SpudShow 98 - Margret Stewart

SpudShow 98

Artist - Margret Stewart

Track 1 - Theid is Gun Teid E Leam
(he will go with me)  -  a happy emigrant song

Track 2 - Rinn Thu Eudail Mo Mhealladh
(my darling, you deceived me).

Track 3 - 'S Olc an Obair do theachdairean cadal
(It is ill work for messengers to sleep)
 
A man was sent to fetch a wife for his wife who was in labour.  He had to cross a ford to get to her, but when he arrived at the ford the tide was in.  He sat down to await the turning of the tide, but when he was awoken by a fairy singing this song, the tide had turned and come back in again and his wife, tragically, had died in childbirth.   The lovely tune belies the tragic tale behind the song.

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Fhuair mi Pog

Colla Mo Run

Gigs

Jan 22 20078:00PRSAMD - lectureGlasgowJan 29 20071:30PRSAMD - lectureGlasgowFeb 5 20071:30PRSAMD - lectureGlasgow

Bio

Margaret Stewart is considered by many to be one of the finest traditional Gaelic singers in Scotland today. She was born and brought up on the Island of Lewis, which is part of the Outer Hebrides (a string of islands on the west coast of Scotland), in a community where Gaelic was the universal language, save for the schoolroom.

She has sung all her life, having been surrounded by music and song during her formative years, and singing has always been a passion and a pastime. Margaret's singing is rooted in the traditional, melismatic style of her home island and in the fifteen years since she became a professional singer, her reputation as an exponent of sean nos (the traditional Gaelic singing style), has grown apace. She has spent the past fifteen years performing, researching and teaching Gaelic song, and shares this knowledge with many current singers and with students of Gaelic song at Celas in South Uist; Sabhal Mr Ostaig, (the Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye); Feis nan Oran (Gaelic song festivals which have taken place in Lewis and in Skye), the Willie Clancy Summer School in Ireland, and the School of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton, Ross-shire.

She has released two albums with piper Allan MacDonald, 'Fhuair Mi Pog' and 'Colla Mo Run', both of which are now considered classics in the canon of British folk music. These two albums were produced by her great friend Iain MacDonald (brother of Allan) who is himself a native Gaelic speaker, renowned piper and flautist.

As a native Gaelic speaker, Margaret has an innate understanding of the complexities and nuances of Gaelic song, and this she fully demonstrates in her, regretably rare, performances. Her diction is pure, her ornamentation free-flowing and un-contrived; and the conviction with which she delivers a song leaves no Gael in any doubt that she is one of the finest exponents of the genre.

Margaret's forte is the traditional a-capella singing style, but also performs with some of Gaeldom's finest musicians.

New Irish language podcast AnLionra

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