Mairearad Green and Anna Massie are solid staples of modern Scottish folk music; both have been active and important figures in the scene for many years already. As they have previously made four albums (Mairearad and Anna, Coupling, Best Day and Farran) together, the almost synchronized releases of their new solo albums was a great opportunity to find out the musical paths they roam right now.
And indeed, now in 2024, we have the two albums that come from very different worlds.
Mairearad used electronics and clearly took big steps away from trad on her Summer Isles (2016), an album that for me felt more like experimenting with new ground rather than having quite conquered that ground yet. Now, with Hearth, that ground is decidedly hers.
Hearth has roots in Scottish trad – there are moments when that is made obvious – but mostly it features the artist’s personal, fully realized vision of the 21st singer-songwriter in control of her art.
The melodies are sometimes sketchy; different digital percussion loops tick and snap and rumble almost constantly like some impatient being hovering behind the music; pipes and loops intertwine. And it all comes together in a coherent soundscape, with her singing the human voice tying it all together.
Folk music for the 21st century. It might take you a couple of spins to really get into it, but it’s definitely worth it!
Meanwhile, in the all-acoustic scene, Anna Massie’s Two Down is a delightful, lively feast of stringed instruments and songs you will immediately like. A combination of original and borrowed tunes, both with and without words, the album is both great fun and a tour de force of her skills with various instruments.
And her personality shines through; if you followed her wonderful lockdown vlog, the Black Isle Correspondent, you know what I mean. Be it a cover of J.P. Cormier’s My Life Is Over Again or her own instrumental Big Days, you will be charmed to bits. It’s Vox Humana to the max.
Mairearad and Anna: two brilliant musicians, two different visions. It’s a win-win for everyone.
FolkNotes 