Lowlands (Susan McKeown album)

Lowlands is an album by Susan McKeown.

The tracks on this album present a bewildering array of styles, including African, Appalachian, Middle Eastern and Irish. At its heart, however, this is a collecting of Irish songs, with Susan's voice frequently exposed to allow maximum emotion. There are 27 musicians, but they reined by Susan's production so that each song appears to have only 4 or 5 players. They play subdued world music rather than folk-rock. "Lord Baker" is often heard as fragment of a ballad, but here Susan has included the full epic story, making this the longest track on the album. Sad songs predominate. The Scots songs "The Dark Haired Girl" was translated into Irish by Susan McKeown. The liner notes give the words to all the songs. Recorded 2000. Running time: 52 minutes 09 secs. Produced by Susan McKeown.

Track listing

# "The Dark Haired Girl" (An Nighean Dudh)(sung in Irish) (Trad)
# "John Coughlin" (Trad)
# "The Hare's Lament" (Trad)
# "Slan agus Beannact/ Goodbye and Farewell" (sung in Irish) (Trad)
# "The Snows They Melt the Soonest" (Trad)
# "Nansi Og Ni Obarlain/ Young Nancy Oberlin" (sung in Irish) (Trad)
# "Lord Baker" [Lord Bateman. Child Ballad 53] (Trad)
# "Dark Horse on the Wind" (Liam Weldon)
# "The Lowlands of Holland" (Trad)
# "Bonny Greenwoodside" [Child Ballad 20] (Trad)
# "To Fair London Town" (Trad)
# "The Moorlough Shore" (Trad)

Line-up

* Aidan Brennan (guitar)
* Mamadou Diabate (kora)
* Johnny Cunningham (fiddle)
* Joanie Madden (whistle, low whistle)
* Matt Darriau (kaval, Irish flute, clarinet, bass clarinet)
* Ole Mathisen (clarinet)
* Jamshied Sharifi (synthesiser)
* Skuli Sverisson (electric bass)
* Benjamin Wittman (percussion).
* Garry Leonard (guitar)
* Greg Anderson (bouzouki)
* Paddy League (bodhran)
* Todd Schietroma (cahones, shakers, caxixis, handclaps)
* Des More (guitar)
* Eilis Egan (box)
* Samir Chatterjee (tablas)
* Oliver Straus (handclaps)
* Wang Guowei (erhu)
* Eaman O'Leary (banjo)
* John Anthony (caxisis)
* The group "Lunasa" consising of:
* Donough Hennessy (guitar)
* Kevin Crawford (whistles)
* Sean Smyth (fiddle) and finally
* Trevor Hutchinson (acoustic bass)

The following appear on the track "To Fair London Town":
* Michelle Kinney (cello)
* Cillian Valelly (uilleann pipes)