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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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CD
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DC 862CD
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"Critically-acclaimed, criminally-overachieving Glasgow-based singer and guitarist Alasdair Roberts is known as a superlative original songwriter as well as an interpreter of traditional songs from Scotland and beyond. For the past twenty years, his recordings have alternated between these two complimentary poles, with 'pop' records such as The Amber Gatherers and A Wonder Working Stone nestling in his expansive back catalogue alongside 'folk' albums such as No Earthly Man and What News (with Amble Skuse and David McGuinness). Additionally, all of these records possess a further dimension, derived from their collation of songs together into one album-length statement. This is part of Alasdair's great achievement in his career -- for him, this thing of music and song hasn't come the eons it's travelled to simply entertain. These impulses fully present and well honed, Alasdair returns to his roots with Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, his fifth full-length collection of traditional song. Recorded live in the studio, it is an entirely solo collection of twelve traditional ballads and songs sparsely arranged for acoustic guitar, piano and voice. The majority of the songs originate in Alasdair's homeland of Scotland, with a couple from Ireland and one from Prince Edward Island on Canada's eastern seaboard too . . . Collectively the songs treat of various conflicts and tensions -- those of gender; of class, status and position; and of geography and tribal belonging ? and the roles and responsibilities expected at the various intersections of these constructs . . . As with many of Alasdair's recordings, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall contains ballads aplenty: tragic ('Bob Norris'), supernatural ('The Holland Handkerchief') and dramatic ('Eppie Morrie'). There are love songs ('The Lichtbob's Lassie') and anti-love songs ('Kilbogie'). There are rare, seldom-heard pieces ('Young Airly') and much more well-known ones ('Mary Mild,' a version of 'The Queen's Four Maries'). Woven through all of this -- a thread of levity, perhaps -- is a triptych of zoological allegories -- a panegyric to a mystical steed ('The Wonderful Grey Horse'), a lament for a lost cow ('Drimindown') and a paean to a regal waterbird ('The Bonny Moorhen'), which serves to highlight the intersection of the mythic, the eternal and the mundane at which we all find ourselves in every day of our life on Earth. Grief In the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall was masterfully recorded by Sam Smith at Green Door Studios, Glasgow over an economical two days, and mixed in one day..."
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LP
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DC 862LP
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LP version. "Critically-acclaimed, criminally-overachieving Glasgow-based singer and guitarist Alasdair Roberts is known as a superlative original songwriter as well as an interpreter of traditional songs from Scotland and beyond. For the past twenty years, his recordings have alternated between these two complimentary poles, with 'pop' records such as The Amber Gatherers and A Wonder Working Stone nestling in his expansive back catalogue alongside 'folk' albums such as No Earthly Man and What News (with Amble Skuse and David McGuinness). Additionally, all of these records possess a further dimension, derived from their collation of songs together into one album-length statement. This is part of Alasdair's great achievement in his career -- for him, this thing of music and song hasn't come the eons it's travelled to simply entertain. These impulses fully present and well honed, Alasdair returns to his roots with Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, his fifth full-length collection of traditional song. Recorded live in the studio, it is an entirely solo collection of twelve traditional ballads and songs sparsely arranged for acoustic guitar, piano and voice. The majority of the songs originate in Alasdair's homeland of Scotland, with a couple from Ireland and one from Prince Edward Island on Canada's eastern seaboard too . . . Collectively the songs treat of various conflicts and tensions -- those of gender; of class, status and position; and of geography and tribal belonging ? and the roles and responsibilities expected at the various intersections of these constructs . . . As with many of Alasdair's recordings, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall contains ballads aplenty: tragic ('Bob Norris'), supernatural ('The Holland Handkerchief') and dramatic ('Eppie Morrie'). There are love songs ('The Lichtbob's Lassie') and anti-love songs ('Kilbogie'). There are rare, seldom-heard pieces ('Young Airly') and much more well-known ones ('Mary Mild,' a version of 'The Queen's Four Maries'). Woven through all of this -- a thread of levity, perhaps -- is a triptych of zoological allegories -- a panegyric to a mystical steed ('The Wonderful Grey Horse'), a lament for a lost cow ('Drimindown') and a paean to a regal waterbird ('The Bonny Moorhen'), which serves to highlight the intersection of the mythic, the eternal and the mundane at which we all find ourselves in every day of our life on Earth. Grief In the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall was masterfully recorded by Sam Smith at Green Door Studios, Glasgow over an economical two days, and mixed in one day..."
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12"
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IGR 014EP
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"The tunes I am indebted to my piping friend Donald Lindsay for 'The Blythsome Bridal', 'The Braes of Tulliemet' and 'The Smith's a Gallant Fireman', while Chief O'Neill's 'Favourite' and 'The Flowers of Edinburgh' were learnt from my fiddling friend Neil McDermott. 'The Blythsome Bridal' is used as the melody to a comic lyric called 'Fy Let Us A' To The Bridal' first published in 1706. 'The Braes of Tulliemet' lie near the Perthshire town of Pitlochry. 'The Smith's a Gallant Fireman' is also known as 'Carrick's Rant'. Chief O'Neill was Francis O'Neill (1848-1936), who was born in County Cork, emigrated to the USA as a young man and eventually became chief of the Chicago Police from 1901 to 1905. 'The Flowers of Edinburgh' was first published in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion around 1760. The guitars are fretted in the following positions as the tunes appear on the record: II, II, V, VII and V. The songs my family stayed in a haunted house in the village of Balquhidder for a very short while in the early 1980s after moving from Germany to Scotland. However, I only took to singing 'The Braes of Balquhidder' very recently after hearing a recording of it sung by the late Tim Lyons. The Seasons was learnt from the singing of the late Aberdeen singer Lizzie Higgins, daughter of Jeannie Robertson. Edinburgh-based Ulsterman Cathal McConnell knows many fine songs, most of which are collected in his book/CD set I Have Travelled This Country. I learnt this version of 'The Curragh of Kildare' from that source. The late Sheila Stewart of Rattray, near Blairgowrie, is the source of my version of 'False, False'. I would be unable to attribute my singing of Roberts Burns' 'The Silver Tassie' to a single source, owing to its general popularity in Scotland. I am forever indebted to all the fine singers and musicians mentioned above, and to many others unmentioned, for passing on songs and tunes to me over the years." --Alasdair Roberts, London, June 2020 Single-sided 12"; screen-printed B-side; includes download code; edition of 300.
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CD
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DC 613CD
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"Alasdair Roberts is the name of the new solo record from the well-known Scottish songwriter, guitarist and singer Alasdair Roberts -- his eighth Drag City Records release under that name... Alasdair Roberts' ten songs are sparse, intimate and concise. The focus throughout is on Alasdair's deft acoustic fingerstyle guitar and his voice. The songs are variously elliptical and gnomic, direct and personal, romantic and tender. There are occasional guest appearances from fellow Glasgow-dwellers Alex South (clarinet), Donald Lindsay (tin whistle) and singing quartet The Crying Lion (Alex Neilson, Lavinia Blackwall, Harry Campbell, Katy Cooper), always to great dramatic effect. In response to the economy of the arrangements, Alasdair's voice pitches down on occasion, enhancing the close feeling of this album -- an environment where even the sounding of percussive stick-clicks signals a dynamic sonic shift. Alasdair has always delighted in a good, dark set of traditional ballads -- the kinds of songs which address human mortality in all its grisly manifestations -- but even in the relative isolation of this almost-solo set, Alasdair shows no sign of the misanthrope; his advocacy for the fellowship of man is always unshakeably present."
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12"
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DC 394EP
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CD
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DC 394CD
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"At a dizzying peak of powers, Alasdair Roberts is knocking out tune after killer tune, all scored to the beat of his own weird drum, and we love him for it. This is why we choose to exist, to help cement the footsteps of musicians and eccentrics such as he, footsteps that will endure through into future days, just in case the music-buying public of our time somehow drops the ball. Imagine that! The Wyrd Meme is an EP occasioned by the aforementioned windfall of great music circa 2009 from our Alasdair -- the eight massive constructions on Spoils are succeeded by another four songs, this set comprising twentytwo minutes of pure aural Roberts: stimulating, colorful, melodic, and arresting, just for starters. At the time of Spoils (all those weeks ago), the press was inclined to toss around Alasdair's musical vision of syncretism quite liberally -- and it was well down of them to indulge. Of late, Ali has taken to stitching his lyrics together from a diversity of threads, weaving from line to line with myths and legends, verse and slang and old and new, bringing different schools together and wedding it all to his razor-sharp guitar and singing so precise and powerful as to make a groaning man cry. And the ladies like him, too. The syncretic style of this Spring felt so right for this new global village we're all in, The Wyrd Meme takes a dip in the pool as well. Really, it's kind of like a maxi-single, as each song stands in the spotlight afforded single tracks, each of them bidding to be the best song ever in the history of Alasdair Roberts. That's a long time, you know -- at least a couple thousand years just to start. The Wyrd Meme is an autumnal masterwork that'll sound great at any time of the year, every year for the rest of your life. Buy it for Christmas -- keep it to take with you in your burial box." Total playing time: 22 minutes.
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LP
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DC 392LP
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CD
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DC 326CD
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"After his 2005 collection of tragic ballads, No Earthly Man, Alasdair Roberts bounces back with a bright and shiny new record, The Amber Gatherers. We knew the grave couldn't hold him down for long! Seems he's a changed man -- is that a smile playing upon his lips? You best believe it. In contrast to No Earthly Man, whose moments of glee were generally hard to discern (although Lord knows they certainly were there for the keen of ear to enjoy), The Amber Gatherers is a pure pop record. A jukebox record, no less! Seems like this time, Alasdair wanted to make the kind of music you might hear on walking into your favorite bar, rather than drifting from the speakers of, say, your local charnel-house."
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CD
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DC 283CD
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"Over the course of three albums of original music with the band Appendix Out and a pair of albums under his own name, Scotsman Alasdair Roberts has been moving toward a purer understanding, exploration and interpretation of the traditional song of the British Isles. No Earthly Man shouldn't be regarded as a culmination of this exploration: this is Roberts' music, something he'll be fiddling with for the rest of his days. However, this new album comes with some sense of finality, part of which may have to do with its focus -- a set comprised entirely of death ballads. Recorded near the whisky distilleries of rural Aberdeenshire and mixed amid the tobacco fields of Kentucky, No Earthly Man benefits from the playing and perspective of a diversity of musicians, and from the production talents of honorary Scot Will Oldham."
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DC 240CD
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"After more than five years, three LPs and several 7" singles as 'Appendix Out', Scottish singer and man of letters Alasdair Roberts is bidding farewell to his nom-demusique (but fortunately not his raison-d'être!). Heavily steeped in the lineage of European folk music (the Scots have something to say about this, you know), the words and music of Farewell Sorrow evoke a spirit of youth, an air of reckless abandon, a passion not meant to stay in this world. Sure, there are still a couple of the dirges you might expect, but they're now enlivened with a subtly malevolent, rakish wit and nestle alongside bona fide pop songs detailing the lighter side of life in Alasdair's imaginary kingdom."
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LP
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DC 240LP
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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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