Kirsty Law

Here's a discovery! Born and raised in the Scottish Borders (Moorfoot Hills), Kirsty has subsequently emerged out of Edinburgh's time-honoured session scene through the latterly-becoming-just-as-time-honoured Newcastle University degree in folk and traditional music. Shift is her debut album - and exceedingly good it is too. It's a naturally accomplished effort of very high quality, one that bears no trace of the "this is the first stage in my clever marketing strategy" stance that dogs the early career of so many otherwise-promising talents emerging from Newcastle Uni graduating ceremonies.

Although Kirsty has learnt directly from the likes of Margaret Bennett, Cathal McConnell and Karine Polwart, she's a singer with very much her own personality, both richly expressive and naturally conversational: a personality heavily informed by her frequent collaborations with poets, storytellers and visual artists. She possesses a feisty, and entirely engaging, tone and manner, and is blessed with an exceptional command of phrasing and language. This delightful mix is evident right from the CD's opening track, an animated medley of The Wild Lass (Kirsty's creative setting of a Marion Angus poem) and Child Ballad The Twa Magicians; this brings Kirsty's puckish Scots delivery to the fore, with the first verse and chorus of The Twa Magicians dramatically intoned before she allows the tune to kick in, at a cracking pace, to dispatch the remainder of the coursing, exciting narrative. The vocal dexterity and excitement continues apace on the second track, a veritable patchwork of children's songs and rhymes, on which Kirsty's joined by another voice in counterpoint, that of Drew Wright aka Wounded Knee. That scintillating vocal adventure is followed by a moody, atmospheric song which Kirsty was inspired to write after learning of the history of a ruined 12th century hospital and monastery near her home. Soutra Aisle is but one of the fine own-compositions that grace the disc, showing Kirsty to be a keen and talented songwriter with an acute feel for historical and political subjects to which she's able to bring a thoughtful and fresh independent perspective, not least because she's well versed in the tradition (her skittish miniature Wee Song even sounds authentically traditional…). At the same time, I can hear the twin influences of Karine Polwart and Kate Rusby on Barefit Lasses, which also borrows words from a Hamish Henderson recording of Leith fishwives. Additionally, Kirsty's personal arrangements of traditional source material prove equally persuasive, and her pairing of the text of Lament Of The Border Widow (taken from Scott's Minstrelsy) with Sandra Kerr's haunting tune (and a ghostly "clunky" piano accompaniment) is a definite disc highlight. I also really liked Kirsty's measured, brooding account of The Twa Sisters (learned from the singing of Scottish traveller Betsy Whyte), which sports an interesting, unusual tempo and form change towards the end and is ingeniously segued into Kirsty's original song Howling At The Moon.

You could say that Kirsty's a Law unto herself - and good on her! For altogether, Shift is a really impressive, fascinatingly different album, where the seal is set on Kirsty's special artistic personality by Mattie Foulds' canny production and the supporting presence of Kirsty's "band" (none other than the widely acclaimed young musicians Marit Fält and Rona Wilkie, playing låtmandola/cittern and fiddles respectively) and further selective instrumental augmentation from Conrad Molleson (double bass) and David Milligan (Rhodes piano). Finally, the disc's lyrics should be available on Kirsty's website by the time you read this.

David Kidman