Seinn

For lovers of traditional Nova Scotian folk music, it doesn't get much better than this collaboration between Scottish Gaelic singer Lamond and fiddler, pianist and step dancer MacIsaac. Yes, there are originals in addition to traditional compositions among the Gaelic songs and fiddle tunes, but whatever the source is, there's a pervasive sense of upholding a beloved tradition, one that is thoroughly understood. Lamond has steeped herself in Scottish Gaelic traditions since her youth and sang on ‘Sleepy Maggie, the unlikely 1995 hit by fiddler Ashley MacIsaac. And Wendy MacIsaac (Ashley's cousin) was born and bred in Cape Breton and began performing as a step dancer at the age of five.

It's a quiet and mostly delicate album, but it's quiet with a bright spirit, evidenced best through compositions like ‘Keeping Up With Calum,’ a fiddle tune based on the antics of MacIsaac's one-year-old, that veers towards the blues. ‘If You Were Mine’ is a result of mixing both traditional and contemporary elements and a song that that moves forward with focused drive. Lamond and MacIsaac have been in each other's musical sphere for decades and it shows on Seinn, their first full-length collaboration. There's an in-the-pocket quality typical of musicians who understand each other's musical DNA. Of course, in this case it doesn't hurt that the richness of that musical DNA is so shared – Cape Breton from the ground up.