Sings the Songs of Robert Burns
Encyclopedia
Sings the Songs of Robert Burns is the seventh studio album by Eddi Reader
. It was released in the UK on May 12, 2003.
The album was premiered at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
as part of the Celtic Connections
Festival in January 2003 and on release garnered Reader some of the best reviews of her career.
Reader explained how the album came about in the extensive liner notes:
Reader says she has discovered in Robert Burns
something she believes has been overlooked in the approach to his work, and she believes that her interpretations of his poetry will reach more ears than have previously heard him.
She explains: "I sang My Love's Like a Red, Red Rose to a bunch of 'worse for the drink' people in a bar in Glasgow one cold January night and I felt something happening between me and the words and the people listening, something profoundly moving. After all my travels singing songs to people, I recognised this as being a vein of emotional gold as yet unmined ... I began to be spooked by him and started on a journey to find him, Robert, the guy from Ayrshire that I would have drunk with, walked with and probably got into trouble with. I wanted to show him off to everyone, sit folk down and say 'no! no! listen, listen, really listen, listen to this...'"
.
Of the seven additional songs, two were from the original 2003 sessions ("Green Grow the Rashes O", "Of A' the Airts"), three were previously available on 2007's Peacetime ("Ye Banks and Braes", "Aye Waukin-O" and "Leezie Lindsay") "Dainty Davie", also from that session was previously unreleased, and "Comin' Thro the Rye/Dram Behind the Curtain" was a brand new recording. "Dram Behind the Curtain" was written by the Scottish Highlands composer and accordionist Mairearad Green.
The album was promoted, like its original release, with two sold out shows at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. The deluxe edition is dedicated to Kevin McCrae, the Scottish composer, arranger, conductor and cellist, who died in April 2005. McCrae conducted and arranged the strings on the original album.
The additional tracks are:
Eddi Reader
Eddi Reader MBE is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known both for her work with Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards and has topped both the album and singles charts...
. It was released in the UK on May 12, 2003.
The album was premiered at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall is an arts venue, in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is operated by Glasgow Life, an agency of Glasgow City Council, which also runs Glasgow’s City Halls and Old Fruitmarket venue...
as part of the Celtic Connections
Celtic Connections
The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of traditional Scottish music and also features international...
Festival in January 2003 and on release garnered Reader some of the best reviews of her career.
Reader explained how the album came about in the extensive liner notes:
I want to tell you about the beauty of the AyrshireAyrshireAyrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
countryside (Burns's birthplace) and the people who I met there when my family were relocated to the town of Irvine, Scotland in 1976. It saved my life to be introduced to an alternative Scottish beauty and language.
I discovered that my adopted town, two hundred years before me, had adopted Robert Burns. It was 1781. He was twenty-two years old. His father had sent the young poet ploughman here to learn the more lucrative trade of flax dressing. At that time Irvine was a thriving and wealthy port, bigger than even Glasgow or Greenock, therefore full of sailors. Robert was enchanted by their tales and experience. He became a man in Irvine, learning about women, drinking and life.
Two hundred years later at school I learned some of his poetry but I often thought Robert Burns was for the highbrow and not the likes of me, the hardly educated, council estate, overspill girl. Now I see that I was wrong and that I am precisely the person Burns wrote for. As I read more and more about him, I get the sense that he was the same as the rest of us, a spokesman for the glorious in the ordinary, the sublime in the mundane. I have met many, I guess, who might be like him, in that county of Ayrshire, and in the rest of Scotland. We are all Robert's babies.
Reader says she has discovered in Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
something she believes has been overlooked in the approach to his work, and she believes that her interpretations of his poetry will reach more ears than have previously heard him.
She explains: "I sang My Love's Like a Red, Red Rose to a bunch of 'worse for the drink' people in a bar in Glasgow one cold January night and I felt something happening between me and the words and the people listening, something profoundly moving. After all my travels singing songs to people, I recognised this as being a vein of emotional gold as yet unmined ... I began to be spooked by him and started on a journey to find him, Robert, the guy from Ayrshire that I would have drunk with, walked with and probably got into trouble with. I wanted to show him off to everyone, sit folk down and say 'no! no! listen, listen, really listen, listen to this...'"
Track listing
- "Jamie Come Try Me" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader/Carr/Cunningham/Hanson/Hewerdine/McCusker/Reid/Vernal) - 4:41
- "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader) - 3:50
- "Willie Stewart/Molly Rankin" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader/Carr/Cunningham/Hewerdine/McCusker/Vernal/Rankin) - 4:18
- "Ae Fond Kiss" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader/Carr/Cunningham/Hewerdine/McCusker/Vernal) - 6:35
- "Brose and Butter" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader/Carr/Cunningham/Hewerdine/McCusker/Vernal/McGoldrick) - 4:02
- "Ye Jacobites" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader/Reid) - 4:03
- "Wild Mountainside" (John Douglas) - 3:54
- "Charlie Is My Darling" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader/Carr/Cunningham/Hewerdine/McCusker/Vernal) - 3:22
- "John Anderson My Jo" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader) - 1:52
- "Winter It Is past" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader) - 4:15
- "Auld Lang SyneAuld Lang Syne"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song . It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight...
" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader) - 4:36
Deluxe edition
A new edition of the album, with seven extra tracks, was released in the UK on January 12, 2009. The album was re-released to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert BurnsRobert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
.
Of the seven additional songs, two were from the original 2003 sessions ("Green Grow the Rashes O", "Of A' the Airts"), three were previously available on 2007's Peacetime ("Ye Banks and Braes", "Aye Waukin-O" and "Leezie Lindsay") "Dainty Davie", also from that session was previously unreleased, and "Comin' Thro the Rye/Dram Behind the Curtain" was a brand new recording. "Dram Behind the Curtain" was written by the Scottish Highlands composer and accordionist Mairearad Green.
The album was promoted, like its original release, with two sold out shows at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. The deluxe edition is dedicated to Kevin McCrae, the Scottish composer, arranger, conductor and cellist, who died in April 2005. McCrae conducted and arranged the strings on the original album.
The additional tracks are:
- 12. "Green Grow the Rashes O" – 4:36
- 13. "Comin' Through the Rye / Dram Behind the Curtain (Maireard Green)" – 2:34
- 14. "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, McCusker, Hewerdine, Dodds, Kelly, Reid, McGuire) – 3:37
- 15. "Aye Waukin-O" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, McCusker, Hewerdine, Carr) – 4:04
- 16. "Dainty Davie" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, McCusker) – 5:27
- 17. "Leezie Lindsay" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, chorus written by Burns, verses by Reader, Hewerdine) – 4:49
- 18. "Of A' the Airts" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, Hanson) – 4:45
Personnel
- Eddi ReaderEddi ReaderEddi Reader MBE is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known both for her work with Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards and has topped both the album and singles charts...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound... - Boo HewerdineBoo HewerdineBoo Hewerdine is an English singer-songwriter. His work includes lead singer and creative force behind The Bible, formed in the 1980s, and reformed in 1994, as well as solo recordings and work for film. He lives in Ely....
– acoustic guitar, backing vocals - Roy Dodds – percussion, cajonCajónA cajón is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front face with the hands.-Origins and evolution:...
- Ian CarrIan Carr (guitarist)Ian Carr is an English guitarist and producer from Yorkshire, who has performed with Swåp and The Kate Rusby Band.Until the late 1990s, Carr was a part of The Kathryn Tickell Band...
– acoustic guitar, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Phil CunninghamPhil Cunningham (folk musician)Phil Cunningham, MBE, born 1960 in Edinburgh, Scotland is a Scottish folk musician and composer.-Biography:Phil played accordion and violin from a very young age. He attended school in Portobello, and was raised Mormon, attending church regularly and playing organ...
– accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, piano, whistles - Christine Hanson – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
- John McCuskerJohn McCuskerJohn McCusker is a Scottish folk musician, record producer and composer. An accomplished fiddle player, he had a long association as a member of the Battlefield Band beginning in the 1990s and was later a band member and producer for folk singer Kate Rusby...
– violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, citternCitternThe cittern or cither is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval Citole, or Cytole. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki and cittern...
, whistles, backing vocals - Colin Reid – acoustic guitar
- Kate RusbyKate RusbyKate Anna Rusby is an English folk singer and songwriter from Penistone, South Yorkshire. Sometimes known as The Barnsley Nightingale, she has headlined various British national folk festivals, and is regarded as one of the most famous English folk singers of contemporary times...
– harmony vocals - Ewen VernalEwen VernalEwen Vernal is a Scottish musician.Born in Glasgow to a musical family, Vernal began taking piano lessons at 8 years old—inspired by a Beatles-singing mother and a choir-leading, saxophone-playing father...
– double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2... - John Douglas – ukuleleUkuleleThe ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
- Stephen Douglas – shakers, Mark's sister's bag
- Anna Massie – fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single... - Hamish Napier – whistleWhistleA whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
, piano - Mairearad Green – accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
- Jen Butterworth – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Royal Scottish National OrchestraRoyal Scottish National OrchestraThe Royal Scottish National Orchestra is Scotland's national symphony orchestra. Based in Glasgow, the 89-member professional orchestra also regularly performs in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, and abroad. Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company has performed full-time since 1950,...
– strings conducted/arranged by Kevin McCrae