Heal & Harrow

★★★ Heal & Harrow SHADOWSIDE. CD/DL

Vocalist Rachel Newton and fiddleplayer Lauren MacColl, two of Scotland’s most revered artisans, unite to detail the horrifying fates – in an affecting mix of harp and violin surrounding songs in English and Gaelic – of victims of the 1563 Witchcraft Act. Based in part on the research of writer Mairi Kidd, its harrowing tales include farmer’s wife Isobel Gowdie – accused of sexual relations with Satan – and crossdresser Christian Caldwell. Not for the squeamish.