Ah Lassies, break out your best Haggis and the only proper libation to accompany it, Scotch whiskey! ... or not, and just enjoy Eddi Reader's angelic vocal renderings of auld Bobby Burns' poetry -- earthy folk arrangements here, with haunting orchestral overtones -- indeed, provided by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Sings the Songs of Robert Burns is the seventh studio album by Eddi Reader. It was released in the UK on May 12, 2003.
The album was premiered at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of the Celtic Connections Festival in January 2003 and on release garnered Reader some of the best reviews of her career.
Reader explained how the album came about in the extensive liner notes:
I want to tell you about the beauty of the Ayrshire countryside (Burns's birthplace) and the people who I met there when my family were relocated to the town of Irvine, Scotland in 1976. It saved my life to be introduced to an alternative Scottish beauty and language.
I discovered that my adopted town, two hundred years before me, had adopted Robert Burns. It was 1781. He was twenty-two years old. His father had sent the young poet ploughman here to learn the more lucrative trade of flax dressing. At that time Irvine was a thriving and wealthy port, bigger than even Glasgow or Greenock, therefore full of sailors. Robert was enchanted by their tales and experience. He became a man in Irvine, learning about women, drinking and life.
Two hundred years later at school I learned some of his poetry but I often thought Robert Burns was for the highbrow and not the likes of me, the hardly educated, council estate, overspill girl. Now I see that I was wrong and that I am precisely the person Burns wrote for. As I read more and more about him, I get the sense that he was the same as the rest of us, a spokesman for the glorious in the ordinary, the sublime in the mundane. I have met many, I guess, who might be like him, in that county of Ayrshire, and in the rest of Scotland. We are all Robert's babies.
Reader says she has discovered in Robert Burns something she believes has been overlooked in the approach to his work, and she believes that her interpretations of his poetry will reach more ears than have previously heard him.
She explains: "I sang My Love's Like a Red, Red Rose to a bunch of 'worse for the drink' people in a bar in Glasgow one cold January night and I felt something happening between me and the words and the people listening, something profoundly moving. After all my travels singing songs to people, I recognised this as being a vein of emotional gold as yet unmined ... I began to be spooked by him and started on a journey to find him, Robert, the guy from Ayrshire that I would have drunk with, walked with and probably got into trouble with. I wanted to show him off to everyone, sit folk down and say 'no! no! listen, listen, really listen, listen to this...'"
Deluxe edition
A new edition of the album, with seven extra tracks, was released in the UK on January 12, 2009. The album was re-released to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns.
Of the seven additional songs, two were from the original 2003 sessions ("Green Grow the Rashes O", "Of A' the Airts"), three were previously available on 2007's Peacetime ("Ye Banks and Braes", "Aye Waukin-O" and "Leezie Lindsay") "Dainty Davie", also from that session was previously unreleased, and "Comin' Thro the Rye/Dram Behind the Curtain" was a brand new recording. "Dram Behind the Curtain" was written by the Scottish Highlands composer and accordionist Mairearad Green.
The album was promoted, like its original release, with two sold out shows at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. The deluxe edition is dedicated to Kevin McCrae, the Scottish composer, arranger, conductor and cellist, who died in April 2005. McCrae conducted and arranged the strings on the original album.
The additional tracks are:
:12. "Green Grow the Rashes O" – 4:36
:13. "Comin' Through the Rye / Dram Behind the Curtain (Maireard Green)" – 2:34
:14. "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, McCusker, Hewerdine, Dodds, Kelly, Reid, McGuire) – 3:37
:15. "Aye Waukin-O" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, McCusker, Hewerdine, Carr) – 4:04
:16. "Dainty Davie" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, McCusker) – 5:27
:17. "Leezie Lindsay" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, chorus written by Burns, verses by Reader, Hewerdine) – 4:49
:18. "Of A' the Airts" (Robert Burns, arr. Reader, Hanson) – 4:45
Personnel
*Eddi Reader – vocals, acoustic guitar
*Boo Hewerdine – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
*Roy Dodds – percussion, cajon
*Ian Carr – acoustic guitar, piano
*Phil Cunningham – accordion, piano, whistles
*Christine Hanson – cello
*John McCusker – violin, cittern, whistles, backing vocals
*Colin Reid – acoustic guitar
*Kate Rusby – harmony vocals
*Ewen Vernal – double bass
*John Douglas – ukulele
*Stephen Douglas – shakers, Mark's sister's bag
*Anna Massie – fiddle, mandolin
*Hamish Napier – whistle, piano
*Maireard Green – accordion
*Jen Butterworth – guitar
*Royal Scottish National Orchestra – strings conducted/arranged by Kevin McCrae
References
Category:2003 albums
Category:Rough Trade Records albums
This text has been derived from Sings the Songs of Robert Burns on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0Artist/Band Information
Eddi Reader MBE (born Sadenia Reader; 29 August 1959) is a Scottish singer songwriter, known both for her work with Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards and has topped both the album and singles charts. In 2003 she showcased the works of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.
Early career
Reader was born in Glasgow, the daughter of a welder, and the eldest of seven children (her brother, Francis, is vocalist with the band The Trash Can Sinatras). She was nicknamed Edna by her parents. Living at first in the district of Anderston, Glasgow, in a tenement slum demolished in 1965, The young Reader family moved to a two-bedroomed flat in the estate of Arden, Glasgow.
In 1976, due to overcrowding the family was re-housed 25 miles from Glasgow, in the council development of Irvine, Ayrshire ; however, Reader returned to Glasgow (where she lived with her grandmother) in order to finish her compulsory schooling. She began playing the guitar at the age of ten, and started her musical career busking, first in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street, then in the early 1980s in London and around Europe (where she also worked with circus and performance artists).
Back in Scotland, while finding factory work in Irvine and working part time in Sirocco Recording Studio in Kilmarnock, she answered an advert in the music press and travelled to London to audition and join the punk band Gang of Four who needed a backing singer for their appearance on British television music show The Old Grey Whistle Test and for their UK tour. This led to her first US tour with the band. Back in the UK, after leaving the band she started working as a session vocalist in London, picking up work singing jingles for radio advertisements and singing with such acts as Eurythmics, The Waterboys, Billy MacKenzie and Alison Moyet.
Fairground Attraction
In 1984, Reader was working in Paris, under contract to a Parisian music company, singing for the composer Vladimir Cosma who wrote the music for the film DIVA in 1981. But through her contact with the brass section session players The Kick Horns in London, she signed a contract with EMI, and for a brief time recorded two singles with the disco group Outbar Squeek. Around the same time, she met and asked Mark E. Nevin, a guitarist and songwriter from the band Jane Aire And The Belvederes to write for her and she recorded two of his songs for the Compact record company, calling themselves The Academy Of Fine Popular Music. They subsequently formed Fairground Attraction, together with Simon Edwards (guitarrón — a Mexican acoustic bass guitar) and Roy Dodds (drums & percussion). In 1988 the band signed to RCA/BMG records and released their first single, "Perfect", which became a UK number one, winning best single at the 1989 BRIT Awards. Their first album, The First of a Million Kisses, was also a success, reaching number two in the UK Albums Chart, and winning best album at the 1989 Brits.
This success was short-lived, however. In November 1989, after a break, during which Reader had her first child, Charlie, with her French-Algerian partner Milou, arguments arose within the group, and Nevin abandoned a recording session for the second album, which eventually led to the splitting of the band. A makeshift second album, a collection of B-sides and live tracks, Ay Fond Kiss, was rushed out the following year.
Solo career
Reader returned to Scotland, but before she embarked on her solo career she took a temporary detour into acting. She played Jolene Jowett, a singer and accordionist, in John Byrne's Your Cheatin' Heart, a comedy-drama series for BBC Television, set in the country music scene in Scotland. Her other acting credits include playing the part of Joy 3 from the Michael Boyd (artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company) production of Janice Galloway's The Trick Is To Keep Breathing. This was a BBC Radio Four production in 1996, Also a Tron Theatre production the same year.
Returning to London, Reader worked on new material with a backing band calling itself The Patron Saints of Imperfection (made up of Roy Dodds, Neill and Calum MacColl, and Phil Steriopoulos). This became her first solo album, recorded for RCA Records: 1992's Mirmama. She met Geoff Travis who signed her to Warner Brothers subsidiary label, Blanco Y Negro , The managing director Rob Dickens executively produced her second solo album Eddi Reader (1994), which won her the "Best female singer" BRIT Award that year, followed by Candyfloss and Medicine (1996), Angels & Electricity (1998). She parted from Warner Brothers and continued her work on Geoff Travis' Rough Trade label when she recorded Simple Soul (2001) and Driftwood (2002) - a "homegrown" release of songs recorded during the Simple Soul sessions. During this time, Reader also recorded the song "Ocean Love" for the soundtrack of the animated film Help! I'm a Fish (2001). Reader also contributed vocals to one of Big Country's final singles before Stuart Adamson's death, "Fragile Thing."
Reader continued to tour (England, Scotland, Japan, Australia, Spain, the United States, and Ireland). In 2003, she recorded her album of material by Robert Burns, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, leading to good reviews and an international resurgence in interest in Scotland's "bard".
She spent April 2006 touring Australia with Boo Hewerdine and Alan Kelly, following the release of St Clare's Night Out: Live at The Basement, with Australian acts such as David Hosking invited to open the concerts.
Her eighth studio album Peacetime was released in the UK on 29 January 2007 on the Rough Trade record label. Produced by fellow Scottish folk musician, John McCusker, the album features a few Burns composed songs, alongside brand new material with longtime collaborator Boo Hewerdine and The Trash Can Sinatras' John Douglas. Reader promoted the album with a fifteen date UK tour.
In spring 2008, Reader was a special guest at the Hotel Cafe Tour hosted by Tom McRae. In 2009, she performed in period-drama Me and Orson Welles, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay and Claire Danes. Reader performed re-arranged 1930s standards, with Jools Holland. She previously collaborated with Holland on the single "Waiting Game".
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth, Reader released The Songs of Robert Burns Deluxe Edition in January 2009. The new release brought together the original Burns album with seven additional songs, two from the original 2003 sessions ("Green Grow the Rashes O", "Of A' the Airts"), three from 2007's Peacetime ("Ye banks and Braes", "Aye Waukin O" and "Leezie Lindsay") the unreleased "Dainty Davie", also from that session, and a brand new recording, "Comin' Thro The Rye/Dram Behind the Curtain". The new album was promoted, like the original release, with two sold out shows at the annual Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow.
Her ninth studio album Love is the Way, produced by Reader herself, was released on 13 April 2009. In a special arrangement with record label Rough Trade she sold an exclusive, pre-released and minimally-packaged version of the disc on her autumn 2008 UK tour in October and November. Support for the 19 date tour was provided by Lucy Wainwright Roche, daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Suzzy Roche of The Roches.
In early 2010, Eddi appeared on the Irish language album Ceol '10 Súil Siar singing an Irish language version of the Fairground Attraction song "Perfect" called "Foirfe". In December she released a live album on her own label and sold exclusively via her online store, Live in Japan. Recorded from the sound desk at her Japan shows in September 2009, it was mastered and mixed by Mark Freegard who had worked on the 2009 album Love is the Way.
Awards
The Robert Burns project saw Reader awarded an MBE for outstanding contributions to the arts in the New Year's honours list of 2006.
In May 2007 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Strathclyde.
Later that year she was recognised for her contributions to music and to the education and encouragement of young musicians with an honorary doctorate and a Doctor of Letters from Glasgow Caledonian University.
In June 2008 she received another doctorate for her musical work, this time from the University of Stirling.
Discography
Albums
* Mirmama (1992) UK #34
* Eddi Reader (1994) UK #4
* Candyfloss and Medicine (1996) UK #24
* Angels & Electricity (1998) UK #49
* Simple Soul (2001)
* Driftwood (2001)
* Sings the Songs of Robert Burns (2003)
* Peacetime (2007)
* The Songs of Robert Burns Deluxe Edition (2009)
* Love is the Way (2009) UK#109
Live albums
* Eddi Reader Live (2001)
* Eddi Reader Live: Edinburgh (2003)
* Eddi Reader Live: Newcastle (2003)
* Eddi Reader Live: Leeds (2003
* Eddi Reader Live: London (2003)
* St Clare's Night Out: Live at The Basement (2006)
* Port Fairy Folk Festival (2008)
* Live in Japan (2010)
Fairground Attraction
* The First of a Million Kisses (1988)
* Ay Fond Kiss (1990)
* Kawasaki - Live In Japan 02.07.89 (2003)
* The Very Best of Fairground Attraction (2004)
Film soundtrack
*Batman Forever Soundtrack
*Me and Orson Welles Soundtrack
References
This text has been derived from Eddi Reader on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0
