Over the decades, Scottish musicians have made many classic albums that have stood the test of time. Today, we look back on Capercaillie's 1991 album, Delirium.
THE singles chart that week in May 1992 had its usual diverse range of acts: Right Said Fred, Del Amitri, En Vogue, Guns’n’Roses, Shakespears Sister. And there, at number 39, was a song that sounded like nothing else.
It was called Coisich A Rùin (‘Come on, my Love’) and was a brilliantly contemporary version of a 400-year-old Gaelic waulking song from Barra. One verse ran: “To John Campbell, My brown haired sweetheart –/ Hunter of goose, Seal and swan ..”. The singer’s voice was quite spellbinding. And Coisich A Rùin, one of the standout tracks from Capercaillie’s fourth studio album, Delirium, became the first Gaelic single to crack the Top 40.
It had featured on an EP, A Prince Among Islands, which had soundtracked a Selina Scott TV documentary about Prince Charles’ return to the Isle of Bernaray.
After the success of Coisich A Rùin, Capercaillie’s singer, Karen Matheson, would remember hearing the song on Radio 1 and Radio 2, and being invited to wear designer clothing for fashion shoots. The chart success of the single helped open more than a few doors for the band and awoke media interest in Gaelic culture.
The album, meanwhile, would be certified Gold, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. As the liner notes for a much later Capercaillie compilation album, Grace and Pride, had it, Delirium was a watershed album for the group, the energy levels soaring “up several notches on the Richter scale”.
Capercaillie had been formed in the early 1980s by Taynuilt, near Oban, by Donald Shaw, a teenage prodigy on the accordion, and Marc Duff, who played the bodhran and whistles. They were friends at school, and were joined by various Oban musicians: fiddler and vocalist Joanie MacLachlan, guitarist and bouzouki player Shaun Craig, and bass and fiddle player Martin MacLeod.
At the 1983 Mull Music Festival they were spotted by the well-known broadcaster, Iain MacDonald, who was so impressed that he asked them to appear on his next radio show. The band were without a name at that time, and quickly settled on Capercaillie.
A string of local performances followed, and they took the decision to add the singer Karen Matheson to their ranks. It was an astute wise move, not least because of Matheson’s utterly beguiling voice (Sean Connery’s description of her as possessing “a throat touched by God” has often been quoted).
When the band played the Edinburgh Fringe in 1984 they were given a favourable review by the Scotsman's critic, Jim Gilchrist. He described them as “a powerful band who fiery fiddle and accordion lead over some fairly funky guitar and electric bass inevitable brought to mind the high days of Silly Wizard, while their drifting sheets of synthesiser sound were reminiscent of the Irish band Moving Hearts”.
In Matheson, he added, they had a fine singer, whose “melodious ease was matched by the rest of the band who can play furious Hebridean pipe reels and jigs when they want, but can also call a gentler tune, as in the soft, low whistle setting of My Laggan Love. Altogether a stylish cut of caper”.
In July 1984 Capercaillie repaired to Edinburgh’s Palladium studios, where in the space of three days they made their debut album, Cascades, a stirring set that boasted instrumental prowess and Matheson’s striking voice.
The next projects – Crosswinds (1986), a TV documentary soundtrack album, The Blood is Strong, and Sidewaulk (1989) – consolidated the band’s growing reputation. Live, they were a stirring proposition, as evidenced by the success of their debut US tour, in 1988. In February 1989, when they played Glasgow's Henry Wood Hall, a Herald reviewer noted: "The haunting voice of Karen Matheson, the sheer wizardry of Donald Shaw and Marc Duff, complemented by the professionalism of Charlie McKerron, John Saich and the driving rhythm of Manus Lunny make Capercaillie a force to be reckoned with". The late Eighties also saw the band playing in the West Bank, Palestine, as part of a Middle East tour.
There had, however, been several line-up changes along the way, with the arrival of the brilliant, Donegal-born instrumentalist Manny Lunny adding another dimension to Capercaillie's sound, an increasingly potent blend of the traditional and the contemporary.
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David Rome, of Survival Records, came across Capercaillie one Sunday afternoon while watching an Aly Bain and Friends show from Glasgow’s Riverside Club. “Basically, they just came on TV and I thought, wow, that’s great”, Rome told Davie Scott’s BBC Radio Scotland series, Classic Scottish Albums, in October 2018. “I think I want to sign that band”.
At his invitation, the band went down to London that summer of 1989 and recorded a few of their songs. What resulted was a licensing deal via Survival with the giant label, BMG. Some industry voices, however, were sceptical about Rome’s decision.
“So when I signed the band there were a number of people certainly in the business who thought I was completely crazy because it was just very, very left-field”, Rome added. “I remember the chairman of BMG, who was a great guy, but the attitude was: 'are you sure you want this to be your first signing? You know –this band doesn't even sing in English! Are you sure that you actually want to spend your time and effort on this?' And, luckily I did”.
Donal Lunny, brother of Manus, an influential figure in the renaissance of Irish music and founder of such bands as Planxty, Moving Hearts and the Bothy Band, had produced the Sidewaulk album and remained on board for what would become Delirium, which was released in 1991.
Rome, for his part, was keen to see them use drums for the first time and to write their own songs: the latter task called upon the talents of Shaw, Manus Lunny and bass guitarist John Saich.
In his interview with Davie Scott, Lunny said that when it came to writing songs, particularly in English, they decided against the sentimental-romantic idea in favour of “semi-political” subjects. One such song, Servant to the Slave, was written by Lunny, inspired by a letter, dating back to the 1920s, which he had found in an ancestral home
“It was from a great-uncle of mine, describing the death of his sister in New York, who had just left. Their leaving, they called them here the American Wakes, because it was like a wake, because when they went away it was very unlikely you were ever going to see them again, and I found to it very poignant and very sad”.
The poignant song begins: “Leaving for an unknown shore/With every breeze just like a sigh/The sea is deep with tears of those before… No smiles await on Ellis”)
Another track, Waiting for The Wheel to Turn, focused on those who bought a second home in Highland villages, at the expense of native residents who were looking for a place to live (“Ah, but you’re taking it all away/ The music, the tongue and the old refrains … Here come the Clearances, my friend”).
Another stand-out song on the album – the title track, Breisleich – was deeply moving, Matheson’s voice as pure and as clear as a bell over a spectral wash of keyboards. The words were written by the contemporary poet Aonghas MacNeacail.
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When the band learned about the chart success of the single, Coisich A Rùin, they were returning from a gig in Nairn. “We were standing in this little phone box in the middle of nowhere”, David Rome told Davie Scott, “and I rang in to find out what the chart position was and it was 39, and everyone was kind of jumping around this little phone box. That is something I’ll never forget”.
In a 2021 interview with The National, Donald and Karen said the phone box was in the grounds of a Little Chef roadside diner near Stirling. "We were absolutely ecstatic," said Karen of the phone call. "It was so exciting."
The album remains a favourite with many fans and with Capercaillie’s fellow musicians. Karen recalled that while making it, there was a sense that "everything was growing and developing". "It did feel like a pivotal thing. It was a defining moment for us – it felt like we were real musicians”.
Said Donald: "We've released a dozen albums over the years so we have recorded a lot of material and some soundtracks, but quite a lot of the repertoire of Delirium has survived in one way or another in live performance. There's tracks there that are still part of what we do live”.
Last year Capercaillie brought out ReLoved, a double album in which they revisited many of the best-known songs from their career, in the company of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Donald Shaw is, of course, the Creative Producer for Glasgow's annual Celtic Connections event.
This May they are marking their 40th anniversary concerts with a number of concerts in Scotland. Catch them if you can.
* Capercaillie play Inverness Eden Court May 10, Perth Concert Hall May 15, Aberdeen Music Hall May 16 and Edinburgh Usher Hall May 17. capercaillie.co.uk
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