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.
U represents the crab apple tree in the Scottish Gaelic Alphabet.
'U' is for UBHAL [Oo-uhll], Crab apple, ubhal-fiadhain, goirteag, scrab, screyb, craw’s aiple, wild apple, malus sylvestris.
Apple trees were trysting trees where lovers would rendezvous in secret. These two East Coast fiddle strathspeys were designed to weave, entwine and harmonise with each other. Many Gaelic bards wrote of kisses that tasted of apples.
The letter Q, represented by apple, disappeared from the 20-letter Scottish Gaelic alphabet 2000 years ago. Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic were known as ‘Q-Celtic’ languages because they had a 'Q' in them, distinguishing them from Welsh, Breton and Cornish that were ‘P’ Celtic. But eventually the 'Q 'and the 'C' sounds became so similar in Scottish Gaelic that the 'Q' disappeared altogether. Then confusingly, a 'P' was introduced! Strangely enough, the wild apples themselves also seemed to disappear somewhat from the wild. Deer adore apple trees and chew them to bits. With the deer numbers so high in many parts of the Highlands, many species have suffered as a result, and the wild apple is no exception.
Three great scholars from different eras all praised the abundance of excellent fruit apples in Moray and Inverness-shire - Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79), Gaius Julius Solinus (3rd century) and George Buchanan (16th century). Scottish monks cultivated the apples in the gardens and orchards of their monasteries. The crab apple grows by riversides and in woods to a height of about 6m. The fruit of the crab is small and very bitter. The juice was used for rubbing into sprains and for cramps, while the bark was used to dye wool yellow. John Cameron, in his book The Gaelic Names of Trees, Shrubs and Plants, said “The well-known fact that the largest and finest apples always grow on the young wood at the top of the tree gave rise to the old Gaelic proverb, “Bithidh ’n t-ubhal is fearr, air a mheangan as airde."
credits
from The Woods,
released March 21, 2020
Musicians:
HN: D flutes, piano
IW: fiddle
JH: uilleann pipes
JL: bass
SB: drums
All tracks composed by H Napier PRS/MCPS.
Produced by Andrea Gobbi & H Napier.
Arranged by S Byrnes & H Napier.
Recorded, mixed & mastered by A Gobbi at GloWorm Recordings & Carrier Waves, Glasgow.
Additional recordings by Barry Reid on location in Hamish’s livingroom, Grantown-on-Spey.
Field recordings by H Napier, W Boyd-Wallis and P Smith.
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 “The Tree of Love”
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 “The Tree of Love”
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
