Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Every country has its selling point, the one that is actually not for sale, but which can inspire those who love it to the point where they act as reference for the tourist board and see their work framed as a reason for the visitor to choose the area as a place of existential worship.
You can place any country before a person and give them reasons in which to take notice, you can add a multitude of artists in which to espouse the virtue, the beauty, the integrity of a country, but for Scotland there is a sense of holding out for more, that The Dawning of myths and legends, the reveal just out of sight of the mists that cling to the toes and leaves the mind acknowledging the righteousness of its cause, the music that seeps out of every national pore, is one that holds the country in its high esteem.
To add to the beauty of the country of your birth is to find yourself honouring those who came before, and those who will soon follow. The song, the piece of art, the interpretation, the play, the poem, these are the children of the heart which give insight in their passionate display of how the country is to be seen.
Graham Mackenzie’s The Dawning is an album that seeks to show the passion in the air, that comes out of the mist that clings to the lock and the heather alike, the thistle is always close, the myth of the mountains is even closer, and thanks to musicians such as Mr. Mackenzie, The Dawning is one of enlightenment, of instrumental, elemental sorcery.
Across tracks such as the openers The Contradiction Reels and Earn River, the sweeping desires, warnings, and creations to be found in Belmaduthy, The Road to Monalea, Cula Bay, and The Beatons OF Mabou, Graham Mackenzie’s total mastery of the tone and spiel is to be admired, but also adds depth and mystery to the legend of his home country.
A wonderful set of musical pieces, anthems for a new dawn on the horizons, the fiddle is once more the king in waiting.
Graham Mackenzie releases The Dawning on 27th January 2023.
Ian D. Hall