The Orcadians of Hudson Bay

Premiered at Celtic Connections 2020, this evocative project grew out of the fascination of Orkney-born musician and composer Graham Rorie with the little-known stories of the Orcadians who travelled to Canada’s Hudson Bay from Orkney in the 18th and 19th centuries to make a living in the fur trade. For many of the Hudson Bay Company vessels travelling from Europe, their last port of call for supplies was Stromness on the West Mainland of Orkney, and they set up an employment offi ce in the town after discovering that Orcadians, used to living and working in a harsh climate, were well suited to joining their workforce in the frozen north of Canada. Remarkably, by 1800 Orcadians made up nearly 80% of their fur trade employees.

That’s the history, more extensively covered in the handsome booklet that accompanies this collection, but equally stirring is the music, with Rorie himself playing Orcadian fiddle and electric guitar, joined by FARA’s Kristan Harvey (fiddle) and Rory Matheson (piano), along with Pàdruig Morrison (accordion), Breabach’s James Lindsay (double bass) and Th e Shee’s Signy Jakobsdottir on drums and percussion. Th ey certainly make for a full-blooded ensemble, wholly appropriate to telling a musical story with so much heart.