The Thread

Two years on from their live debut, the 12-strong Band of Burns convened in the Scottish Highlands to put their varied, internationally-influenced stamp on the works of their namesake, Scotland's national bard Robert Burns. That Burns' songs remain as relevant now as ever hardly needs restating - I've lost count of the number of times his ‘Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation’ has been invoked recently in regard to our politicians - and the same song acquires an almost martial, emphatic hue here.

There's an element of daring in some of these mostly string-driven arrangements. ‘Charlie is My Darling’ reels off into a Balkan celebration and ‘To Ruin’ has a craggy vocal and a feel somewhere between Tom Waits' junkyard blues and Buena Vista Social Club. ‘Now Westlin Winds’, on the other hand, stays largely faithful to Dick Gaughan's definitive blueprint and while ‘Ca’ the Yowes' gains an effective atmosphere, the interpretation suffers from the singer's unfamiliarity with Burns' use of the Scots language.