Quinie: Forefowk, Mind Me review – collecting songs on horseback, this Scottish musician is alive with ideas
Travellers' songs sung in Scots are the focus of Josie Vallely, a gutsy, Glasgow-based artist performing as Quinie (pronounced 'q-why-nee'; 'young woman' in the Doric dialect), whose third album acknowledges ancestors watching over her. It includes traditional singers Lizzie Higgins, Jeannie Robertson and Sheila Stewart, whose rawness drones, speaks and soars over these 11 varied tracks, mixing tunes from fiddles, Gaelic sean-nós singing, and canntaireachd (the vocal mimicry of pipe music).
Quinie collected these songs from people using a method that fits the album's strange, rustic mood: she rode her horse, Maisie, across Argyll ('you pay attention to all your senses, have different conversations with people and connect to older ways of doing things,' she writes in the liner notes of this journey; she's also made a 15-minute film). On Auld Horse, her spoken words ripple against field recordings of water, the fabulous double bass of Stevie Jones (Alasdair Roberts, Sounds of Yell) and Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh's rumbling viola. Another spoken word track, Health, Wealth a Yer Days, is warmed by handclaps and Oliver Pitt's bouzouki.
Elsewhere, Quinie's unfiltered, ripe singing voice resonates like a siren. It twists around Harry Górski-Brown's pipes in the opening, viscous track Col My Love (which warns of the dangers of standing close to the shoreline). It confronts, but never overpowers, the floating, still tones of the duduk (an Armenian oboe) in Sae Slight a Thing. Quinie's cappellas are especially powerful: her take on Matt Armour's 1982 ballad, Generations of Change, is no-nonsense and moving, in which a grandmother recounts her father's life, the 'lang holidays' with her grandchildren, and how 'the weakness of age makes room for the young'. Alive with ideas, this record holds the past like a cauldron, broiling bewitchingly.
Varo are Dublin-based musicians Lucie Azconaga and Consuelo Nerea Breschi, partners in life and music, who unite with many contemporary Irish lodestars on their terrific second album, The World That I Knew (self-released). Highlights include Skibbereen, a duet with Junior Brother, and a majestic Green Grows the Laurel with John Francis Flynn. The Gentle Good says goodbye to the dimly lit, acoustic treatments of 2023's gorgeous Galargan for washes of vintage synths, distorted guitars and layered vocals on Elan (Bubblewrap). A warm, psychedelic portrait of a flooded valley in Powys, mid-Wales, its influences include 19th-century ballads, RS Thomas' poetry and, on the sunstruck To Be in Summer, west coast pop. Another joy is Last Call, the final album by folk-influenced singer and songwriter Steve Tilston, his voice as warm and spry as ever, his fingerpicking filling the title track with electricity.
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Daily Mail
36 minutes ago
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JOHN MACLEOD: A song of praise for TV's Sally, who endured horror enough for a lifetime
I recently enjoyed some holiday with my mother in her new Glasgow pad, barely half an hour's walk from where we lived through the Seventies. And, walking hither and yon, I visited many old haunts. Schools. The Jordanhill woods. Victoria Park and – just in time, as it sadly proved – the Renfrew ferry. Which often saw me stumping along Anniesland Road. Even the name sets me a little on edge, for I remember my parents' horror back in 1973. Solemn warnings. Talk of kerb-drill and the Green Cross Code. After an 11 year-old boy with a very famous father, dashing joyously – as boys do – from his school bus, by the Glasgow Academy playing-fields, was struck by a vehicle. Sigursteinn Magnusson died three days later. His mother Mamie, for ages after, would retreat to her room and howl. Jamming the door shut with her leg, so that her other children should not see. The other day Sally Magnusson starred on Songs of Praise, the programme she had presented for decades. 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Artwork featuring JK Rowling's name taken off display to stop ‘tampering'
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an hour ago
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Artwork featuring JK Rowling's name taken off display to stop ‘tampering'
An artwork featuring author JK Rowling's name has been taken down by the National Trust, which wants to 'protect it from further tampering or damage'. Visitors who went to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire between April and November 2024 were invited to nominate a 'contemporary Virtuous Woman', whose name was then sewn into the fabric. Since the project ended, the participatory artwork, A Virtuous Woman, has continued to be on display, featuring Rowling's name which was at an unspecified time 'stitched over by other participants'. Last week on X, feminist campaigner Jean Hatchet said she had 'corrected' the work by taking off the stitching over Harry Potter author Rowling's name. It follows criticism of Scotland-based Rowling's views on gender issues that have seen her called transphobic by activists, which she has denied. A spokeswoman for the National Trust said: 'The artwork was open to contributions for eight months and closed in November when the piece was finished and put on public display. 'During the participation phase, JK Rowling's name was stitched onto the piece seven times and in two instances it was stitched over by other participants. 'At the time the artwork was completed and subsequently hung, JK Rowling's name appeared five times without any overstitching. 'We ask people not to damage or tamper with artworks once they are finished and on public display. 'The piece has been taken off display for investigation and to protect it from further tampering or damage. We take all claims and incidents of damage to items in our care seriously and investigate each one.' Ms Hatchet criticised the response from the National Trust, saying she removed the 'stitching with the correct tool', took 'great time and care', and did not damage it. The stitched names of British queens, artist Yoko Ono, former prime minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher, climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, and Taylor Swift among others appear not to have stitching over them on the recycled textile. The work comes from artist Layla Khoo in association with the University of Leeds and National Trust, and is inspired by wealthy Elizabethan woman Elizabeth Talbot, known as Bess of Hardwick, commissioning a series of large embroideries featuring noble women from the ancient world, such as Cleopatra. The trust had previously responded to criticism from the organisation, Women's Rights Network Derbyshire and Staffordshire, who advocated for 'a simple addition to their description', with a statement explaining why the crossing-out stitching on Rowling's name remains. Responding on X, the trust said that it is a 'collaborative piece of art formed of participants' views from a variety of age groups, life experiences and beliefs', and 'any contributions to the piece have been made by those who chose to take part'. 'None of the views expressed or actions taken by participants represent the views of the National Trust, the artist or the University of Leeds,' the organisation said Ellie Evans, from WRN Derbyshire and Staffordshire, criticised the artwork being covered up, saying the move would 'erase all the women'. Rowling declined to comment. Khoo and the University of Leeds have also been contacted. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
