"Highland Strands" cd by Kevin Macleod

[kmmando]

I have recently completed and release my 4th solo cd, entitled "Highland Strands". It features accompaniment by luminaries and great friends of the Scottish and Irish traditional music world: Luke Plumb (Shooglenifty) on bouzouki & mandolins, Alec Finn (De Danann) on bouzouki & guitar, John Martin (fiddles) and Phil Smillie (flute & whistle) of the Tannahill Weavers, Matheu Watson on guitar and Tim Jones on mandolin.

It features performances of Scottish marches, reels, & retreats from the ancient repertoire of the great Highland bagpipe, jigs, waltzes, and airs from Ireland and America and new tunes by Ian Hardie, Andy Statman, Freeland Barbour, Ali 'Beag' MacLeod, Maurice Lennon, Bill Hart and Allan MacDonald.

If anyone is interested in a copy, initially just pm me and I'll pass on an email contact/paypal route, as my "get in touch" part of my website is not working right now. You can download as well via iTunes, and there is a highlight about it all on the front page of mandolincafe here as well - many thanks to Scott for doing this! As I have no record company support, it is amazing to get such support within the mandolincafe. Thanks!

There are some tracks here in this short film to let you hear the style of music.





And my website is www.kevinmacleod.co.uk

and facebook

https://www.facebook.com/kevinhjmacleod

many thanks! Kevin Macleod

[kmmando]

The website contact ought to be working now, I hope! thanks Kevin

[Jim Garber]

Nice tunes, Kevin. I was just wondering if you will make it available on emusic.com like your other CDs.

[kmmando]

Jim it is released on iTunes, if you search for me or the cd title, you can download it there. Let me know if you have difficulty, or you can get a proper cd with booklet with lots of tune details and background. many thanks for your interest, there is a link on the front page of the café at the moment with all the links.

best wishes Kevin

[Niall Anderson]

Kevin has done a great job putting the CD together - a great mix of tunes and a real "how-to" lesson in playing Scottish music on mandolin-family instruments. Highly recommended for the CD collections of all us Scottish music enthusiasts.

[Jim Garber]

I have a subscription to emusic and I thought since your other CDs were there, that I could get it there. If not, I will download from itunes or get a proper CD. BTW if you download the whole CD on iTunes it comes with a pdf booklet.

[mickmando]

Kevin ,congratulations on the CD. I have just downloaded it from iTunes and am really enthused by it.
I have been trying unsuccessfully for awhile to get notation / tab for Donal Lunny's Fairfield Mirage . Could you give me any idea where I could get a copy. I would be willing to pay, as I think all composers should get their royalties and I don't want to infringe any copywrite.

Again well done to you and your group of musicians.

[zoukboy]

I have been trying unsuccessfully for awhile to get notation / tab for Donal Lunny's Fairfield Mirage.

Not wanting to hijack Kevin's thread: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...61#post1312161

[zoukboy]

I have recently completed and release my 4th solo cd, entitled "Highland Strands".

Congratulations, Kevin. A new CD by you is always great news!

[Mike Anderson]

Kevin, this is great news, I've been looking forward to this. It's downloading on iTunes right now - but then I realized I ought to have used PayPal as you'd get paid immediately! Will try to keep that in mind.

Really great that a PDF of the liner notes is included, what a nice bonus! Congrats, will get to listening right away.

[DougC]

Very nice music there. It is really beautiful and and pleasant and at such a nice tempo. I could listen to the whole CD over and over. And that is not an easy thing to do, to make such an even tone and mood throughout. Hat's off to you sailors over there!

[kmmando]

Thank you all, it is encouraging to get such feedback. I don't have score for Fairfield Mirage, I just absorbed a version off the old "Gathering" LP I still have. Not sure where it can be sourced.

many thanks again

Kevin

[Bertram Henze]

Loaded mine from iTunes yesterday. Excellent. Goes well with a dram.

Subsequently I found out that my CD burner apparently shared the fate of several devices in the house which got damaged from the EMP of a nearby lightning bolt 3 weeks ago (none was plugged in at the time), so it will be a few days yet until I can have the CD comfort me while driving (that's what the dram can't do).

[foldedpath]

Hi Kevin, I just ordered the CD from Amazon, where it was sold by "Birnam CD Ltd" and I'm looking forward to it!

[kmmando]

Thanks, Foldedpath, I hope it arrives safely!

The track titles are now in a database so anyone ripping the cd into iTunes will very soon pick up the titles. So many wee fiddly things to fix nowadays when you make a cd yourself!

[rjb]

My CD of Highland Strands arrived in the post this morning and as others have already mentioned it's great, sounds excellent, nice tunes beautifully played.

If anyone isn't familiar with Kevin's other albums I would definitely recommend checking them out.

Richard

[kmmando]

Thanks, Richard, good to hear it arrived! Best wishes, Kevin

[Tosh Marshall]

Wonderful CD by Kevin, played it a few times now, stellar line up and a great mix of Waltzs, Marches, Reels & Jigs. 'The Scottish Horse Marches' has become a firm favourite as has the stirringly titled 'The Island Dentist's Jigs'! A beautifully balanced album, great production and a must have for all Scottish music fans by a master of the art.........

[Mike Anderson]

Agreed, this really is wonderful.

[kmmando]

You can hear a track on Gaelic radio here at 1hr 22 for a few days

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04cpkh4

John MaColl's Farewell to the Scottish Horse with Alec Finn and Luke Plumb.

many thanks indeed for the kind remarks.

best, Kevin

www.kevinmacleod.co.uk

[donaidh]

Just to add that "Highland Stands" had the honour of being Album of the Week on another Gaelic radio show here in Scotland last week.
The programme is "Caithream Ciuil" and it's a very popular afternoon music show, and they played one track each day from Monday 28 July till Friday. Most of the programmes are still available on the i-player (but think this is UK only!) Here's a link to the first one. The album of the week slot is around the 1 hour 15 mark each day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04c3378

I should mention that the presenter was particularly enthused about your cd Kevin! It received high praise each day, the only problem being that the presenter found it incredibly hard to narrow down which track to select each day - so a nice problem to have!

Personally I've been listening to the cd a lot over the last week or so and it's just a fantastic selection of tracks. Brilliant mix of traditional and new tunes, beautifully played and a fantastic overall sound!

Donaidh

[kmmando]

Good to hear from you Donaidh, and its very pleasing to hear this all. Thanks! Hope to get a tune with you and Murdo soon.
moran taing, Kevin

[ardbeg]

Fantastic CD from start to finish. Great choice of tunes and a stellar line up obviously enjoying playing music together.

[Teejay]

Hi Kevin

Great to see the positive comments for the new CD - knowing some of the hard work that's gone into it - it's particularly good to see the appreciation.

Really enjoying the waltzes and their musicality - and Am Bata Uaine reminds me of the film work you got involved in last year. Any news of how this is coming along?

All the best - good to see you this week.

Tim

[kmmando]

Thanks Tim and I look forward to your first solo release! The waltzes are composed by the legendary Andy Statman, off his superb Old Brooklyn cd, and a tune by my great friend and musical associate Freeland Barbour, of The Occasionals.com. He is about to produce an amazing collection of all his hunrdeds of tunes, with fabulous colour photography by Cailean Maclean, Robin Gillanders and others, sometime in the near future.

The film is entitled "Slow West", the debut film by my cousin's talented BAFTA award winning son John Maclean, which stars a certain Michael Fassbender amongst other luminaries, and a musical input, not yet on the cutting room floor I think, though there's time yet, from accordionist Ali Beag MacLeod, trumpist Will Maclean and myself on mandolin. Can't release any images yet, but got one or two good ones of a late 19th century West Highland ceilidh house trio, possibly the original "Peaty Bottom Boys". Watch this space!

http://www.themoviedb.org/movie/223485-slow-west