Innerleithen Music Festival preview: Songs about reiving and rough justice ring out in the Borders
The nocturnal jingle of reivers’ bridles, the frantic crying of the “hot trod”, a still figure swinging at the peel tower gate… such is the stuff of the Border ballads.
These centuries-old songs of cattle raids, bloodfeuds and rough justice have a timeless, elemental quality; performed on their native turf, by those who inhabit that same landscape, they take on a heightened potency.
Thus later this month, Innerleithen Music Festival, as well as featuring such high-profile folk names as the Battlefield Band, Dougie Maclean and Gaelic band Mànran, will touch base with Border culture in an event titled Reiving and Bereaving.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad