If you preorder the CD you get BOTH the CD and the digital album download.
The CD also comes in a truly stunning 3-fold digipack (6 pages), containing:
- an epic 28-page, 6000-word booklet with native tree facts & Highland folklore
- a beautifully detailed drawing of the Caledonian forest by Somhairle MacDonald
- stunning landscape photography by David Russell at Highland Wildscapes.
- you INSTANTLY receive one album track download: Track 9: "Forest Folk"
....all in all: you get an album, a piece of art and a tree book!
Includes unlimited streaming of The Woods
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Hawthorn and blackthorn both have creamy-coloured flowers in spring. Blackthorn arrives first in March, blossoming before its leaves appear. Hawthorn blossoms after coming into leaf. Blackthorn leaves are oval with a toothed edge, while hawthorn‘s leaves are lobed. Both trees support hundreds of insect species and attract many kinds of birds. The River Spey’s name is thought by some to derive from the ancient Brythonic word for Hawthorn, Yspyddad. The first tune is a slow air which I captured whilst improvising as I sat underneath the big arch of the Old Spey Bridge one day in May a few years back. Apt since hawthorn is also the May Tree.
The three subsequent tunes (for blackthorn, alder and aspen) were all born out of the slow air. Strangely, all of these trees were, in various times and cultures, thought to stand on the threshold to the underworld. Hawthorn was often planted near burial grounds, stone circles and wells. The flowers are associated with death. The chemical trimethylamine in the blossoms smell rather like decaying animal tissue. It is the Tree of the Faeries. 13th century Scots poet Thomas the Rhymer was drawn to a hawthorn by a cuckoo’s call, whereby the Faery Queen appeared and led him into the underworld for a short time. When he re-emerged into the mortal world he had been gone for seven years.
Blackthorn branches have many long, cruel spikes. A Gaelic proverb says “às an dris, anns an droighean” [out of the bramble into the blackthorn], like ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’. Blackthorn is the spookiest and witches were said to make their wands and staffs from it. While hawthorn represented the maiden and the light side of the year, the blackthorn was the hag and dark side. Wintery March weather is called a Blackthorn Winter. The deep blue berries are used to make a fragrant wine and sloe gin - every thorn has its rose!
credits
from The Woods,
released March 21, 2020
Musicians:
Scottish mega piper Ross Ainslie. awesome self-penned tunes, banging arrangements and all-round dynamite production! Ross and I have been collaborating for years on each other's gigs and albums! Hamish Napier
supported by 100 fans who also own “Hawthorn River / The Witches' Tree”
My father was born in Glasgow, yet somehow I have never visited Scotland. This lovely music sounds like my ticket of return to the country of his birth. Philip Graham
supported by 87 fans who also own “Hawthorn River / The Witches' Tree”
Just the most fun. Every set is one I want to sit down and learn, and they play with so much ENERGY and STYLE. Crunchy, tangible sound. I'll never get tired of listening to Kinnaris Quintet play. andpersand
Old-fashioned fiddles harmonize with rippling synths on the Scottish singer-songwriter's latest collection of original folk songs. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2022