THERE was a time when music, song and stories filled the air of many a home round the country.

 

Before the days of SkyPlus, DVDs and mind-numbing 24-hour noise, echoes of folklore and tunes which carried a real sense of place could be heard around fireplaces up and down the land.

 

It was a time when the art of storytelling, which has suffered so much under the reign of television, was at its strongest. The words that told so much about where we are from were set to rhythmical music that beat like the pulse of the land, and the hearts of those who crafted them.

 

That heartbeat has been resuscitated by the Ballymena based Ulster-Scots Folk Orchestra which, together with close associates, has produced a new CD entitled 'Mair Fowk'.

 

Following on from the success of a first CD 'A Clatter O Fowk', this latest collection weaves together the threads of different artists including Willlie Drennan, The Low Country Boys, Jackie Flavelle, Davy Sloan and Cherith Boyle, to name but a few, into tapestry rich in musical memory.

 

The artists share with the composers not only a love of music but a love for the land and the people from which they came.

Let 'Mair Folk' take you on a nostalgic journey from Rathlin Island to Bonnie Woodgreen, from Sweet Carnlough Bay to the River Braid, from Donaghadee to Portpatrick and wrap yourself in this patchwork of place.

 

The rhythm, the melody and the words will stir your senses.. and you may even forget where you left the remote control for that mind-numbing television.

 

Karen Fullerton

Ballymena Times