Ballads of the Book - Scottish compilation

Subject: Ballads of the Book - Scots compilation
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 03:34 PM

I have not listened to all of the tracks, but heard about this on NPR and thought it worth looking into. Click here for more. If you click on "About" you'll see it is a compilation of Scottish poets, writers, and bands.

From PRI's "The World:"



Scottish rock musician Roddy Woomble had an idea. Put out a call for authors in Scotland to write some lyrics. Then, invite Scottish folk and pop bands to craft songs around the words. The result is an album called "Ballads of the Book."

Poetry and rock music may seem like strange bedfellows, but not to Roddy Woomble. He's the lead singer for the Scottish rock band Idlewild.

The liner notes for the band's CD "The Remote Part," encourage fans to "Support your local poet". Woomble especially supports the work of Edwin Morgan, Scotland's 87 year old poet laureate.

Roddy Woomble: "He's the - sort of the Ginsburg of Scotland really ... (I mean) he's done so much in his life and gone through so many different styles and, I mean he's everything to poetry fans in Scotland."

Five years ago, Woomble approached the poet about collaborating on a few songs. The result was the title track on "The Remote Part," which came out in 2002.

Woomble was so happy with the song, that he later decided to solicit lyrics from other Scottish writers. The idea, was to offer the lyrics up to other musicians, to make into songs. Lyrics came in from some of Scotland's best-known writers – like bestselling crime novelist Ian Rankin, cult fiction writer A.L. Kennedy ... and, Woomble's old collaborator, Edwin Morgan.

Scottish folk star Karine Polwart chose a set of Morgan lyrics for her song. It's called, "The Good Years".

Roddy Woomble: "It's just a fabulous song and, it was that moment that I thought, well, if it's all this good, then it's going to make a really good record."
The record, is "Ballads of the Book." The 18 tracks on it offer a bit of everything, from the piercing beauty of Polwart's unadorned singing, to the electronic, eighties feel of "The Rebel on his Own Tonight".

The song reunites former Arab Strap band member Malcolm Middleton, with novelist Alan Bissett. Woomble says, the two played in a band together as teenagers.

Roddy Woomble: "They both grew up in Falkirk which is kind of an industrial town in between Edinburgh and Glasgow and, quite grim in a way that you could probably romanticize it slightly. It creates a certain kind of attitude from the people that live there and that's what their song is about."

Woomble says that getting lyrics from poets and novelists made the creative process easier for some musicians.

Roddy Woomble: "A lot of singers and bands found it quite liberating actually to not have to bother about writing words, to be actually presented with a page of words that were really good that you didn't have to sort of pore over and worry if they had enough meaning or if they were you know too sort of pseudo-intellectual, to actually have these words that were written by an independent party that you were just being given that were, you know, fantastic."

Ballads of the Book has gotten a lot of attention in Scotland. In addition to the CD there've been live performances, and a documentary, which was shown on television.

But for now, says Woomble, there are no plans for a sequel.

For the World I'm Carol Zall

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Book - Scottish compilation
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 03:43 PM

Just cycling through the tracks now. #8 The Good Years by Karine Polwart and Edwin Morgan has some beautiful harmonies, esp. near the end. If you click on the individual songs, you will see the lyrics/poems, too.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Book - Scottish compilation
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 04:13 PM

Great song at the end, Sappho and the Weight of Years by Idelwild and Edwin Morgan, again.:-)