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Wednesday January 23, 2008 |
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FRIDAREY's debut CD "Across the Waters"
'Across the Waters' is the first CD released by Fridarey, the Fair Isle family group comprising sister and brothers Neil Thomson, Stewart Thomson and Anne Sinclair, with Anne's daughter Lise and Neil's daughter Eileen completing the line-up.
Suffice it to say that this
Fair Isle audiences have been lucky enough to enjoy Fridareys singing and playing and watch their gradual development over the years, but this CD certainly takes the local group to new heights. It is a fascinating collection of 12 songs - from traditional to newly-written - professionally recorded and almost all with a relevance to Fair Isle or Shetland life over the centuries and still today. Members of the group are masters of a capella singing and several of the numbers bring together different and fascinating combinations of voices. However, the majority of the songs feature wonderfully exciting close-harmony singing by all five of them, with Anne taking the lead vocal part. She is perhaps a little tentative to begin with in
the first, title song hers is a very exposed unaccompanied introduction but she grows in vocal confidence and range in the later numbers.
Two songs, both of which are outstanding, are written and sung by individual members of Fridarey, accompanying themselves. However, my personal favourite track of the whole CD is Tinkin, written by Neil, with Anne as soloist and the other members joining in, sympathetically accompanied by both accordion and guitar a wonderful blend of voices and complementary instruments. The insert notes provide valuable information for any listener unaccustomed to the Shetland dialect. This is an extremely enjoyable Folk CD, well worth listening to and highly recommended. JMW
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