The Reeling

The Reeling ends with the great singer and piper Rona Lightfoot, now 82 years old, giving a little laugh of pleasure and accomplishment. She has just sung ‘Ruidhle Mo Nighean Donn’ while Brìghde Chaimbeul played this puirtà beul (Gaelic mouth music) tune – the first she learned as a small child – on the Scottish smallpipes. It's touching, and a lovely moment at the end of a wonderful album.

The album begins, bravely, before the pipes come in, with the sound of an old harmonium – the creaks, clacks and squeaks augmenting the melody – that Chaimbeul found in the East Church, Cromarty, where she recorded her debut, live. That opening tune is reflective, unfolding gradually. ‘O Chiadain An Lo’ (The Recollection of That Day) comes from Patrick MacDonald's collection of Gaelic tunes, first published in 1784, as does the more lively ‘Harris Dance’. Chaimbeul is drawn to these and archive recordings. ‘Tha ‘n Oidhch Ann ‘s An Dorch’ Ann’ is a canntaireachd sung by Dugald MacCormick of Mull, recorded in 1971. (Canntaireachd is a way of teaching pipe tunes by singing them, much like bol in teaching tabla players).

In 2017 Chaimbeul visited Bulgaria and fell in love with the kaba gaidapiping tradition there. She feels there are connections, a commonality among pipers. ‘Moma e Moma Rodila’ and ‘Tornala Maika’, tunes she learned there, different yet somehow similar to those of her own tradition, attest to this.

Chaimbeul is joined on the album by Lau's fiddle player, Aidan O'Rourke, and Radie Peat from Lankum, on concertina. Their contribution is subtle but crucial, particularly on ‘The Old Woman's Dance/The Skylark's Ascension,’ favourite tunes she knows from ceilidhs in Uist. O'Rourke produces, paying careful attention to the drones, bringing these to the fore texturally. There is a moment, almost a drone solo, in one track and they certainly contribute to the dizzying effect of ‘The Reeling, The Reeling’, a tune that goes round and round. It is, as is the whole album, exciting, unusual and gorgeous.