Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Iolair: Music and Song from Scotland




Iolair were Norman Stewart from Easter Ross and Janice Clark from Aberdeen. Janice's aunt, Lindy Cheyne, was a founder member of Aberdeen Folk-Song Club and introduced her to the scene at an early age. There she listened to some of the giants in Scots song: Jeannie Robertson, Lizzie Higgins, Jimmie MacBeath, etc. Her younger sisters Jenny and Kathleen followed Janice into the Scots music field (Jenny was once the singer in The Battlefield Band).

Norman Stewart, a forester by profession, was surrounded by Gaelic music and song as a child, and when he was in Edinburgh he frequented Sandy Bell's Bar in the company of Hamish Henderson and other highly influential people. Norman met and later married Janice Clark (later of the group Highland Tradition) at a North-East ceilidh and the partnership produced one record, Music and Song from Scotland, offered here.

Iolair: Music and Song from Scotland (Celtic Music CM003, 1980)

01) The Kings Command
02) Gaudie Rins
03) Sitting In the Stern of a Boat
04) Shirra Dam
05) Glasgow Gaelic Club/The Blackberry Bush
06) Sandwood Down to Kyle
07) Laddie Lie Near Me
08) Ciaora/The Wee Man from Skye
09) Cirichree
10) As I Went Into Inverness-shire
11) The Poachers
12) Yellow Haired Laddie
13) John MacMillan of Barra/MacLeod of Mull (MacLeod)
14) Fishermans Wife

Janice Clark (vocals)
Norman Stewart (vocals)
with
Christine Martin (fiddle)

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Norman Stewart: