KEVIN MACNEIL comes over all gushy when faced with the debut CD from Lewis band Teine.

I HAVE BEEN looking forward to Teine’s debut CD with almost unparalleled anticipation. I mean, I’m a Leòdhasach. It takes a lot – and I mean a lot – to get me excited. Certain books. Certain looks. Kippers. That kind of thing.

So. The four young multi-instrumentalist girls from Lewis have been wowing discerning crowds with their musical charm bracelets for a few years now, and some people feared that with the girls recently going off to various colleges and universities, their particular fire (‘Teine’) might be extinguished.

Teine

The sleeve notes to Làn Tighe Chaileagan (A House Full of Lasses) emphasize, however, that the band will be sticking together.

Is that a good thing?

No.

It’s a great thing.

This album is stupendous.

And here’s why.

Reviewing Teine’s warm and spellbinding concert at the Hebridean Celtic Festival 2005, I wrote: “The one-hour concert was a blissful combination of stirring vocal harmonies, marvellously fluent fiddle playing and sheer cool fun. These girls – swapping instruments the way other teenage girls swap gossip – are learning to hone a set that mingles professionalism, charisma and a very natural-seeming musicianship…Their onstage personalities are as sparky and attractive as a fire and their future is similarly bright…Given judicious management and sustained integrity, this band could be huge.”

I applaud forever the fact the Teine sing in their own natural accents

Teine’s debut CD confirms – indeed, powerfully reinforces – my faith in them. Teine are an important new group in the stellar pantheon of modern-traditional Scottish music.

Làn Tighe Chaileagan is intermittently joyous and sad, swift and calming, exuberant and meditative. Lynsey Macritchie (piano, fiddle and djembe), Michelle Morrison (vocals and piano), Catriona Watt (vocals, fiddle and whistle) and Judie Morrison (clàrsach, fiddle and vocals) have created a 13-track album that encompasses a lastingly rich musical spectrum.

There are instrumentals and sung tracks, mainly in Gaelic but including some English, and even a macaronic track. The songs and tunes featured cover both the traditional and modern. Co-dhiù, some highlights…

The album begins with a warm, evocative rendering of the Gaelic classic ‘Hi Rim Bo’…which gradually but assertively builds into a delicious frenzy.

‘An Ròs’ is an exquisite ballad exquisitely performed. The girls’ vocals on this track are a melting pleasure, like the first time you heard Runrig.

‘Mackerron’s Set’ reminds me of a parkful of kids jumping up and down, kids on trampolines with summer-wide smiles on their faces. Smiles that are sometimes swift, sometimes cool and eager, sometimes frantic. And hey – when music makes you feel happy, you feel… happy. And that, I submit, is a darned good thing.

‘An Cuireadh’ is, by deliberate and intelligent contrast, an understated heartbreak of a song. The clàrsach drops note after note after note like tears. I love this track for its seamless blending of music with lyric. That clàrsach slays me.

‘Alasdair Mhic’ showcases some choir-ish vocals, some beautifully glossy fiddling, some vibrant clàrsach and it is, like the album itself, a momentous fusion as when an artist mixes just the right paints to make it just so.

‘Breisleach’ is my highlight of the album. Comparison with Capercaillie’s famous version is unfair, just as beautiful sisters have and always will have their own individual merits and will not take kindly to crass comparison.

In my abovementioned HebCeltFest review I wrote, “I appreciated the literary touch of Breisleach…the words of which were written by Gaelic poetry’s favourite uncle, the great Aonghas ‘Dubh’ MacNeacail. I hope Teine’s achingly beautiful version makes it onto their CD; it was a highlight of a set that could well prove itself to be a highlight of the festival.”

This is a fine-to-the-point-of-tears marriage of poetic subtlety and musical nuance. In some skewed parallel world it is number one in the charts.

‘Oran Chaluim Sgàire’ is strong and convincing, authoritative and dignified, while also being grounded in a very pure-seeming enthusiasm. ‘Gillies Mountain’ is a delightful, bilingual version of The Rankin Family’s composition.

I applaud forever the fact the Teine sing in their own natural accents. A great many bands could learn from that simple, revolutionary concept.

This CD is a piece of lasting beauty. I cannot commend it highly enough. I am more convinced than ever that Teine will be as famous in the future as Runrig and Capercaillie are now. They deserve it. More than. Such co-mingling of great tradition and great optimism are rare. When you think about it, such beauty is rare.

Teine will play at An Lanntair in Stornoway on 15 July, as part of the Hebridean Celtic Festival. Their CD can be orded through the festival’s website (below).

Kevin MacNeil, poet, novelist and playwright, is currently spending 12 months at the prestigious Villa Concordia, Bamberg, Bavaria.

© Kevin MacNeil, 2006

Link

• Teine CD