Adam Sutherland

Some Other Land

Errogie

FIDDLER Adam Sutherland not only composes in his sleep, as the cover art for this, his second album suggests. He also writes tunes in his own image. The gallus, cheeky Dusk on Loch Ness that brings the album to a celebratory conclusion has Sutherland’s name running through it like seaside rock has “Blackpool” and there’s a similarly personal quality about the opening track, The Wizard, where following a band introduction, Sutherland is left alone and exposed as if playing the melody in a bothy or maybe just in his bedroom having woken up with the notes forming in his head.

Sutherland won the Composer of the Year title at the 2017 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards and Some Other Land celebrates his love of melody. It also demonstrates his ability to develop ideas and to work with empathetic musicians in realising them in a variety of ways. Somhairle Dubh dances on a rhythmical bed that a prog rock band might covet. The Broken Man and the Banker has some Memphis soul in its grooving DNA and The Lada has cousins in the Balkans, although ultimately the dominant accent is Sutherland’s own very strong Scottish one.