Blair Douglas - Angels From The Ashes

(September 2004) 15 tracks: Western Soul * Angels from the Ashes * Storming the Ceilidh / The Lovers Stone / The 'F' in Jig / Dipped, Dosed and Clammered * An Gaidheal Uasal (The Noble Gail) * The New Island Waltz * Mr Morrison * Night Falls * Béal na mBláth (Mouth of Flowers) * Cross Border Love * Waltzing the Last Piper Home * Donald Hugh Macleod / The Gocan (The cuckoo's attendant) / La Celta Nostra (The Gaelic Mafia) / The Rockabilly Reel * La Fleur de Bayou Noir (The Flower of the Bayou Noir) * Le Stomp de Ceitidh * The Celtic Cajun * Sonamarg (Meadows of Gold).

Another memorable album from Blair Douglas, with a huge cast of friends joining him. Mainly his own tunes, Scottish in inspiration - an eclectic mixture of Celtic, Gaelic and Cajun music with beautiful melodies, waltzes and airs.

In 1973, having quickly mastered the accordion, Blair teamed up with Calum and Rory MacDonald, fellow Skyemen with North Uist connections. Together they formed the Run Rig Dance Band - later to become Runrig. Many Blair Douglas compositions have been picked up by other performers, notably Kate Martin's Waltz.

In the tradition of many Celtic composers, Blair's music draws from the deep well of social and political injustice, both at home and abroad. The plight of the Gael provides the local backdrop while 20th century icons like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Michael Collins bring, through their own local struggles, an international dimension.

Blair Douglas (accordion, piano, keyboards) with Dave Stewart, Jim MacDiarmid (drums), Ewan Vernal, Ross Hamilton (bass), Sandro Ciancio (percussion), Malcolm Jones, Morph, Chaz Stewart (guitars), Dougie Pincock (pipes, whistles, flute), Simon MacKerrell (uillean pipes, border pipes), Phil Bancroft, Graham Wilson (saxophones), Wendy Weatherby (cello), Stevie Lawrence (guitar, bouzouki), Iain MacFarlane, Chris Stout, Jack Tyldsley (mandolin, frattoir, fiddle), Ingrid Henderson, Catriona MacKay (harp/clarsach), Paul Harrison (piano, Hammond organ), Barry Wilson, Dave Proudfoot (pipe drums), Dirk Powell (accordion, fiddle, bass), Courtney Grainger (fiddle, vocals), Christine Balfa ('titfer, guitar), Robin Rankin (keyboards) and Eoghan O'Riada, Eva Russell (vocals).

"Blair Douglas breaks an eight-year silence on disc with a superb new recording" (The Scotsman)