Silk (Roud 473; G/D 8:1703) (1.06)
7. Auld Man Cam Courtin Me (Roud 210) (3.02)
8. Cruel Mither (Roud 9; Child 20; G/D 2:193; TYG 73) (3.00)
9. (Ode to) What a Voice (Roud 495) (7.08)

Track 1 poem The Sang from Marion Angus: Sun and Candlelight (Edinburgh: The Porpoise Press, 1927). Arranged by Quinie based on the tune of Anne Brigg’s version of Young Tambling;
Track 2 trad., words translated into Scots from The Cuckoo;
Track 3 poem Gathering Shells from Marion Angus: Lost Country (Glasgow: Gowans & Gray, 1937), some words are altered. Arranged by Quinie to the tune of Stornoway, a tune by unidentified woman [vocal] held in the BBC Glasgow Archives, a Gaelic song recorded by Lomax in 1951;
Tracks 4, 6, 8-9 trad., learned from the repertoire of Lizzie Higgins;
Track 5 poem In a Little Old Town, from Marion Angus: Lost Country, arranged by Quinie to the tune of the Irish Gaelic song Táim Cortha ó Bheith im’ Aonar im’ Luí;
Track 7 trad., learned from the repertoire of Jeannie Robertson;

Musicians

Josie Valley: voice, shruti box, zither;
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh: viola;
Oliver Pit: guitar, zither, bouzouki, percussion;
Neil McDermott: fiddle;
Alan Guadanal: chanter

Tracks

1. Wagtail (4.04)
2. Wee Wunner (2.06)
3. The Banks of Red Roses (Roud 603; G/D 7:1444) (0.39)
4. The Snows They Melt the Soonest (Roud 3154) (6.47)
5. Lost Licht (6.08)
6. Sound o Sleet (1.57)
7. When I Was Noo But Sweet Sixteen (Roud 5138) (2.44)
8. Tammie Norrie (1.18)
9. The Lark in the Morning (Roud 151) (4.16)
10. Up and Awa and Awa Wi the Laverock (Roud 5133) (1.46)
11. Gawk (Roud 413; G/D 6:1157; Henry H479) (5.58)
12. Easter Tree (5.01)
13. Corbie (2.03)
14. Buckie Prins (6.13)

Track 1 words based on Wully Wagtail, from Sandy Thomas Ross: Bairnsongs, New York: St Martins’ Press, 1967;
Track 2 words from Bairnsongs;
Tracks 3-4, 7, 9, 11 trad.;
Track 5 poem The Lost Licht (A Perthshire Legend), from Violet Jacob: Songs of Angus, London: John Murray, 1915, music Morning Come, Jean Ritchie;
Tracks 6, 8, 14 tunes, probably by Josie Valley;
Track 10 Andy Hunter;
Track 12 Dave Goulder;
Track 13 words from Bairnsongs, tune The Unfortunate Lass

Recorded in August 2024 at The Big Shed in Highland Perthshire with support from Creative Scotland;
Recorded and mixed by Stevie Jones

KLOF Magazine review by Thomas Blake

Musicians

Josie Valley: voice, shruti box;
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh: viola;
Oliver Pitt: duduk, bouzouki, percussion;
Harry Górski-Brown: smallpipes, violin;
Stevie Jones: double bass

Tracks

1. Col My Love (6.55)
2. Bonny Udny (Roud 3450; G/D 6:1089) (4.46)
3. Macaphee Turn the Cattle (Roud 20741) (1.22)
4. Sae Slight a Thing (5.52)
5. Auld Horse (2.27)
6. Generations of Change (3.15)
7. Health, Wealth a Yer Days (3.03)
8. The Seasons (Roud 16929) (2.00)
9. Cam A Ye Fair (Roud 3) (5.56)
10. Sallow Buckthorn (6.16)
11. Craigie Hill (Roud 5165) (4.29)

Track 1 based looseley on the piobaireachd Colla Mo Run, lyrics translated from Gaelic into Scots;
Tracks 2-3, 8-9, 11 trad.;
Track 4 poem A Small Thing from Marion Angus: The Turn of the Day (Edinburgh: The Porpoise Press, 1931), tune based on Port na bPúcal played on the uilleann pipes;
Track 5 improvised piece, based on Mary Orr Garven’s Fareweel Untae Ye Auld Horse, a fragment of what seems to be a bothy ballad;
Track 6 Matt Armour;
Track 7 a short toast from a Lizzie Higgins recording held in the School of Scottish Studies Archives;
Track 10 lyrics from Helen Helen Cruickshank’s poem Sea Buckthorn, published in Up the Noran Water and other Scots poems (1934), and from a Scots translation of a Palawa Kani poem by Theresa Gall Saintie, melody based on the Irish sean-nós tune An Cailin Fearúil Fionn