Mairearad Green & Rachel Newton - Anna Bhàn

The eponymous hero of this album and real life person, Anna Bhàn, has not been well known beyond the annals of highland lore up until now. However, this is set to change as two of her descendants, cousins Rachel Newton and Mairearad Green have created this album to celebrate their great-great-grandmother’s part in historic events during the Highland Clearances in the Victorian era.

Newton and Green are already notable for their separate solo endeavours, and have informally made music together within their family setting and in ensembles all of their lives but this is their first professional collaboration as a duo. Mairearad is a player of accordion, piano & multiple pipes in Tryst and Buoy Gull as well as being a multimedia artist. Harpist & singer Rachel is well known within ensembles such as The Furrow Collective and Heal & Harrow. They have come together to celebrate Anna Bhàn as part of a wider project being launched in Coigach to commemorate a successful resistance against landlords during the Highland clearances in 1852 with a collection of songs and tunes, in both English and Gaelic.

Given that the focus of this album is a physical rebellion against authority, it is striking how the music conveys the quiet determination on the part of Anna and her companions. The first track sets the scene of their typical rural existence, listing the quotidian farming tasks they would have undertaken, and builds towards the final line “she settles her mind, and she goes" - expressed very calmly. The understatement of the personal danger to Anna and the other young women who participated in the resistance heightens the significance of their courage.

The subsequent tune, Achnahaird features excerpts of oral history being conveyed by ’Uncle Ali’ at a family table amidst weaving harp and fiddle; the background chatter of children reminds us of how personal this story is, and the rhythmic wheeze of bellows is reminiscent of both breath and the passage of time. This piece is succeeded by five tracks which explore both contemporary and historical perspectives on the repeated attempts by bailiffs to evict the tenants - and the ways that they were thwarted.

The elegant marriage of piano, harp and fiddle on reflective air Lady Stafford considers whether the aristocratic landlords were aware of the cruelty of their intended evictions. It doubles down with determination at the closing line: "but while you dined and danced and sported, we were ready". The Wick Fishermen is an enjoyable and boisterous pipe-fuelled celebration of sheer people power defying the authorities and thwarting the arrest of some of the Coigach men.

The only traditional song featured here, Am Banais, has been handed down via family friends but was collected locally in Ross-shire and reputedly dates from the Clearances era. The final tune, Tha Sinn an Seo, with its layers of ornamented piping and ethereal hummed harmonies forms a mesmeric and uplifting conclusion to the album. The title translates as "we are here".

The sleeve notes and related artworks by Green that accompany this album are well worth exploring should your interest in the wider project be piqued; however the listening experience is not dependent upon them by any means. It’s an inspiring chapter of social history that Green & Newton have shared with the listener, and a fitting tribute to Anna Bhàn that her story is perpetuated through the music of her descendants.