ERA

Evidently believing he might not already have enough on his plate with a new album from Mànran only just out, recent marriage and umpteen other projects in the pipeline, the Highland-born accordionist has just released his second solo album, following 2005's How's the Craic. Entirely self-composed, it marks ‘the end of a substantial chapter’ in his life, including his retirement from his beloved sport of shinty, Scotland's most indigenous game, as celebrated on the robust ‘The Caman Man’. That's sung by Robert Robertson, who is one of three guest vocalists. Siobhan Miller sings on the delicate ‘Zara’, inspired by Innes’ little niece; and Alec Dalgleish sings on the unexpectedly poppy ‘Grace and Pride’, the first song Innes ever wrote and inspired by 2014's Scottish independence vote. Closing track, ‘Our Heroes’, is dedicated to the Scottish war veterans and, rather remarkably, features Duncan McGillivray playing the very same set of bagpipes that a hero was playing in 1915 as he fell on the fields of France. Elsewhere, Innes is joined by an impressive collection of musicians including his Mànran bandmate Ewen Henderson, and his co-producer Ali Hutton for an album as full of fire and beauty as anything this supremely accomplished musician has ever done.