‘….time to eXperience’

Chris Spurr 

A Welcome eXperience

It is always a pleasure when a first recording from a new band manages to deliver what it promises. The Ulster Scots eXperience – and note that spelling, like a well-known airline also beginning with ‘e’, this band mixes lower and upper case letters in its name to distinctive effect -  as a band they have been working hard on their debut CD ‘…time to eXperience’, a mix of tunes from here, Ireland; there, Scotland, and over there, America. The eXperience is a twelve-piece outfit, blending fiddles, accordions, flutes and voices, with noted musicians like John Trotter, Valerie Quinn, Kenny Mitchell, Sammy Quinn, Mark Ferguson and James Christie in the line-up, and this first recording, made at Frances McPeake’s Belfast studio, has been eagerly awaited. The opening track, ‘Jiggin’ Burns’, showcases the band’s style with its tight arrangement of three favourite tunes associated with Scotia’s bard, including an uncompromising vocal on that song of Scottish liberty, ‘Scots Wha Hae’. Like the other thirteen tracks on the disc, this opener has a ‘live’ feel, suggesting a studio recording that seeks to capture the flavour of the band’s on-stage performances.

We stay with Scotland for tracks like ‘Highland Tour’, a stately journey through the north west, that has the band offering a measured sound almost like a miniature version of the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra; the popular and lively ‘Thistle of Scotland’; the haunting ‘O Gin I Were a Baron’s Heir’, featuring accordion virtuoso Kenny Mitchell, and John Trotter leading the vocals on a cracking arrangement of the Aberdeenshire bothy ballad, ‘Barnyards of Delgaty’. Vocal and instrumental tracks are equally mixed, and take us in song across to America for the ‘Tennessee Waltz’ with the smoky-voiced Fiona Trotter taking the lead, as she also does on ‘Let him Go, Let him Tarry’, a spirited version featuring Fiona’s strong vocals, while father John sings a tribute to the ‘king’ of Scottish accordionists, Will Starr. On the final track of the CD, Ireland and America are united when Fiona’s slow-tempo start to ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus’ leads into a jazzy version of the hymn, slowing down at the end and Fiona’s solo voice. When Joseph Scriven, Dublin-born and Canadian-emigrant, wrote this inspirational poem for his ailing mother back in Ireland, he little thought that it would appear decades later, on an Ulster Scots themed CD!

The carefully crafted arrangements by Valerie Quinn are key to the band’s sound, and allow individuals like fiddler Mark Ferguson to shine, as he does country-style on ‘No 9’, while Irish toes get tapping with the accordions to the fore on ‘Dooey’s Farewell’. Fifing and Sammy Quinn’s excellent percussion feature on ‘O’er the Garden Wall’, and in spirit and humour the ‘Irish Two Step’ medley would not disgrace the likes of Dan Sullivan’s Shamrock Band from 1930’s America. In ‘Humours of Ballyrashane’ we have more fifing and Lambeg drumming, again closely arranged, while the accordions on the ‘Trip to Caddam’ lend a Germanic feel to the medley.  

The Ulster Scots eXperience have produced a debut CD which makes a significant contribution to a music scene which needs to hear good music from the Ulster Scots tradition played proudly and well. The mixture of songs and tunes on the disc is designed to appeal to those who enjoy the legacy of Scottish music, with a seasoning of country and a flavour of jazz blended in, and even a touch of gospel for good measure, but the strength of the Scottish tracks alone offered here can encourage the band to be true to their name, and venture even further down the Scots/ Ulster Scots loanin. The well-presented leaflet in the CD has a list of the band’s personnel and the tracks featured, but perhaps it might have been a good idea to have produced a wee bit bigger booklet, and included in it a history of this new band and its line-up, as well as giving some background to the songs and tunes. So many of the tracks included have interesting stories of their own that it seems a pity not to share them. This apart, listening to ‘…time to eXperience’ makes you keen to see and hear the band ‘live’, and keen also to hear more from them on their second and subsequent recordings.