Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...

Subject: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: gnu
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 07:47 PM

I just know I LIKE

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: gnu
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 07:48 PM

it.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: gnu
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 08:22 PM

And this lass just keeps getting better.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 08:48 PM

Maeve is singing "port a'beul" which is traditional Gaelic mouth music. However, it is almost always sung unaccompanied.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: gnu
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:03 PM

Good, in her case. The lass can sing.

Sandy... is Nat's fiddle just about dirty enough eh!

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:09 PM

I didn't like it much. She doesn't have enough rhythmic punch, doesn't pronounce the words clearly, and that maundering guitar accompaniment adds nothing. It all comes across as washed-out, like the colour in the video.

There are lots of better performances of mouth music.

I can't remember where I've heard this done, but about the only accompaniment for it that's worked for me has been an aggressively untraditional one by electric bass.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:28 PM

The last GUEST was me. No idea where my cookie went.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:34 PM

Bela Fleck played here with Natalie a while back for Celtic Colours and I think they made a PBS special as well.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: maeve
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:35 PM

It went campin'.   I'll get me hat.


gnu- I like port a'beul too.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: gnu
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:39 PM

Jack... thanks for that review. See'in as how I thought it was good, if you can point me to better than that, I would be much obliged. Looking forward to sniffing in the direction you point me... thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: maeve
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:41 PM

Flora MacNeil & Catherine-Ann MacPhee are two of my favorites, gnu.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 10:37 PM

This is a more traditional application. It was usually used to provide dance tunes when no fiddle or bagpipe player was at hand. Muscians also used it to learn and pass along tunes.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/chestico-museum-concert-puirt-a-bheul/2187680676

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: maeve
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 10:59 PM

Sandy Mc Lean- I certainly wish I could see & hear that video. Thanks for posting it.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Emma B
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 06:06 AM

If you like accompanied versions of puirt-a-beul, you may also like
Talitha MacKenzie
I think her version of 'Uamh an Oir'* to a pipe drone is quite magical.

The track 'Sheatadh Cailleach'* may be the one you were thinking of Jack although she sings 'Dannsa na Tunnagan'* as pure puirt-a-beul.

*tracks from the album Sòlas

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 06:10 AM

"And this lass just keeps getting better"
I'll have to take your word for it - can't hear her for the god-awful row of the other instruments - not to mention the whoops of the Red Indians!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 08:18 AM

Julie Fowlis is my favourite of the moment. Just about any Scottish Gaelic singer - especially female - will have some puirt-a-beul in their repertoire. Patsy Seddon and Mary McMaster of "Sileas" and the "Poozies" have recorded mouth music. Also Anna Murray, Rhona Lightfoot, Mary Anne Kennedy, Karen Mathieson of "Capercaillie" - just some off the top of my head. There are many, many more.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: maeve
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 08:22 AM

Yes, GUEST kenny. Those are all excellent suggestions. Thanks for the reminder!

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 08:37 AM

Karen Mathieson is superb - light as a feather.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 10:27 AM

Do a YouTube search for "puirt a beul", there are a lot of interpretations to choose from.

I liked the two young girls posted by "lemonjenny", lots of enthusiasm and vim - very much like what you'd hear in an informal setting in Scotland. And they include the full lyrics with a translation. It's also worth looking at the versions where it's used to accompany dancing (step or formation).

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: maeve
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 10:54 AM

Thanks, Jack. I had forgotten the plural form.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 11:52 AM

Yes the plural "puirt" seems to get more hits than the singular "port".
This is the video that I posted earlier but this tme on YouTube so it may be easier for some to download:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqxFTotvvo8&feature=related

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 11:57 AM

For an overview, this compilation, Celtic Mouth Music (Ellipsis Arts CD4070, 1997), is a fine compilation of various styles, with great notes and pictures (produced in part by Jonathan Pickow, Jean Ritchie's (kytrad) and George Pickow's son.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 06:57 PM

Norman Kennedy's no bad i' the Gaelic.

Subject: RE: Scots Trad gaelic?...Heck... I dunno...
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 10:06 AM

I do sometimes like intruments along with puirt-a-beul but it does seem sort of contradictory; the singing was meant to substitute for instruments.

the comment: "She doesn't have enough rhythmic punch, doesn't pronounce the words clearly, and that maundering guitar accompaniment adds nothing. It all comes across as washed-out, like the colour in the video." makes me thing about how far removed many modern day recordings of waulking songs (the songs used to keep rhythm when a group of workers are fulling tweed) are from the original, and often lacking in essential "rhythmic punch"