MARGARET ROBERTSON & KAREN TWEED: ISLAND GIRLS - Beach Daze
May Monday Adventures MMA6327005
Shetlander Margaret Robertson and newish Orkney resident Karen Tweed have been inspired by each other's music for many years, but never had the opportunity to work closely together until 2020. This album presents a generous two dozen compositions by Margaret and Karen, memorably arranged for accordion, piano and fiddle, spanning the various styles of Shetland, Scotland, Ireland and beyond. There are moving airs like Mother's Love, joyful waltzes like Pam and Daylight, jaunty jigs Happy Cake Break and Candy And Simon's Birdsong House, marches and polkas, and several smashing reels by both ladies. It may be happenstance or careful planning, but each track here sticks to a single rhythm and tempo, making Island Girls very suitable for dancing as well as listening.
Margaret Robertson is better known as a pianist than a fiddler these days - that mantle has been passed to her son - but she can still wield a bow with the finest of them, and here she treats us to gorgeous tone on her Air For Gordon and lovely sprightly fiddling on Lighthouse Lovers. Elsewhere it's double keyboards, sparring or duetting, swapping melody lines between accordion and piano as Karen leans into Margaret's Rigs And Rollers reels or swings gently through her own march, St Albans Columcille's. There's a distinct island feel to several pieces here - Shetland two-steps, Orkney waltzes - not just in names like St Kilda Beach or the similarly evocative Fae Turniebrae Tae Cardenden. No guests, no obvious doubletracking: Island Girls would make a great live show, but in the meantime make sure you enjoy this CD.
www.karentweed.com
Alex Monaghan
This review appeared in Issue 143 of The Living Tradition magazine