Margaret Stewart has a long established reputation as one of the finest of Gaelic singers. A native of the Island of Lewis she grew up in a community of singers and appreciative audiences, including her own family. Her rich inheritance of song ranged from lullabies, laments and waulking songs to the compositions of local bards and songs of far-travelled islanders who often expressed their longing for their native home and their love for those they left behind.
This long awaited album - “Togaidh mi mo Sheolta” - “Along The Road Less Travelled” - offers a variety of Gaelic songs from various parts of Gaelic Scotland – an ancient waulking song, an Ossianic ballad, a Jacobite epic, humorous songs from Lewis and Uist, love songs, a MacDonald praise song, a lullaby, two emigrant songs and much more. The album features material from some of the great Gaelic bards – Iain Lom, Duncan Ban Macintyre, The Blind Harper, Iain Mac Mhurchaidh and some songs which are rarely heard, some indeed which have never been commercially recorded, and as such are of considerable cultural importance.
Helped throughout the recording process by her producer and great friend Iain MacDonald and an array of ‘A’ list Scottish and Irish traditional musicians such as Allan Henderson, Iain MacFarlane, Ingrid Henderson, Griogair Labhruidh, Ian Hardie and D James Ross, this recording already promises to be an instant classic.
"Margaret’s singing comes from her heart, and the knowledge and understanding she has of the oral tradition of the Gael comes through so clearly in her singing"....The Scotsman
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