Canty

Canty is Joanne McIver & Christophe Saunière's seventh album. McIver sings and plays flute, whistles and Scottish smallpipes. Saunière plays concert and Celtic harps and also sings. McIver writes all their songs and music, while Saunière takes care of the interesting arrangements. With a string quartet, a brass section (there's a tuba solo) and an accordionist he creates a variety of sonic atmospheres for the stories that McIver's songs tell.

She is inspired by her childhood on the Isle of Arran and the unusual stories, events and individuals of Scottish history. Canty opens with ‘Malcolm’, about McIver's grandfather, who sang Gaelic songs to her when she was wee. There is a song that imagines the childhood of Robert Burns, Scotland's national bard, another about the isolated meteorologists who lived for years on the summit of Ben Nevis, the highest point in Britain, and a third, ‘Betsy Miller’, that hails Scotland's first female sea captain. Meanwhile ‘Whisky Galore’ celebrates the largesse of the sea, when the wonderfully named SS Politician ran aground off Eriskay, carrying 28,000 cases of malt whisky – producing many a sore head, a famous Compton Mackenzie novel and two feature films.

Canty is a Scots adjective suggesting cheerful liveliness – and it can certainly be applied to this enjoyable album.