The First Harvest

I knew both of these great musicians, but just as guests on other recordings, so I was quite lucky to find a copy of this album at Coda Music in Edinburgh just a few weeks ago.

Iain MacDonald on highland pipes, flute, and whistles; Iain MacFarlane on fiddle. Other musicians are Ingrid Henderson, Ross Martin, Ewan Vernal, Phil Cunningham, Kathleen MacInnes, Allan Henderson and James MacKintosh. The arrangements of some highland pipes and fiddle tracks may be somewhat modern, but the playings of the main musicians are quite traditional and you won’t be disappointed.

I especially love track 2, which is the set of a march, strathspey and reels on fiddle, low whistle or flute, while the unaccompanied fiddle and pipes playing on track 6 and the set of Irish polkas on whistle and fiddle are also fun to listen to.

Anyway, it’s a great recording to educate my ears.

oooooh, im loving this cd. my friend gave me a shot of it the other day and i just had to go and buy it. And WOOHOO for the polkas!!

MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/iainmacdonald

Just bought it off iTunes. Love it 🙂

For track 11, the last polka is listed on the session as the Newmarket Polka in A major. I didn’t know how to redirect the link without changing the name as recorded on the album, so here’s the link:

https://thesession.org/tunes/334

What a polka set though!

Does anyone know any more about the tune Roses of No Man’s land on track 4? I have found the northern lass in the Scots musical museum, but I presume that the roses is much later.

And does anyone know why Iain MacDonald’s website is down?

Have updated the polka on track 11.

Tracks seem to be up on "youtube : eg Track #6 -
https://youtu.be/EMhFfCukBbM

play video

“Does anyone know any more about the tune Roses of No Man’s land on track 4?”

It’s a fairly recent tune composed by Blair Douglas in honour of the nurses working during WW1. There’s a setting of the tune here:
http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tunes/R/RoNML.html