Mairi MacInnes
Grás
(Puffin)
Mairi MacInnes is one of Scottish Gaelic music's great assets, a singer who flies under the radar at times, as evidenced by the 14-year gap between this and her previous album, and a communicator who has, as one translation of Grás puts it, grace in the soul. The album has its genesis in the storm that struck MacInnes's native South Uist in 2004, wiping out three generations of one family, and if the resultant sadness is reflected in the opening, atmospheric Siantan there's lightness as well as darkness in these tracks, not least in the Leanabachd (Childhood) trilogy where MacInnes is clearly recalling fun times. She's joined in the studio by singers Karen Matheson (of Capercaillie) and Paul McCallum and, through an archive recording, her great uncle Angus John MacMillan, as well as an able band of players on keyboards, whistles and frets. The percussion on some tracks is a bit heavy-handed for this listener but it can't hide the beauty and expression of MacInnes's singing
Rob Adams
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article