SHOOGLENIFTY

THE ARMS DEALER'S DAUGHTER

At last! Our new album and our first with the new line up including Quee Macarthur and Luke Plumb. We had a lot of fun making this one; modern technology being what it is we were able to eschew the traditional studio approach and do almost all the work in James’ house, such luxury, and such soup! Quee’s experience with recording came in very handy and Luke’s enthusiasm was an essential ingredient. Both of them were practically living there for the duration of the project.
The album clocks in at just over an hour with ten tracks, viz:

1. Glenuig Hall. This is a tune written by Luke, named for that great venue on the west coast of Scotland and dedicated with much respect for the people who got it built. Long may their lums reek. It is followed by The Wrong Box, a tune by Angus which commemorates a visit by James and Garry to the wrong village by that name somewhere in England.

2. The Arms Dealer’s Daughter was a very lovely lassie way back in the past of one of the band members, or should that be one of the band’s members? Anyway, probably best not talked about. The tune is by Angus as is the second in the set; Aye Right , a very handy Scottish expression meaning – “I’m afraid I disagree with you entirely but I’ll not say any more about it than that.”, or something.

3. Heading West. Hmmm, I’ll need to check with Angus about this one and get back to you. Maybe something to do with direction, just a guess.

4. The Reid Street Sofa. This tune by Luke pays tribute to a sofa in Melbourne which supported him through many a night a couple of years ago. The second tune, also by Luke, is about an aspect of touring where you are relying on the knowledge of others to get you where you need to go. It is called Missed The Bypass and is closely related to a later tune on the album called Take The Tunnel. The set finishes with a piece called, wait for it, Fit’r Ye Daein Up Ma Vennel! I know, but bear in mind that this is from Malcolm, the guy who thought up the name Shooglenifty so what can we expect?

5. The Nordal Rumba. It is stock question for journalists to ask “What are your influences?” Well, apart from each other it is arguable that we are influenced by everything we see and hear, and after several years of being lucky enough to travel around the world meeting people and going to music festivals it’s probably inevitable that Angus should come up with a tune like this. While definitely Scottish it has elements of Asturias and Galicia in its melody and flavours of Cuba and high-life in its groove. Great fun to record and great fun to play live. This version features the brass section from Salsa Celtica, a very fine band based here in Edinburgh.

6. Maxine’s Polka. Written for Angus’ very good friend Maxine and completed with another polka; Bar Bruno.

7. A Fistful Of Euro. A melody James has been keeping up his sleeve for a wee while which leads beautifully into The New Rat #6. I mean in a musical sense of course.

8. Carboni’s Farewell. This lovely tune by Luke was named, I believe, by his old friend the excellent instrument maker Peter Daffy, so we’d need to ask him really. Who was Carboni? Where was he going? Answers on a postcard please.

9. Scraping The Barrel. Followed by Fielding’s Possum are both by Luke and we’ll have to wait for his return from Tassie for an explanation here. He is also responsible for the last tune in the set which we already mentioned on this page; Take The Tunnel, which makes reference to our agent in Australia, Seamus, and his determination to take a tunnel no matter where he’s going.

10. Tune For Bartley. Bartley is a friend of Luke’s who writes beautiful tunes. Luke wrote this one. Warning! If you play it twice you’re not going to be able to stop playing it for quite a while. This track features the mastery of Michael McGoldrick on eulliann pipes.

The album cover is the painting "Gypsy" by Otar Imerlishvili of Tbilisi, Georgia, and design is by Mitch of the Edinburgh Film Studios

The album is the first on our own Shoogle Records label.test