AN instrumental exploration of traditional Gaelic waulking songs is to be presented by celebrated Scottish fiddle player Laura Jane Wilkie.
Waulking songs are women’s work songs sung for hundreds of years by women in the Highlands and islands of Scotland. They were often sung whilst waulking the tweed – the process of beating tweed to shrink and soften it before use. A laborious process, waulking songs were used in a practical sense to keep the rhythm of beating but also as a social occasion, acting as an opportunity for women to catch up on local news and gossip.
Wilkie studied these songs to adapt them for the fiddle, immersing herself in the Scottish archives and working with tradition bearer Rona Lightfoot.
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“Hearing and learning these songs began in my early teens with the wonderful Maggie MacDonald – she encouraged everyone to engage and take joy, meaning and a sense of belonging from the Gaelic traditions, particularly as I got older and started becoming involved with teaching traditional music,” said Wilkie.
“She was wonderfully generous and kind. I had so much fun working with her as did so many people throughout her life.”
Wilkie said she decided to call the record Vent – as in “to vent” – mainly because when she was exploring the songs, the recurring themes were the difficulties and struggles that a lot of women were having at the time.
“Usually they were grievances with landlords, husbands, men in their lives,” she said.
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“And they used the workspace and the singing and these melodies to get things off their chest – to vent. Whilst going through these archives, I felt a real connection with. and relation to, this music – songs which come from women and speak to the universal idea of womanhood.”
As well as searching the archives of Tobar An Dualchais, Scotland’s online resource dedicated to the presentation and promotion of audio recordings of the country’s cultural heritage, Wilkie was also drawn to a collection of waulking songs by Rona Lightfoot’s mother, Kate MacDonald.
Inspired by them, she created arrangements that present the music in a unique way – as instrumentals.
“Delving deeper into the source recordings and learning the stories from the brilliant wit and knowledge of Rona empowered me to take ownership of this music, be inspired by it and want to share its power further,” said Wilkie.
The album explores the melodies of the ancient waulking songs and how they have individually and communally provided a sense of safety, shared knowledge, power, love, humour and freedom.
Hailing from Tain in the Highlands, Wilkie is a highly sought-after musician who has garnered praise and respect for her unique style of playing, which has roots in the Highland fiddle tradition but influence from an eclectic range of genres. She has toured internationally with various bands and musicians including Kinnaris Quintet, Ian Carr, Ross Ainslie and Niteworks.
Vent is released on Hudson Records on July 5 on CD, vinyl and streaming platforms
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