Search - Tannahill Weavers :: Epona

Named for poet Robert Tannahill from the textile town of Paisley (just outside Glasgow), the Tannies have put out more than a dozen records of new and traditional Scots music since 1976, and have never really changed their course radically. They always look to the song first, whether it's a set of reels with a roaring bagpipe and fiddle duet or a romantic ballad with four voices in harmony. It is this respect for the material and the heritage that begot it that has always marked this band as distinctive. Epona continues down that path, with lively tunes--both familiar and newly composed--and some great songs, including a fine turn on Robert Burn's oft recorded "Westlin' Winds," and a sad story about the changes the oil industry has brought to Scotland, "Rich Man's Silver" written by Roy Gullane. The solid musicianship listeners have come to expect is here in spades, on pipes (Duncan J. Nicholson), whistles (Phil Smillie), bouzouki (Les Wilson), guitar (Gullane), strings (John Martin), voices, and bodhran. There is nothing to make them the "next big thing." They don't need to be. They have been there and back. --Louis Gibson