The Birnam Quartet - The Music Of Burns

(April 2010) 13 tracks: A Rosebud By My Early Walk * Highland Widow's Lament / Braw Braw Lads * Bonnie Jean * Whistle O'er the Lave O't * The Gallant Weaver * Highland Mary * Now Westlin' Winds * Wandering Willie * What Can A Young Lassie Do Wi' an Auld Man * She's Fair and Fause * Flow Gently Sweet Afton * Lord Gregory * A Man's A Man For A' That.

Angus R Grant (fiddle) and Luke Plumb (mandolin) of Shooglenifty, in an acoustic setting with Jamie Jauncey (piano) and Anna-Wendy Stevenson (fiddle).

Strings and piano instrumental versions of Robert Burns songs. Some of the tunes are played as Burns would have heard them more than 250 years ago, while others are given a 21st century twist of jazz and blues. Just before his untimely death in 1796, Burns wrote the words to the ancient melody of Lord Gregory, and 214 years later the Birnam Quartet have rejuvenated it with a Gershwin-esque makeover.

A tribute not only to an iconic national figure and his fine ear for a tune, but also to the men and women, mostly unknown, who originally composed these enduring melodies about the people and places where they lived.

"It was the beauty of the old tunes Burns chose for his songs that really brought the Birnam Quartet together and provided the fertile common ground for our creativity... It seemed that Burns' choice of music offered another layer to our understanding of his character - a kind of charting of his emotions, the moods ranging from whimsicality through melancholy to lyrical passion." (Jamie Jauncey)