🎵 Rachel Sermanni is an artist I could never tire of listening too. I don’t even remember the first time I heard, or saw her perform. Most likely a festival, but to listen to her live is akin to standing by calming waves.

If you haven’t yet taken the chance, you can on her Betwixt Tour now stretching all the way from Stirling to Skye, Frome to Forres and stops in between, her most recent album Dreamer Awake likely helping provide the soundtrack.

Maybe I’m drawn to the apparent honesty or layers of her songs. Stories, every one. It was why I found myself in a tent at Belladrum last summer, just listening again.

I’d never been to Belladrum before, it took me by surprise if I’m honest at the variety and sheer scale on offer. There was something for everyone, it felt relaxed, well laid out and inviting. It’s absolutely one of Europe’s best.

The music was plentiful and inspiring, including Rachel’s set. But as she coaxed the crowd into song, my ear kept being pulled also towards the side of the stage and fiddle chords dancing in the air.

🎻 Behind the bow was Laura Jane Wilkie, originally from the town of Tain barely an hour away but now Glasgow based, and one of Scotland’s most celebrated players.

I love the sound of fiddle, yet embarrassingly still only on my first flushes of learning. Duncan Chisholm, Euan Smillie, Maggie Adamson leave me rapt. On first listen, she immediately joined them.

Her pedigree is clear having toured internationally with various projects including Kinnaris Quintet, Ian Carr, Ross Ainslie, Niteworks, Claire Hastings, Beth Malcolm and Siobhan Miller.

Other collaborations include with Shooglenifty, Man of the Minch, Elephant Sessions, Paul Towndrow’s Keywork Orchestra, Fatherson, The GRIT Orchestra and others.

Now her debut album - Vent - is being released into the world from July 5 on Hudson Records, with pre-orders open now. Like Sermanni, this too is a production deep in stories.

Having searched the archives of Tobar An Dualchais Laura was drawn to a collection of waulking songs by Kate MacDonald, the mother of Rona Lightfoot, who she worked with to develop them for this inspiring work.

Waulking songs are ancient women’s work songs sung for hundreds of years by women in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. They were sung whilst beating tweed to shrink and soften it before use, or waulking the tweed, a laborious hard process.

The songs helped keep the rhythm of beating but also provide a release nd opportunity for women to catch up together. Laura said:

“I decided to call the record Vent – as in to vent – mainly because as I was exploring these songs, the recurring themes were the difficulties and struggles that a lot of women were having at the time. Usually grievances with landlords, husbands, men in their lives. 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.”

Alongside Rona, others joining Laura on her album are Ian Carr on guitars/harmonium; Sarah Hayes on keys/flute/vocals; Joe Rattray on bass; Rachel Sermanni on vocals; Hannah Read on electric guitar; and Alice Allen on cello as well as improvised vocal samples by Pippa Blundell, Hannah Findlay, Gillian Fleetwood and Imogen Macleod.

The first single from the album, I Am Sad in the Braes of the Glen, is out now.

Photos: Ray Kelly

🌤 LUSA have a double release coming up on Friday with their second single - Lucia - and a remix of their debut track Probably from Ros T. Tickets are on sale now for their May 24 headline set at Dannsa in Glasgow.

🎶 Glasgow-based five-piece trad fusion band DLÙ (pronounced dloo) release their latest single Mogaisean, on Thursday. It is the first single from the band’s upcoming second album Close To which will be launched next month at SWG3 Warehouse in Glasgow. Mogaisean was recorded between Black Bay Studio on the Isle of Lewis and GloWorm Recording Studio in Glasgow.

🚚 Travelling musician Laura Silverstone releases a cover of Dougie MacLean’s classic anthem Caledonia on Friday in time for not just Scotland’s footballing adventures in Germany, but her forthcoming album Heartwood out on July 12.

🪜Vertigo, the debut album from Griff, is out on July 12 and she’ll be doing a signing session and acoustic set at Assai in Glasgow on July 25.

🎷 Kim Carnie is back with a new song. New Orleans is out on June 7. She says to think ‘summer road trip, wind in your hair, old tape deck kinda feel’. A list of her tour dates can be found here.

⛺️ Eden Court in Inverness has launched its Under Canvas programme running through from July 3 to Aug 24. Acts include Scott C. Park, Ryan Young, The Lumber Gills, Karawane and the aforementioned Laura Jane Wilkie. Details here.

📻 And tune into BBC Radio Scotland’s The Afternoon Show with Michelle McManus from around 3.15pm to hear Hana Jane talking about her single Free and a whole lot more after it was named Introducing Track of the Week.

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