Mairi MacInnes - Orosay

One of the MusicScotland top sellers of the year 2001.
One of the Greentrax Recordings top sellers of the year 2001.

(August 2001) 12 tracks: Uibhist Nam Beann Arda * Orra Bhonna Bhonnagan * Nighean Chruinn Donn * An Aisling * Orain Luaidh/An Fhleasgaich Ur Leannain Thu * Orosay * Laoidh An Iasgair * Puirt-A-Beul * Fagail Bhornais * Oran Na Cloiche * Oran Uibhist * Carry Me Across The Ocean.

Mainly traditional Scots Gaelic songs with a twenty-first century slant in the singing. Solo and accompanied, traditional yet gently up-to-date.

A previous Mod gold medallist, Mairi has travelled and sang throughout North America and Europe, in particular Cape Breton and Spain. In Scotland she is hugely popular and her reputation as a fine Gaelic singer has spread to England and Wales, where she has performed many times.

She is accomplished in traditional style singing as well as in the more modern expression which appeals to the younger generation. Mairi is also well known for her Gaelic childrens’ television programmes where she entertains youngsters with song and rhyme, many of them her own work.

In 2000 Mairi was invited to sing for Prince Charles at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and later in the year she performed to her biggest audiences of the year at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo during Edinburgh’s International Festival where she sang nightly to sellout crowds of 9,000 on Edinburgh Castle’s stunning esplanade setting.

Mairi was born on the island of South Uist and the smaller island of Orosay, on its western side, was a haven to her and a place where she found overwhelming peace as a child. Mairi, who started singing at a very early age, would often wander across the machair - the grassland near the seashore containing an abundance of wild flowers - on to the beach and across to Orosay where she would pretend the sea was her audience. Singing gave her great enjoyment then, as it does today, and her wonderful love for the songs and singing are expressed in Mairi’s voice.

Orosay clearly reflects Mairi’s South Uist background and is a labour of love by Mairi, producer Calum Malcolm and the several session singers and musicians, who all rose to the occasion. They are Catherine-Ann MacPhee (backing vocals) * Penny MacInnes (backing vocals) * James MacKintosh (drums and percussion) * Tony McManus (guitars) * Iain MacInnes (Scottish small pipes) * Billy Jackson (harps and whistles) * Mairi Campbell (fiddle and viola) * Mats Melin (Scottish step dance) and Calum Malcolm (piano and keyboards).