(2020) Brian Ó hEadhra & Fiona MacKenzie – Tuath: Songs of the Northlands  


Review:
Tuath is the second album to be released by Brian Ó hEadhra and Fiona MacKenzie working as a duo. Their first, Tìr: Highland Life & Lore was extremely well received, being nominated for album of the year at 2019’s Scots Trad Music Awards. An album of twelve songs, most sung in Scottish Gaelic, one in Irish Gaelic and others in Danish, Norwegian and one a mix of Galician and Gaelic, could be an album with lyrics immediately accessible only to a polyglot. The songs also range from traditional to contemporary compositions. All this variety of provenance is directed at realising the aim of the album as captured in the second half of the title. It is intended as a tribute to the Gaelic Northlands and their peoples, an amalgam of their culture, their history and their mythologies. “Tuath” has a present-day meaning in Scottish Gaelic of “north”, but the same spelling can also mean “folk” in the sense of “people”. It seems like the perfect title for a celebration of the peoples and countries bordering the North Atlantic that share a Gaelic tradition. The opener, Brendan the Navigator (Brianainn An t-Seòladair) is one of the album’s modern songs, a joint composition, Fiona on music, both of them penning the lyrics. The title points to its inspiration, the sixth-century voyages of St Brendan, spreading the word of Christianity. It’s no travelogue though, more a song that could have been sung by the crew to keep spirits up during their perilous voyages. The booklet’s introductory text explains Brian’s motivation for writing the song, a meeting with Tim Severin, the explorer who, in the 1970s, sailed a wooden framed, leather-clad boat across the Atlantic, demonstrating that Brendan could have reached North America centuries before Columbus. At least, the Gaelic version of the text explains this, but not the English, which just focusses on explaining the background of Brendan and his voyages. This isn’t a one-off, all the introductions are different in the two languages, so it’s worth doing a bit of translation work to get the full story. The track begins very simply with a repeated phrase of pizzicato fiddle from Mike Vass, joined by Tom Gibbs on keyboards and then Brian’s vocal. Each four-line verse is followed by a chorus, Fiona joining the singing and with a deeper, layered sound from the accompaniment. Mike Vass is credited with Sound Design for the album, and this is him at work, blending the voices and the backing, creating the feel of Brendan’s crew joining in the chorus. This combining of the songs, be they traditional or more modern compositions, with decidedly 21st Century instrumental and electronic arrangements is a defining feature of Tuath. As it was on Brian and Fiona’s previous album, Mike Vass being largely responsible for the production and recording on both. The next song beautifully illustrates the dovetailing of these elements. Latha Dhan Fhinn am Beinn Ioghnaidh. Fiona leads the vocal on a traditional ballad telling of the warrior and storyteller Caoilte Mac Rónáin. As the story unfolds, the arrangement builds from simple beginnings into a tapestry of sound, engaging your attention but never overwhelming the voice. The three non-Gaelic songs occupy the middle section of the album. The Danish and Norwegian songs are given a somewhat more conventional treatment instrumentally, on Godfâder Vil Jâ Brian’s voice is accompanied throughout by Tom on piano, and for Hemmelig Luke, Brian and Fiona’s voices are supported mainly by a combination of Innes White’s guitar and Mike’s fiddle, though there is an extended fade-out sounding rather like a musical box tune. Sandwiched between these two, Rosa das Rosas returns to a more adventurous, strongly percussive and electronic accompaniment, Fiona singing the chorus in its original Galician while the verses have been translated into Gaelic. Among the remaining five songs, two should be mentioned as they are rather more personal, written by Brian specifically for the album. Fichead Aodan (Twenty Faces), dealing with mental illness, its message is “you are not alone”. Is Gael Mé (I Am a Gael) is described as a song of empowerment and hope. Brian has written it in Irish Gaelic, his first Gaelic language, and he sings with, initially, just his bodhrán as accompaniment while Fiona joins with refrains. The lyrics are statements of what he feels it is to be a Gael and exhortations never to forget that wherever you now find yourself, whatever country you are in, you are still a Gael.


         


Track List:
01 - Brianainn an t-Seòladair
02 - Latha Dhan Fhìnn am Beinn Ioghnaidh
03 - Na Fir-chlis
04 - Chan Eil mi gun Mhulad Orm
05 - Godfâder vil jâ priza
06 - Cantigas de Santa Maria: No. 10, Rosa das Rosas
07 - Hemmelig Luke
08 - Iseabail
09 - Fichead Aodann
10 - Cadal Cha Dèan Mi
11 - Is Gael Mé
12 - Sìne Bhàn
13 - If I Needed You
14 - Naomh nan Gàidheal


Media Report:
Genre: celtic, folk
Country: Scotland, UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits


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