Scottish songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm MacWatt weaves stories that connect Scottish heritage to America with songs that focus on both places, showing the linkage between Celtic music and Appalachian string music styles. These ballas tell of loss, injustice, and difficult journeys. MacWatt plays all the instruments excepting Phil Dearing on bass and the electric guitar from Kris Drever on one track on his Settler, which appears on the American label Need to Know and bears more than a few American touches in the form of guests. They are elite Americana voices – Jaimee Harris, Laura Cantrell, Gretchen Peters, and British contributor Eliza Carthy.
As implied by the title, the concept centers on Scottish pioneers who settled throughout the world as in the chorus of “My Bonny Boys Have Gone” – “To Canada, America, Australia/scattered to the wind like thistle seeds.”. His tales of emigration build on the themes he set out in his 2020 EP Skail. MacWatt is the principal narrator in these tales, asking his guests to harmonize beautifully when called for. Jaimee Harris takes the honors on the opening “Avalanche and Landslide,” which, unlike some of the others begins with a contemporary notion – “Bailouts for bankers handouts for the rich/blue collar man gets a kick in the teeth/they’re buying us cheap and selling us short/taking us for everything we got.” Harris is spirited in the ebullient chorus. Throughout MacWatt plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, dobro, and bodhran – never in excess but in service to the song. “Letter to San Francisco” carries a brisk tempo with gorgeous use of dobro and banjo as MacWatt delivers yet another of his signature choruses – “Now all the gold in San Francisco/Won’t buy back the life I’ve wasted away/I’m gonna die here in San Francisco/So please send this letter back home when I’m in my grave.”
As good as those two opening songs are, the heart of the album begins with the Scottish themed, superbly well-crafted “Ghosts of Caledonia” followed by three consecutive guest appearances – Laura Cantrell in “The Curse of Molly McPhee,” Gretchen Peters in “My Bonny Boys Have Gone” and Eliza Carthy in “The Miller’s Daughter.” These are each excellent, but “The Miller’s Daughter” absolutely soars with Carthy’s harmonies as the tune constantly builds in excitement.
The gentle guitar strums of “Trespass” provide the requisite calm after the collaboration with Carthy, lamenting the loss of the butcher and the baker in favor of ugly supermarkets, furthering some of the same social and environmental sentiments expressed in his opening salvo in “Avalanche and Landslide.” “John Rae’s Welcome Home,” another vivid story song chronicling the exploits of little-known John Rae who mapped the Artic coast, is imbued by the harmonies and electric guitar fills of fellow Scottish artist Kris Drever. “Banjo Lullaby” is not the least innocent, capturing the family’s fear of an alcoholic father, about to go on a rage at the slightest inclination. “North Atlantic Summer” is ostensibly an ode to the area where he grew up but carries overtone of the dangers of climate change too. As a close MacWatt explains the songs in “About the Songs…An Oral Explanation.” This may have been better served with descriptions in the liners but that’s a small quibble for an otherwise brilliant effort.
MacWatt calls his music “Trans – Atlanticana” and he clearly has the Appalachian folk/bluegrass sound down. His website indicates that he is currently recording a dark folk/Americana album with London country music artist Shannon Hynes as duo called The Broken Bairns. Given her surname, and perhaps some link in an unbeknownst ancestral tree, this writer will need to check that out.
One Response
I like the pertinent info supplied Adam. Thanks.