Search - Kathryn Tickell :: Debateable Lands

The lands may be debateable...Tickell's brilliance isn't!

09/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"During her Labor Day weekend performances in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Kathryn Tickell explained that the "debateable lands" were a bleakly beautiful region in The Borders in which reivers and outlaws took refuge from both Scots and English authority and which, as a result and contrary to custom, each side claimed the other owned. While most of the tracks provide rollicking up-tempo pieces, most of them based on folk tunes that fully exploit the unique sounds of the Northumbrian pipes, there are a number of pieces that demonstrate even more Tickell's masterful abilities as a composer. The suite "Stories from the Debateable Lands" is her moving musical portrait of the area and its characteristics. "Our Kate" is the title of both the autobiography of the late Tyneside author Catherine Cookson and of the beautiful piece written for her by Kathryn. It appears twice; first in a quietly contemplative form, and at the end of the disc as a duet with uillean piper Tory Donockley, both versions backed by Nick Holland's sensitive piano. Alistair Anderson's hauntingly elegaic "Road to the North", evokes the emotions one might experience late at night whilst driving back up to The Borders after a gig in Newcastle, Byker, or elsewhere. As bands have a tendency to morph over time, Tickell performs on this disc by Julian Sutton, a nimble-fingered melodeon player; Kit Haigh, a cheerfully energetic guitar background man; and string man Gregor Borland (whose place was taken by the lively and spot-on fiddler Anne Wood at the Gaithersburg Festival). Most of the tunes on the disc were composed by Kathryn, with credits to band members as well on a number of them. For instance, when Julian expressed some doubt that he could play "In Dispraise of Whisky" with sufficient conviction, he composed the "Swig Jig" to couple with it. While Tickell's formidable piping skills simply get better and better with time, this album shows her equally great abilities on the fiddle more than on her previous discs."

A masterpiece from the Northumbrian flok virtuoso

02/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Debatable Lands, is qutie simply one of the most astonishing albums I've ever heard, it's a fantastic example of someone taking a music that has been around for generations and making it new and alive, rooted in the past but with a definite contemporary feel.The Suite; "Stories form the Debatable lands" The penultimate track on the CD is a perfect example of this. Made up of a series of short pieces each with a contrasting mood and tempo, it paints a brilliant picture of the debatable lands, a place of tradgedy and bloodshed. At times firey and passionate, at others slow and contemplative. It's quickly earned a place in my 'desert island discs'. Northumbria owes a great debt to Kathryn Tickell, despite having one of the oldest folk traditions in the British isles, it has been riddiculed and dismissed by the majority of people as irrelevant to the current state of play. Ms Tickell has overcome all that with ease. Fantastic stuff."