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New Release - 11th October 2024

Available for download and streaming from all major online platforms.

Available on CD from Amazon UK, Amazon US, and birnamcdshop.com

This package includes a 60-page booklet, with introduction, extensive notes and bibliography by William Donaldson, Geordie McIntyre and Ruth Perry, plus a singer's perspective by Alison McMorland.

Some Ballads of Anna Gordon, Mrs. Brown of Falkland

Alison McMorland
with Jo Miller & Kirsty Potts
Independent release (2024)

DISC 1

Thomas Rymer & Queen of Elfland 6.46
Kempion 6.19
Lady Elspat 5.50
The Cruel Sister 17.05
Clark Colven 7.16
Young Bekie 13.41

DISC 2

Lamkin 8.18
King Henry 7.17
Brown Adam 4.56
The Gay Goss Hawk 11.55
The Baron of Braikly 6.32
Lady Maisry 9.38

"These recordings are a rare treat and the listener experiences a real sense of the ballad as a singing story.

In her introductory note, Alison McMorland says she likes to think that Time is made audible in singing these glorious ballads which Anna Gordon herself heard and absorbed some 200 years ago. She's spot on - the listener is transported back in time and hears these songs in a new way through these sensitive and beautiful performances.

The singing by McMorland, Miller and Potts is fresh and clear, with the words and story taking precedence. And the sensitive choices of tunes and performances, including instruments that Anna Gordon would have used herself, gives these ballads a real sense of authenticity, bringing out the dramatic, sometimes theatrical, qualities of our national ballads.

The mix of memorable solo ballad singing by McMorland and Miller, along with the sensitive vocal ensembles and instrumental accompaniment (similar to those Anna Gordon herself might have experienced) makes this a lovely and inspiring listen from beginning to end. And the notes, from these experienced ballad singers and scholars are fascinating and helpful"

Kirsteen McCue
Professor of Scottish Literature & Song Culture
University of Glasgow

Some Ballads of Anna Gordon, Mrs. Brown of Falkland is a major event for ballad scholarship:

Classic versions of twelve ballads from one of the earliest and most famous Scottish sources in a double CD, with notes and commentary by leading singers and scholars. The repertoire of Anna Gordon, collected in the closing years of the eighteenth century, has long been a standard reference-point for folklorists but never before has it actually been heard. Commissioned to accompany Ruth Perry's landmark new biography 'The Ballad World of Anna Gordon, Mrs. Brown of Falkland' (Oxford University Press), these historically-informed performances by traditional singers Alison McMorland with Jo Miller and Kirsty Potts open a thrilling new soundscape into this ancient art.

The sensitive direction of Alison McMorland, using occasional doubling of voices and gentle instrumental interjections, beautifully recreates the informal domestic circumstances in which these ballads were originally learned and sung. The results will surprise and delight even the most experienced ballad enthusiast. Nothing like this has been heard in modern times.

Eight of the tunes come from the transcriptions made by Robert Eden Scott, of his aunt, Anna Gordon's, singing -- three of these as amended by Bertrand Bronson who supplied conjectural readings that he felt better fitted the words. Another comes from the notebook of Walter Scott's daughter, Sophia Scott. Three of the texts came down without tunes, but Scotland's contemporary ballad-singing tradition supplies two of the airs and the third comes from the eighteenth-century Blaikie MS cited by Bronson.

As Alison says, "I have long been fascinated by the ballad as a form, and in arranging for the recording of these ballads was frequently reminded of the belief of my old friend and mentor, Hamish Henderson, that performance "breathed new life into ancient memorials." Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl's testimony in their Blood and Roses ballad project perfectly echoes my own experience: "a ballad is not a ballad until it is sung."

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WHERE RAVENS REEL

Geordie McIntyre and Alison McMorland
Rowan Records ROWROICD (2010)

From Gulabeinn
Thomas Rymer
The Factory Girl
Love Song
Tam Chambers
Mary Slessor
Clydes Water
Burns and Highland Mary
The Lights of Home
The Cruel Grave
The Tryst
Winter in Glencoe
Gloomy Winter's Noo Awa
Where Ravens Reel

also featuring:
Kirsty Potts (vocals), Jo Miller (fiddle).

Includes informative notes.

"McIntyre's sensitively robust buff lending understated dignity to originals like 'The Lights of Home' and 'Tam Chambers', rooted in the Glasgow of the first half of the last century.

McMorland's voice in contrast, is that of the wind over the empty hills, both captivating and chilling, particularly on the Child Ballads 'Thomas Rhymer' and 'The Cruel Grave'... instrumentation is spare with unadorned guitar commenting on the songs' moods and some effective bone-rattling banjo on on 'Clydes Water' underpinning the narrative.

Authorative performances that allow the stories within the songs to unfold at their own pace - and they are songs fully deserving of such an approach."

Oz Hardwick
Rock 'n' Reel, June 2011

Where Ravens Reel is the title of one of Geordie McIntyre's songs featured in this new album which combines traditional songs and ballads with five of McIntyre's distinctive compositions. From Gulabeinn, a stirring account of the scattering of the late Hamish Henderson's ashes on the Perthshire mountain that he loved so well. Tam Chambers and Mary Slessor a portrayal of their heroic lives and the touching Lights of Home which celebrates Andy Coogan, war veteran and to whom the album is jointly dedicated along with Elizabeth Stewart of the renowned singing Fetterangus Traveller family.

Ballads are well represented and 'in which these two excel'. Alison's close relationship with Elizabeth inspired her to record The Cruel Grave and Burns and Highland Mary. Her own version of Thomas Rymer stems from the text of Anna Gordon or Mrs Brown of Falkland (1747 - 1810). Daughter Kirsty Potts highlight the close singing that is found within family and joins her on the Irish Factory Girl and Mary Slessor.

As in previous albums recorded by Alison and Geordie the songs of Helen Fullerton are featured here in Winter in Glencoe while poems by two of Scotlands great poets are given new settings. The previously unrecorded Love Song written by Hamish Henderson during his time in North Africa and the exquisite and much anthologised The Tryst by Perth born Willie Soutar set to an original tune by Geordie.

Alison and Geordie are known for their impassioned and moving live performances and this CD captures an intimate portrayal of just that.

"It just oozes authenticity and integrity..................These two have stayed at the top of the tree for a long time because they have character in spades and very special voices "

Living Tradition, October 2010

MEDIA COVERAGE

Folk Roundabout (2012) - [ review ]
English Dance and Song (2011) - [ review ]
The Scotsman (2/9/2010) - [ review ]
The Living Tradition - [ review ]

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WHITE WINGS

Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre
Greentrax Recordings Ltd (2007)

White Wings
The Rocks O Gibraltar
The Virginia Maid
The Shoreheid Boat
Time Wears Awa
Here's A Health To All True Lovers
The Gairdner
John Barleycorn
The Shira Dam
MacCrimmon's Lament
Farewell To the Bens
In Freenship's Name
Our Ship Is Ready
Last Farewell Tae Stirling

With Alison (banjo) and Geordie (guitar)

also featuring:
Kirsty Potts (vocals), Derek Hoy* (fiddle, viola), Norman Chalmers* (concertina, whistle, mouth organ, jaws harp).

* - both members of Jock Tamson's Bairns.
Includes full texts and informative notes.

Alison and Geordie's selection of songs and ballads demonstrates their individual involvement in the Scottish Song Tradition over a 40 years span.

Represented here are Geordie's songwriting - White Wings - to his settings of poems and song texts; Farewell To the Bens, The Virginnia Maid and John Barleycorn. The Shira Dam is a poem written by his close friend, the late Helen Fullerton. Over the years Geordie's own songs have been recorded by others and most recently White Wings by the Johnson Girls, a New York based 'maritime' group.

Alison's close association with Willie Scott and the Stewarts of Fetterangus connect her directly to the older singing style and repertoire such as The Rocks O Gibraltar sung here.

The CD features Alison singing Time wears Awa and In Freenship's Name, both songs learnt from her old friend Willie Scott, the late, great shepherd, crookmaker and singer.

MEDIA COVERAGE

The Scotsman (Fri 4th May) - [ editorial ]
The Herald (21st April) - [ review ]
Scotland on Sunday (15th April) - [ review ]
The Scotsman (20th April) - [ review ]

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BALLAD TREE

Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre
with Kirsty Potts
The Tradition Bearers (2003)

The Wife of Ushers Well
Lamkin
The Two Brothers
May Colvin
Braes o' Yarrow
Lover's Ghost
The Wee Toon Clerk
Tam Lin
Clerk Saunders
The Daemon Lover
King Orfeo

also featuring:
Rob MacKillop (Lute), Bill Taylor (Psaltery, Bray Harp) and Steve Sutcliffe (Concertina)

Includes full texts, a select bibliography, glossary and notes.

The traditional ballads of the classic form have been decribed by some scholars, but not singers, as the aristocrats of folk song.

In 1950 the American ballad scholar Evelyn Wells wrote with remarkable insight and bouyant optimism. "The ballad tree, rooted in the past, living today will send forth its branches into tomorrow"

We are indebted to the song carriers, past and present, who have nourished the carrying-stream of what surely is the democratic muse.

Alison & Geordie

An outstanding example of how great singing and a light hand with accompaniment really can make a moss-backed ballad come alive for a new generation. .... will inspire others to explore and learn the 'auld tunes'.

Sing Out, Winter 2005 vol 48

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ROWAN IN THE ROCK

SONGS OF LOVE, LAND AND NATURE
Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre
with Kirsty Potts
The Tradition Bearers (2001)

The A83
Wild Geese/Norland Wind
Backies
Inveroran
Seven Men of Knoydart
Westlin' Winds
The Silkie of Sule Skerry
Joy of Living
Another Valley
Braes o' Balquidder
Quiet River
Mother Earth
John Muir
Rowan in the Rock

also featuring:
Norman Chalmers (concertina, moothie, bodhran, whistle and Jew's harp), Derek Hoy (fiddles) and Patsy Seddon (clarsach)

Includes full texts, a select bibliography, glossary and notes.

Two of Scotland's most passionate singers whose wealth of knowledge and experience of traditional song is legendary.

On this album they have blended older songs with recently written songs including several from the pen of Geordie himself.

.... a testament to the writers and singers and their place in a long unbroken tradition.

Living Tradition

Geordie's strong bold ballad style serves the robust outdoor themes excellently, while his versatility allows him to also address more tenderly, the poignant ...

Hector Christie

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CLOUDBERRY DAY

SCOTS SONGS AND BALLADS
Alison McMorland
The Tradition Bearers (2000)

Traiveller's Joy
Sailin's a Wearie Life
Edom o' Gordon
Be Guid Tae Me
The Twa Sisters (The Swans Swim Sae Bonnie)
Twa Years Ower Young
Hap and Row
The Flyting o' Life and Daith
The American Stranger
Skippin' Bar'fit Through the Heather
Belt wi Colours Three
Pullin Hard Against the Stream
Cloudberry Day

also featuring:
Kirsty Potts (vocals), Norman Chalmers (concertina, imbira) and Derek Hoy (fiddles)

Includes detailed notes.

Alison McMorland demonstrated yet again that she is one of the most riveting interpreters of the Lowland ballads.

Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman

Alison is one of Scotland's finest living ballad singers .... who unites scrupulous traditional fidelity with versatile and creative artistry.

Hamish Henderson

"This collection of songs represents a constant inspiration interwoven through my life, and a love and commitment to the Scots song tradition.

The songs and ballads here are full of association and meaning for me: they evoke a sense of family, many fine singers and collectors, past generations and their history, children (including my own), times and occasions in my own life and love of the land into which I was born."