Mairi Orr
Album: Jenny Does Burn
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.mairiorr.com

Raised in the north-west Highlands (a village off the road to Mallaig) but now based near Edinburgh, Scottish singer/songwriter Mairi Orr has been a regular on the Edinburgh & Lothians bluegrass and folk scene for a little over a decade now. Armed with a quite gorgeous singing voice, Mairi's performing style is really appealing; it convincingly melds Americana-bluegrass and Scottish roots musical traditions, and her own original songs offer a wide range of storytelling that takes in both historical and contemporary themes with equal facility.

In particular though, Scotland's past is evoked with a keen sense of place, notably on songs like On The Shore (which also recalls Mairi's own past at Morar) and the brooding opening tale of The Drover, while the existing folk corpus of Great War stories is enhanced by Mairi's original composition Summer On The Clyde (1914) and the story of the last Scottish witch to be burnt, Janet Horne, is told on the CD's unexpectedly sensuous title track. The Promise is a poignant lament for a lost love, and Ragged Robin is a delicate nature portrait, while in contrast there's The Drinker's Wife, which, with its busy old-timey clawhammer banjo, has all the feel of an authentic Appalachian folksong.

Altogether more personal issues are addressed on the melancholy Just A Fallow Year (which deals with childlessness), and Letting It Go (which reflects ruefully on the ending of a relationship). The arguably lighter affair of I'm Not A Gambling Man is set to an old-fashioned western-swing shuffle, while Don't You Wed Another Man, Maggie receives a vivacious uptempo breakdown treatment.

Marie's in exceptionally fine voice throughout the disc, and is evidently at ease with her own abilities and with her backing crew - for much credit needs to be given for her fabulous accompanists Steven Polwart (guitars), Dave Currie (dobro), Iain "Nico" Bruce (double bass), Mark Woods (banjo), Danny Hart (fiddle, banjo, mandolin) and Fraser Fifield (whistle) who together, in tandem with album producer Mattie Foulds (percussion) give the whole exercise a distinctive signature sound.

It's hard to believe that Jenny Does Burn is Mairi's first full-length CD, but it is (only a 2011 EP, The Gathering Crows, precedes it). And it really is one of the most charismatic debut albums I've encountered this year.

David Kidman