Contemporary and traditional music merge on album
A Perthshire traditional musician has praised the opportunities he got from playing at a Big County folk club before he made his name.
Award-winning fiddler Charlie Stewart has recently released an album with harpist Rebecca Hill, celebrating traditional roots through contemporary arrangements in their new collaboration ‘Thawcrook’.
The duo’s debut album came out on April 28 through Lomond Records.
Thawcrook takes its name from a tool used by crofting communities in the 19th century to make rope and twine from local natural materials, such as marram grass, heather or reeds.
Much like the thawcrook, Rebecca and Charlie’s album weaves the traditions and music from their own local communities with contemporary material from across Scotland to create a sound which is creative, cohesive and entirely original.
Charlie, a founding member of the bands Naad-hara, Dosca and Snuffbox, said: “I was really lucky at a young age to be exposed to traditional music in my local area.
“Some of my favourite memories of gigs are from visiting the Glenfarg Folk Club and their Folk Feast Festival.
“The Gordon Duncan Experience (the Perth-based Trad youth ‘big band’) was a great way to meet other people my age who were into traditional music.
“During school I loved learning Scottish music and local fiddle traditions from Elizabeth Mcclay and Lauren Maccoll.
“When I first moved to Glasgow to study music, I really enjoyed learning more about fiddlers and composers like Niel Gow, who was also from Perthshire, and at the same time became more interested in a wider range of fiddle styles through the Glasgow session scene.
“At the same time I was getting more interested in jazz, which led to me transitioning from the traditional music to the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, where Rebecca and I also met.”
In 2017, the Glenfarg-raised musician, who started playing the fiddle aged nine, hit gold, winning the BBC Scottish Young Folk Musician of the Year, beating five other finalists.
At the time, Charlie, who was studying jazz double bass at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, admitted he had a double life as a “secret folkie”, playing in traditional music sessions in Glasgow, and performing in his various trad bands.
On the release of this album last month, he said: “Since then I’ve been really interested in how elements of jazz and folk music work together, as well as the similarities and crossover between the two genres.
“I feel really lucky to get to play with others, like saxophonist Matt Carmichael, or cellist Juliette Lemoine, who share this double interest. I also love playing with singers, and performing with the likes of Siobhan Miller or Mischa Macpherson allows opportunities to experiment with both arrangement and improvisation.
“The great thing about moving to Glasgow is meeting so many other musicians and developing different musical interests together. Rebecca and I have played together informally for many years, and I feel that the new album reflects the diverse range of influences we’ve both brought from our own areas and from the Glasgow scene.
“Thawcrook is our first album as a duo and, compared to other albums Rebecca and I have worked on individually, this recording integrates elements of improvisation and interaction between us both as musicians. It’s a body of work that builds on existing material, merging the traditional with the contemporary.”
All instrumental arrangements on the record are by Charlie and Rebecca, with award-winning Gaelic singer Mischa Macpherson helping to arrange the one song on the otherwise instrumental album, Aonghais Oig.
Thawcrook is available to download and stream on all major platforms.