BRIAN McNEILL and
FRIENDS
The Falkirk Music Pot
Greentrax 383D
* * * *
What is Scottish music? Once one accepts the reality that
what is glibly labeled "Celtic music" is more useful for marketers
than ethnomusicologists, the question becomes a much harder one to answer. Does
one root around deeply in the Scottish past to find antecedents for each
rhythm, melody, and beat? That was the avenue taken by Dick Gaughan back in
1991, when he spearheaded the Clan Alba project. His was a brilliant
undertaking that, nonetheless, managed to anger self-styled purists. In a new
undertaking, Brian McNeill, who takes an ethnomusicological backseat to no one,
tacks a different direction. Instead of seeking to unearth Scotland's musical
past, he presumes that region and culture conspire to create distinct sounds.
His is a microcosmic look at Scottish music in one place–his native Falkirk–and
he simply avoids definitional battles by presenting music of, about, and played
in Falkirk. Strictly speaking, just two of the 22 tracks on this double CD are
traditional and McNeill is perfectly willing to accept that visiting students
from Malawi's Bandwe Secondary School, with whom Falkirk schools have an
exchange program, fertilize Falkirk's music just as richly as a native son such
as himself.
McNeill calls this project a "cooking pot," an apt
description for the musical porridge stirred by McNeill, local students, and
homegrown talent in 2014, when Falkirk won a grant and designation as an
official Creative Place. McNeill is on the CD with a few of his classics:
"The Lads O' the Fair,' "The Boys that Broke the Ground," "The
Best of the Barley," and "The Travelling Nation's Pride." The
last selection is actually sung by Sylvia Barnes (ex- of Kentigern) and a
reminder that McNeill is as much in his producer, teacher, musical director
roles as that of headline performer. Many listeners will not have previously
heard Amy Low, Emma Buchan, Ellie Williams, Andy McKean, Willy Thomson, or
Andrew Howie. That's because the first two are youthful pipers, Williams a
precocious 17-year-old singer/songwriter, and the last three regional folk club
staples. And you would have had to be in Falkirk on the right night to hear the
Falkirk Schools Ensemble, the Bo'ness and Carriden (brass) Band, or competition
pieces from various local songwriters. McNeill gives the final word to pupils
from the Bandwe Girls Secondary School as they sing "Phla Phala
Phala." How appropriate. The word means "porridge." Go to the
head of the class if you guessed that in Malawi it's cooked in a big iron pot.
Rob Weir
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