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Craigenroan's Album |
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Frank Leighton - Midi AccordionDavy Sinclair - Fiddle; Tenor Banjo; MandolinIan Bain - Tenor Banjo; MandolinWilly Heuer - GuitarAlan Stevenson - Bodhran; High Hat; Washing Board; Whistles
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This album brings a breath of fresh air to Scottish traditional dance music. This is the music as used to be heard in the wee village halls on Saturday nights when Maw, Paw and the bairns, and probably the dog took to the floor for the highlight of the week.
"Testing the Water" was recorded at Dave Galbraith's farmyard studio in the Pentland Hills. The CD gets the feet tapping as it is the real live ceilidh band sound. There were no sessions nor "guest" musicians, no retakes, no double tracking, nor high tech effects, the band just stoked up the fire, poured a wee dram and produced three quarters of an hour of the kind of music you might be lucky to come across if you walked into the Spean Bridge village hall or the Star Bar in Dublin.
Not being content to have your feet just tapping, the band have put together a super wee book with the steps and calls for all the dances on the album, from the old traditional "Strip the Willow" to the new wave dances like "The Square Eight". This has been snapped up by several schools in the bands home territory, "The Wee County of Clackmannanshire and Stirling as well as being sent abroad to faraway cousins as a Scottish momento.