Ewan McLennan
Ewan McLennan
Stories Still Untold
(Fellside)
The third album from Edinburgh-born singer-guitarist Ewan McLennan, who won the Horizon Award for up-and-coming talent at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2011. Two years later, McLennan won the Alistair Hulett Memorial Award for Political Songwriting for his portrayal of modern-day conscientious objector Joe Glenton, and here he returns the favour, in a way, with a cover of The Granite Cage, Hulett's typically gritty and realistic description of Red Clydeside icon John MacLean's hellish incarceration in Peterhead prison. It's one of several socially aware songs that are balanced by love songs and a slightly uncomfortable take on Robert Burns's Rattlin' Roarin' Willie. McLennan is a talented guitarist, and the arrangements of viola, cello and whistle add character to the narrative style of most of the material. If overall the album can be heavy going, the banjo-accompanied Henry Joy's lighter approach slips over more easily.
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.
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.
That is invaluable.
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