Please Note that the DVD side of this DualDisc has been manufactured in PAL format (Phase Alternate Lines) and is suited for DVD/VHS players in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and most other European countries.
A DualDisc is a revolutionary new product which is an audio CD on one side, and a DVD on the other. The CD side of the Bannal release - Bho dhòrn gu dòrn - features newly-re corded traditional waulking songs, but since the art is a very visual one, the company have included a 30-minute DVD on the flip side, featuring a documentary, originally made by MacTV, and Mòr Media and Frato Productions for the BBC, with funding from Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig. So now you can listen to the waulking songs as usual on CD, and then if you want to see how it is done, load the DualDsc into your computer or DVD player and enjoy the spectacle that is a real 'luadh' or waulking.
In her introduction to the DualDisc, Morag Macleod, formerly of the School of Scottish Studies, says: "The popularity of waulking songs has increased tremendously since the genre came to attention through the singing of Flora MacNeil and the publications of the School of Scottish Studies. Although it is hard to believe, it is nearly ten years since the first CD of waulking songs by Bannal appeared from Greentrax. A second is very welcome. Catherine Fletcher and the much younger Chrissie Martin are much missed, of course, but the personnel has not changed fundamentally otherwise, and for a disparate group of busy women to have worked together like this for tens of years is no mean achievement. Kenna Campbell, who has been deeply involved in so many campaigns in Glasgow - successful campaigns for the promotion of Gaelic in the city - must take some credit for inspiring the group, even though singers find the rhythms and melodies of the songs themselves singularly attractive. A number of young singers may be heard singing waulking songs now, but Bannal presented a unique concentration on the genre in their first album. With three of the soloists formally studying Gaelic songs and/or teaching them, and the others continuing to take an enthusiastic interest in the songs they are learning, the high standard of singing is well maintained in this new production. Enjoyment of more examples of waulking songs is guaranteed with Bannal's second CD."
Media Reviews
The group can claim some of the credit for raising the profile of these island work songs in the last decade.
WAULKING songs have worked their way into the repertoire of a number of Gaelic singers these days, but they are the entire substance of the Glasgow-based band Bannal's output. The group can claim some of the credit for raising the profile of these island work songs in the last decade.
A rotation of lead singers within the group, including the likes of Kenna Campbell, Margaret Callan, Mary C MacLean, Christine Grant, Margaret Ann Campbell, Morag Law, Wilma Kennedy and Beathag Mhoireasdan, adds plenty of variety to the essentially similar rhythmic song structures. The double disc also features a DVD documentary on the group. Kenny Mathieson The Scotsman http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1127362006
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