Description
Turning Tide is another fine collection of songs from the Shetland vocal-led group Shoormal. Members Freda, Joyce and Trevor have written the songs, in their hallmark ballady, harmonizing style. Their voices are backed by piano, guitar, accordion and bass. Powerful singing, the album has a wonderfully clean sound with voices and instruments in total harmony.
Serendipity; Turning Tide; Sanctuary; Full Circle; A Different Road; Camera Obscura; Stone's Throw; These Woods in Winter; Skin Deep; Slack Water; Tight-Rope Walker; Texas Sky.
Shoormal are Shetland’s unique vocal group who first performed at the 1997 Shetland Folk Festival. They have recorded two critically acclaimed albums – Indigo Skies and Migrant, been nominated for the ‘Best Newcomer’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and are revered throughout the musical world for their unique slant on their own island culture. Their second album “Migrant” was said to be ‘the best album to have come out of Scotland that year’ and created an opportunity to participate in the Folk Alliance Convention in Austin, Texas, USA, in 2006, leading to a signing with an American agency.
Joyce McDill, Freda Leask and Donna Smith sing primarily in three part harmony and these stunning harmonies have become key to the Shoormal sound. The remaining five members, some of the best Shetland musicians, synergise with the singing to provide rhythm and counter-melody - Trevor Smith and Gordon Tulloch play acoustic guitar; Gregg Arthur plays piano and accordion; while Jonathan Ritch and Archer Kemp complete the rhythm section on bass and drums. Shoormal’s music is very much a team effort. Jonathan Ritch will be well known to many for his fantastic bass playing with Fiddlers’ Bid and other Shetland bands.
The group embarked on a first-ever full Scottish tour in October, 2006, to celebrate and promote the release of their third album. The songs on Turning Tide are all collaborations between Freda Leask, Joyce McDill and Trevor Smith and the songs cover a wide variety of subjects.
Most of the album was recorded on the Shetland Isles and then mixed and mastered at Castlesound Studios, Pencaitland, by Stuart Hamilton, Gregg Arthur and Trevor Smith.
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