All It Brings

All It Brings begins with fiddler Jocelyn Pettit step dancing in that familiar cantering cadence of Scots-Irish-French origin that Canadians have nevertheless adopted as their own. Ellen Gira enters, bowing a sweet and low groove on the cello, quickly joined by Pettit sawing melodically in a higher register. Canadian guitarist Adam Dobres rounds out the performance, vigorously thrumming his acoustic instrument, which propels the trio through the measures in splendorous harmony.

‘Fleur Reels’ is typical of the passionate, pared-down sound of the ten tracks on All It Brings. In addition to traditional Scottish and Irish guideposts, the music runs rich with French Canadian, Cape Breton, old-time American and Scandinavian folk styles. The intimate, sympathetic dialogue between fiddle and cello is particularly expressive in songs such as ‘Cumberland Gap’ and ‘Arising’. The vocal harmonising on ‘Across the Western Ocean’ is sublime. ‘Through the Ether’ starts out funky cool, then segues into a post-classical chamber piece based on a jig. All It Brings stems from a meeting in Glasgow in 2018 between Pettit, a native of British Columbia, and Gira, an American from Maryland and graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which spawned an Indiegogo campaign to fund the recording.