Stuarts CD, which features some of my music, got a good review on the pipesdrums web site from Matt Pantaleoni.
Every once in a while, one has the good fortune to stumble on a truly enjoyable album, an album that is a pleasure to listen to from start to finish. Blown Away, Stuart Cassells' debut solo album, is just such an album.
This CD has something for everyone. Strathspeys, reels, and jigs form the bulk of the album, but there is also a slow air, a 4/4, and a song (Ross Kennedy singing "The Terror Time") that round things out nicely. Some tracks feature electric guitar and drum accompaniment while others let the softer bouzouki and bodhran work their magic. Whatever mood strikes him, Stuart brings a certain freshness and youthful energy to the table that pervades the whole album and lets his sterling musicality shine.
Three tracks were particularly grabbing. The first is a jig set early in the album featuring two recent compositions, Lorne MacDougall's "Kirsteen's Jig" and Don Bradford's "The Isle of Jura." Lorne's tune is one of those wonderfully lyrical melodies that would be just as much at home on a fiddle or in a session as it is here on the pipes. He contributes some clever tunes to this album and will certainly be a musician to watch in the future.
The seldom-heard 4/4 march, "The Hills of Argyll," was another favourite. The liner notes state that George McIntyre (composer of "Lucy Cassidy") made this tune while in a POW camp during the war. Stuart clearly has fun exploring this tune. He starts with a pipe solo of this beautiful melody, followed by piano and guitar solos and culminating with a mini-band rendition from the Red Hot Chili Pipers, Stuart's band.
The album closes with a moving track called "Just for Gordon," a tribute to Stuart's mentor, Gordon Duncan, to whom Blown Away is dedicated. The track gets underway with two traditional jigs accompanied by bouzouki and bodhran. Then, with funereal synthesizer accompaniment, Stuart suddenly breaks into another Lorne MacDougall composition, "Grey Daylight." Stuart's fingers glide effortlessly over the notes in this tune in a style reminiscent of the man himself. Then suddenly, the requiem is over and we are back in ceilidh mode. The set finishes on a bright note with one of Gordon's most well known tunes, "The High Drive," with a surprise or two thrown in for good measure. A fitting tribute, indeed!
It should come as no surprise that Stuart won the 2005 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year award. His debut solo album continues the well deserved momentum generated by the award. If this is the future of traditional Scottish music, then the future looks very bright.
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