Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts

Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts - credit: Photo by Harrison Reid

Photo by Harrison Reid

Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts

Urstan

Gaelic and Scottish tales told once upon a time and told today as well, but not just bards and storytellers, but by people - Gaelic-speaking citizens of the world in…

Discography

Title Format Cat # Date
Urstan LP/CD/MP3/FLAC DC498 2012

Bio

Drag City’s man in Scotland Alasdair Roberts partners once more with Scottish Gaelic singer Màiri Morrison (a native of the Isle of Lewis) for their second collaborative LP, Remembered in Exile. Recorded in Nova Scotia with local lad, bassist/arranger Pete Johnston (whose roots stretch back ultimately to the Scottish borders by way of Ulster), the album draws on the pioneering work of folklorist Helen Creighton (1899-1989), who undertook extensive musical and ethnographic fieldwork in Maritime Canada.

Produced at Fang Recording in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia by Pete along with his frequent collaborator Mike Smith, Remembered in Exile finds Alasdair, Màiri and Pete (together with a sympathetic ensemble of Canadian musicians) crafting new arrangements of traditional songs of Scottish origin collected by Creighton. Together they breathe vigorous new life into a varied selection of material, encompassing both lowland ballads and Highland Gaelic songs, all of which were carried over the water to Canada in various waves of migration spanning several centuries.