Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Whether you look at a map and see the U.K. or the British Isles, what should come across is not space or land, the internal politics or conquests of ages past, but the differences in culture and sophisticated musical refinement should come bounding across. From the tip of Cornwall and the southern beauty of Guernsey as they jut out into the Atlantic Ocean and English Chanel with pride and impunity, up to the outlaying crops of land that have more in common with our Nordic cousins and the streak of fierce musical enjoyment thrust into their soul, there truly is more to this land that what can ever be seen on a map.
It is the welcome you receive as you visit all the disparate but unified lands, the Brandy From A Stranger that warms the soul and heals the conversation, the fair isle whisky that aids creativity, all are hardy infusers of the musical machine and for North Country Fair, that musical creativity through the subtle arrangements of Michael Williamson, the sound of The Shetlands takes the heart on a journey it might not want to return from.
Like many of the Scottish islands, The Shetlands are an enigma, an idea of wholesome tranquillity placed in a sea that takes for granted its supremacy above Human life and yet offers a strange and fascinating allure in which to contemplate visiting, songs from Brandy From A Stranger only enhance that pull to visit somewhere to which many never venture.
The compelling musical argument, the satisfaction of a hearing joy in the instruments from a windswept but near mystic land, is to be admired and as the notes from Michael Williamson, Jim Quinn, Magnus Poison, Arthur Nicholson, Chris Thompson, Ewan Nowak and Lewis Murray infuse and gather pace, tracks such as Shooting Star, When The Circle Closes, the gratifying Pandemia and the album closer of Your Wise Words, wash over the listener with North Sea fury and the delicate beast of untamed land in mind.
Any hospitality is always welcome when in an alien and unseen place for the first time and yet as Brandy From A Stranger is taken for all its worth, the feeling of hospitality is replaced by one of deep understanding and enjoyment. A natural sounding offering, North Country Fair is resolute on it’s take on the musical map.
Ian D. Hall