Sounding a Scottish note in British Columbia

Published on Saturday 3 September 2005 00:01

SCOTTISH explorers and entrepreneurs made an indelible impression in the New World in the 18th and 19th century and nowhere more so than in Canada. Wherever they went, the Scots – and the Irish - took their music with them.

The survival of Scottish Gaelic culture in Cape Breton on the eastern seaboard of Canada is exhaustively documented and well represented on the international folk scene these days.

Tiller's Folly represent a different facet of Scottish musical influence. Based on the other side of the continent in British Columbia, they have explored the connections between Scottish songs and ballads and the bluegrass music of North America on their latest CD, Buchan Bluegrass.

The four-piece band features Bruce Coughlan, fiddler Nolan Murray, Eric Reed and Laurence Knight. On their visit to Scotland this summer they launched the new CD, even ahead of its Canadian release.

Coughlan, the principal songwriter, is a sixth-generation Canadian of Irish descent, but feels a genuine affinity for Scottish music.

"The music is as much a part of my identity as it might be for someone born and raised in Scotland," he says. "When we toured Scotland for the first time, our concerts were usually followed by sessions lasting well into the morning, and I was surprised how much of the music was familiar to me.

"Since bluegrass music evolved from Celtic music traditions, we were able to blend the two traditions into a favourable result – just imagine if Robbie Burns and Bill Munroe had teamed up!"

Coughlan points out that the first explorers to cross the continent to the Pacific were Scots working in the fur trade.

"Pacific Canada was first settled by Scots. Scottish mariners, fur traders, coal miners and tradesmen found their way into the region even before colonisation in 1858. Today, the west has become a global society, and Asian and Indian presence is evident everywhere, but Scots influence has left its indelible mark," he notes.

Knight, the bass player and producer in the band, explains that the situation in British Columbia is a little different from the Cape Breton tradition.

"There is definitely some Celtic music being played here, but there isn't the same kind of direct ties to Scotland musically as there is in Cape Breton. This project was really an attempt to tie in the style of groups like The Corries with a bluegrass flavour from North America – and of course the original Scottish and Irish music that the settlers brought here is very much at the roots of bluegrass."

Tiller's Folly have already made friends in Scotland, notably at Speyfest in Fochabers, and in Orkney, where they researched a song on their new CD about Orkney-born Arctic explorer John Rae. It joined earlier tunes Coughlan had written about fur trader John Tod, steamship pioneers the Jamiesons, and "McCullogh's Wonder", about a railway pioneer. As Knight acknowledges, all had something in common.

"When we came to Scotland last year for the first time it brought home to us how many of the people that we have been writing songs about who are known as great Canadian pioneers were actually Scotsman."

That visit was initiated by another Scottish expatriate and friend of the band, Jim Smith. His own father was a fiddler and he himself worked on the oil rigs in the North Sea before moving to British Columbia.

"He saw us performing once and promoted some big shows for us over here," Knight explains, from his Canada base, "and he has written some lyrics for us as well. He decided we would do well in Scotland and he started working on that, which is how our connections with Speyfest came about.

"We had an incredible time this summer, and I feel we built on our previous visit. 'The Ceilidh by the Spey' is now the official song of Speyfest and we are made to feel like honorary citizens in Fochabers, and the same in Orkney. You can bet we’ll be back!"

&#149 If you enjoyed reading this, you may want to read: Setting a new standard for traditional music