An Den Dey Made Tae

Growing up as part of a famous Shetland musical family, Ross Couper, fiddle player with the Peatbog Faeries, and his guitarist brother Ryan, an acclaimed but non-professional musician, had played together often, but not, on record at least, as a duo. Then the occasion of a worldwide pandemic finally gave them the chance to make An Den Dey Made Tae, taking its title from a local joke about Shetlanders’ penchant for drinking tea at any time of the day or night.

Recorded as live at Mareel Studios in Lerwick, Shetland, with the brothers sitting in a room together and playing through, it’s something of a celebration of family ties, history and values. Sister Mariann joins them on piano for the final track, ‘Da Foula Reel’, while their mum Margaret Robertson, a renowned fiddle teacher recently awarded an MBE for her services to traditional music, wrote the tune ‘Shaela’ which is part of ‘The Dance’ here, and their dad Alex wrote ‘Da Sixty Fathom Reel’, part of ‘The Lucky Child’. Billy Joel is not a member of the clan, so the inclusion of an instrumental take on his insipid 80s ballad ‘And So it Goes’ is slightly puzzling for an album otherwise so spry and heartfelt.