Various Artists
Album: The Flooers O' The Forest
Label: Greentrax
Tracks: 15+7
Website: http://www.greentrax.com

It's been 500 years since one of the most defining and bloody battles ever fought on English soil came to its bloody conclusion leaving thousands of English and thousands more Scots dead and maimed on the battle site of Flodden Field.

To commemorate the event, Scottish record label, Greentrax, has released a double cd of songs about and insprired by the events. The splitting of the cds in this case has a very definite point with both cds having a different personality.

Cd1 is by far the most varied and focuses more on the music and songs that were inspired by the battle, with most of the performers contributing a single track, with a couple of artists, including Karine Polwart, getting the nod at two. I was surprised on first listening how much scope the artists got to deliver their contributions, ranging from very traditional all the way through to contemporary folk rock.

Cd1, I guess, is the part of "The Flooers O' The Forest" that captures the human impact of the battle, the suffering the heart, the loss and that's true regardless of the origin of the song. The one thing you realise listening to the tracks is the lack of triumphalism in the songs. Yes it's there on a couple of tracks, but even on the songs where it's there it is only to contrast the suffering. "Flodden Field" from Owl Service and Alison O'Donnell being a good example.

For me one of the most powerful songs on the first cd, is "The Bonny Banner Blue" performed by Children Of Drumlanrig St Cuthbert's Primary School, sang with the sort of zeal only innocent children can muster, it brings home how music can be used as a rallying point for recruitment and national pride and the dangers that can lead two.

Cd2 has both less tracks, seven and performers, just three and feels as though it is more of the history and politics of the period. Iain Anderson and John Shedden initially trade tracks and poetry that looks at the personalities involved and the effect of the aftermath, particularly through the eighteen plus minute epic, "Edinburgh After Flodden", before handing over to Alastair McDonald to sign off with another interpretation of the title track.

One of the aspects of both cds that I really like is the amount of folklore and legend that drifts into both cds, the supernatural aspects of the events, both before and after the battle, the warning signs and omens ignored.

I have to say I wasn't sure what to expect from this compilation, I was concerned that it might be both rooted in tradition and nationalism and is in truth neither. Flodden is a battle whose impacts have long outlived the protagonists, it has influenced much folk song and "The Flooers O' The Forest" serve both the people and the history well. Greentrax have put together a fine tribute that is also an interesting album musically.

Neil King