Post by Joe on Feb 15, 2009 12:00:00 GMT -5
A 2006 review from The Telegraph,
The best of the new releases / CD of the week
Folk
The Cottars
Forerunner
Rounder, £10.99
Each October, Cape Breton's mighty reservoir of musical talent combines with autumnal changes in a beautiful landscape to produce Celtic Colours, a great folk festival in the grandest of settings. Though still only teenagers, the Cottars - two pairs of siblings descended from Scots who settled on these wild New World shores - are already veterans of the event. They are instrumentally proficient and vocally outstanding, and they are winning acclaim far beyond Canada's borders. This, their third album, is comfortably their best and is a showcase for their growing confidence.
Fiona MacGillivray's singing is immaculate and, with elder brother Ciaran, she tackles Tom Waits's searing Georgia Lee with all the emotion the song demands. The medleys and slow airs are played with authority in distinctive Cape Breton fashion. And if I approached Byker Hill with the suspicion of one taught to believe only North-Easterners should be let loose on it, MacGillivray's version, Canadian accent and all, is the second best I have come across. Since the more memorable interpretations have hitherto come from relative unknowns, from a Swaledale farmer's wife to a Geordie ex-miner, she may never know how great a compliment that is.
Colin Randall
(C) Telegraph Media Group Ltd. 2009
The best of the new releases / CD of the week
Folk
The Cottars
Forerunner
Rounder, £10.99
Each October, Cape Breton's mighty reservoir of musical talent combines with autumnal changes in a beautiful landscape to produce Celtic Colours, a great folk festival in the grandest of settings. Though still only teenagers, the Cottars - two pairs of siblings descended from Scots who settled on these wild New World shores - are already veterans of the event. They are instrumentally proficient and vocally outstanding, and they are winning acclaim far beyond Canada's borders. This, their third album, is comfortably their best and is a showcase for their growing confidence.
Fiona MacGillivray's singing is immaculate and, with elder brother Ciaran, she tackles Tom Waits's searing Georgia Lee with all the emotion the song demands. The medleys and slow airs are played with authority in distinctive Cape Breton fashion. And if I approached Byker Hill with the suspicion of one taught to believe only North-Easterners should be let loose on it, MacGillivray's version, Canadian accent and all, is the second best I have come across. Since the more memorable interpretations have hitherto come from relative unknowns, from a Swaledale farmer's wife to a Geordie ex-miner, she may never know how great a compliment that is.
Colin Randall
(C) Telegraph Media Group Ltd. 2009