Customer Reviews

Storas

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am not Canadian, and I don't speak Gaelic, and I don't know
what I expected, but for the last 5 years, every time I bought
CDs, I checked to see if Mary Jane had something new. Came
Storas, and a shocking joy.

Without meaning to contradict anyone else's response to the
album, I think it is the work of a mature, profound, creative
power. For me, there is a ferocity in Storas, in the sense
of Blake's "Tiger, tiger, burning bright, In the forests of
the night." The words "string quartet" have been a bye-word
for pop self-indulgence for decades, yet Mary Jane's work
with Blue Engine is so profoundly intentional that it verges
on being frightening. I am not exaggerating my feelings.

To me, it seems that Mary Jane has grown beyond experimentation
on this CD. To me, Storas is an exposition by Mary Jane of all
that she has learned, all that she has loved, in Nova Scotian
Gaelic music. This is what adult artists do. There is a Titan's
shadow of mature purpose in this music. I always liked Mary
Jane's CDs, all of them. I always respected her and hunkered
down against her critics. But I underestimated her. Drastically.

If this sounds a bit idolatrous, there are 2 other CDs which
have affected me in a similar way. Tannas' 'Ru-Ra', and the
Julie Murphy / Nigel Eaton CD - "Whirling Pope Joan" - 'Spin'.

There are other profound works among female traditional singers,
but in Storas I hear Mary Jane in a tour de force. I just hope
others enjoy it as much as I have --- I bought 1 for me, and 10
for presents. I kid you not.

Bravo, and let there be more, Mary Jane, much much more.

Another fine achievement by Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond.

I expected something similar to "Làn Dùil," but this one is suprisingly soft and gut-wrenching.

Some tunes are very lively, including a wonderful one on whose chorus Boireannaich nan Òran ladies (Bonnie Thompson, Janet Buchanan, Tara Rankin and Michelle Smith) sing along with Lamond, but most songs inspire reflection.

The arragements are not so experimental as they are on "Suas e !" and "Làn Dùil." The instruments support the songs only. They play a timid role, but add just enough to generate firm images and emotions. Everything is melodious and harmonious. Some songs even have strings arrangements, which is somewhat different from Lamond's past musical accompaniments. Lamond is slowly walking towards something more personal and different from her cousin Laurel MacDonald's style, who tends to be quite experimental as a musician herself.

This album offers something very special for those who have been following Lamond's music. The port-a-beul "Cailleach liath Ratharsaigh" has been heard before on the CD-rom documentary available on "Òrain Ghàidhlig" as played on the fiddle by local Joe Peter MacLean; we there see Lamond writing the lyrics down and learning it from the fiddler, and "Stòras" allows us to discover Lamond's foot-stomping arragement of it.

I obviously recommend "Stòras" to all who haven't put their hand on it yet.
It is a very moving album to listen to.

I first heard Mary Jane Lamond in the program called "Celtic Tides" (see Celtic Tides - A Musical Odyssey) and then saw her in the "Sleepy Maggie" video with Ashley MacIsaac. I became a fan, and am now pleased to be listening to her newest CD "Storas." This CD, like all her previous ones, brings together tradtional material and her own unique voice in a nexus of adroit interpretation that is simultaneously aesthetically haunting and musically stunning. The word "Storas" means "a treasure," and this CD certainly lives up to the name. I listen to it during meditation and when I need to relax, as it weaves a wonderful if sometimes "melancholy" (in the best sense of that word) beauty to my consciousness of the world. My first words describing it were perhaps "dreamy" and "hypnotic," though I don't intend these in any 'soft' or 'new age-y' sense. This is a powerful collection of tunes, profoundly interpreted.