Track Listing

1. Nuair Bhios Mi Leam Fhin
2. The Farley Bridge
3. Lorient Mornings
4. Farewell To Uist
5. Mallai Chroch Shli
6. The Hill Of The High Byre
7. A' Mhairead Og
8. 250 To Vigo
9. The 303
10. Alasdair's Tune

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25645 in Music
• Released on: 2008-06-23
• Number of discs: 1

Review
Album of the Year 2008 --Scottish Traditional Music Awards

Scots Trad Music Awards 2008
Album Of The Year

About the Artist
Duncan Chisholm is best known as the fiddling frontman with Celtic rockers Wolfstone. He has spent the last 20 years touring with the band he formed in 1988 and notching up a quarter of a million sales worldwide in the process. It is with his solo work however that Duncan opens his heart fully and brings to life the many different worlds that shape him. His debut album "Redpoint", which was released in 1997, showed him to be an artist of considerable depth. Alex Monaghan of the Irish Music Press said "His music will take you to places of great beauty and peace, just close your eyes and let it wash over you." The idea of moving the listener for 40 minutes to a different place continually inspires his music. With the release of his second album "The Door of Saints" Duncan experimented with the music of northern Spain and with his native Highland culture. So to his latest obsession. The album "Farrar" is yet another journey to place of immense beauty. The inspiration for "Farrar" is a mountain called "Beinn a Bha Ard", an ever present looming figure in Duncan's everyday life. It stands at a magnificent 2600 feet and guards the ancient Chisholm lands of Strathfarrar and Strathglass. Duncan says "The hill that I see every day and have done for my whole life has become my obsession for the past year. My challenge was to take people there through my music and my interpretation of the various stages of their journey to the top and ultimately their descent to home. With this album I believe I have laid the foundation for the rest of my musical life. My music will always continue to flow outwards but I am sure it will always resonate with an echo of "Farrar". I believe that at last I have found my true voice."

Customer Reviews

Superb
This is a superb album. It works very well as a whole - it has a sustained 'feel', and the programme of tunes is carefully paced. It's mostly slower tunes, but there are a sprinkling of more upbeat tunes too. The cover art does a great job of pointing to the music - it's deeply atmospheric stuff. The tunes really have room to breathe around the classy understated accompaniment - Kris Drever's playing contributes much to the 'less is more' approach. The fiddle playing is amazing and Chisholm's phrasing is impeccable. Another bonus for me is the mostly acoustic feel of the album - a pet hate is the omnipresent cheesy 'new age' keyboard background that seems to blight many otherwise excellent traditional music albums.

Beautiful
For the lover of Celtic music, "Farrar" will be high up in the list of truly stunning albums of 2008.

Look at the album artwork, and you know what you're in for...a wonderfully "moody" (in the best sense of the word) record containing simple, yet incredibly powerful tunes from the Highlands of Scotland. There are a number of self-penned melodies too, such as the haunting "Hill of the High Byre" (magical - listen to it in the car and turn up the volume as much as possible!!) or the enchanting "Farley Bridge".

So for anyone who doesn't know, or anyone who hasn't been convinced in the past - Duncan Chisholm, founder member of Celtic Rock veterans Wolfstone - is a truly gifted man. "Farrar" has recently won him "Album of the Year 2008" at the Scots Trad Music Awards in Glasgow, and is recognition well deserved for one of the finest musicians of this country...

Suberb
This album is just gorgeous. Oddly for me, since I have never liked the fiddle and would run a mile to avoid being subjected to a collection of folky fiddle tunes. I have had this on the stereo on and off for a month and never get tired of it. The tone on the fiddle is beautiful throughout, no scratchy sawing here. This probably accounts for a lot of its power, along with nicely judged phrasing. There are a few self-penned tunes, and quite a few from the usual scottish suspects, I particulary like the version of 250 to vigo (a shooglenifty tune). And the visuals match, some wonderfully atmospheric photos.