'Traditional Scottish Bluegrass from the islands of Orkney'
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| At the Churchill Barriers, Orkney |
Original album introduction from Duncan McLean, Fort Worth, Texas, May 1995:
" The smoking Stone Band need little introduction to music lovers in Orkney. Over the past 12 months or so they've built up a reputation as the hottest musical act to come out of the islands in years. They're pretty well known in Texas too!
For the past 3 months I've been touring the south west of the States researching a book about the music of these parts. The roads go on forever, it's true; an average day involves driving for four or five or six hours - through prairie, desert, metroplex sprawl. The one thing that kept me sane (and awake) is a constant soundtrack of great music: Bill Monroe, Charlie Christian, Iris De Ment, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and The Smoking Stone Band.
Listening to a demo version of this album has been a daily joy. Some of the more traditionally handled tracks - like 'Lord Huntleys Cave' - remind me of home, while others, drawn from further afield like 'Old Joe Clark' - bought back one of the great pleasures of seeing the band live: you never know whet they're going to do next! It could be a beautiful Appalachian hoedown, a swinging blues, a hard driving Shetland reel - or one of their own memorable compositions.
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| The Smoking Stone Band at the Festival Interceltique, Lorient, France 1995 |
This eclecticism is one of the band's great strengths. They know that good music is good music wherever it comes from; musicians confident in their own local traditions can only be strengthened by importing ideas and accents and tunes from other traditions. The Smoking Stone Band's appeal is as international as its inspirations. On Easter Sunday I was down near Austin having a front-porch session with a hospitable south Texas family of fiddlers, guitarists - and a lone dulcimer strummer. At one point they swung into 'St Annes Reel'. I took great pleasure in playing the Smoking Stone Band version straight after - and in taking their orders for this album.
In the far south west, in the desert town of Marfa (where James Dean and co filmed 'Giant') I got talking to a banjo player in a battered white stetson. He loved the demo, especially 'Da Slochit Light' and fished a cassette out of his pick up for me to hear. It featured guitar wizard Norman Blake doing a beautifully bluegrassy version of the old Shetland tune.
The proprietor of a barbecue shack among the pines and bayous of East Texas was happy to play the demo for the benefit of the customers munching their hickory - smoked ribs and beans. Afterwards he told me which clubs in Nashville the Smoking Stone Band should be booked into, and how they would take the town by storm...There's a lot of great music in the world and Orkney has produced its fair share of it. But the Smoking Stone Band have more than their fair share of talent, versatility, inspiration. Just listen to this album - or ask the people of Texas!"
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| Dick Levens, Douglas Montgomery, Jim Hall, John Adams |
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