GiveWay - Full Steam Ahead

(June 2003) 11 tracks (47 mins): Manomynous: Untitled / Fisher's Fancy / The Candlelight Reel * Full Steam Ahead: Calum's Road / Para Handy End Theme / Tongadale Reel / Tam Lin * Blue Bonnets O'er the Border * Riverdance: The Countess Cathleen / Reel Around the Sun * Jiggin': Cleveland Park / Banks of the Allan / Nelson Mandela's Welcome To Glasgow / Jig Runrig * Tonder * Piper and the Shrew / Reel Beatrice / Mouth of the Tobique * Monday Morning: Starjump / Monday Morning Reel / Dinkie's * Glencoe Beginnings * Crossing the Water: De'il Stick Da Minister / Dusty's Reel / Macca's Reel / The Musical Priest * Leith Central / Hogtie's Reel / Branohm's Reel.

The rise of GiveWay - sisters Fiona (17), Kirsty (15) and twins Amy and Mairi (13) - has been meteoric! In the short time since the girls chose the name GiveWay (on their way to a gig and after passing numerous Give Way road signs!) the group received a Danny Award at Glasgow's Celtic Connections in 2001 and immediately followed this up by winning the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards. A booking at the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival was followed by a guest appearance at the 2002 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and later an invite to return to the Young Folk Awards to appear in an extended set as the previous years’ Award Winners.

The girls were invited to appear on the BBC TV's Hogmanay Live 2002 show, where they performed alongside household names such as Jackie Bird, Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham and Fame Academy winner David Sneddon. This was another amazing break for the four sisters and their smiles on screen clearly indicated they relished the challenge.

Fiona (fiddle, whistles), Kirsty (accordions), Amy (drums, percussion) and Mairi (keyboards, synthesiser) receive tremendous encouragement from Mum and Dad (Morag and Steve Johnson), who feel the most important thing is that the girls are having fun.

GiveWay are fine interpreters of Scottish music and have taken their music into fiddle and accordion clubs, through the concert hall to radio and television and now on to CD. Their choice of material for the album includes traditional tunes and original compositions by Scotland’s finest composers, including Phil Cunningham. There are also three compositions by Fiona, including the beautiful Glencoe Beginnings on which Phil Cunningham reads a poem written by Jean McLean, the girl’s Gran.

"These ladies can really play, and play well at that. There is a maturity in their playing and arrangements, and a sense of fun shines through on all the performances" (Dirty Linen)