The Tannahill Weavers - Leaving St Kilda

(1996) 12 tracks: Good Drying / The MacFarlanes / The Whistlebinkies Reel / Mulhaire's Reel / The Christmas Carousal / Miss Monoghan, Heiland Harry / The Wee Highland Laddie (2nd part) / Lieutenant Colonel D.J.S. Murray, The Rigs o' Rye, The Athol Gathering / Donald MacLeod Reel, Leaving St. Kilda / Major W. Knox, M.C. / The Highland Brigade at Magersfontein, The Sheearin's No For You, The Three Healths, Crann Tara Set, The Wars O' Germany, Islay Charms Set, Last May A Braw Wooer, Fareweel You Silver Darlin's.

The Tannahill Weavers are one of Scottish music's most consistently exciting bands, known for their blazing, high-energy combination of highland pipes, flutes and percussive guitars. In twenty years they have released a dozen albums, the latest of which, Leaving St. Kilda, is their most raucous, fiery piece of work in years.

The five-piece band that recorded Leaving St. Kilda is the Tannahill Weavers' most versatile lineup ever. Their new member, Duncan Nicholson, is another in the line of Tannies' pipers that has also included Allan MacLeod and Kenny Forsyth, and his masterful playing of the highland pipes is matched by his skill on the Scottish smallpipes.

Band stalwart Roy Gullane (guitar, vocals) is getting better with every passing year. His singing, rich and craggy, is an integral part of the hallmark Tannahill Weavers sound. Phil Smillie, the band's other original member, plays the flute and whistle, and adds the thunder of the bodhran to the group's driving arrangements.

Les Wilson's fiercely strummed bouzouki, atmospheric keyboards, and booming bass pedals are indispensable to the Tannahill sound, while John Martin (formerly of The Easy Club and Ossian) brings the lift and swing of the Scottish fiddle into the group's arrangements. All together, these boys make a mighty sound that shouldn't be missed!