Home Is Where the Van Is

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Home Is Where the Van Is
Home is Where the Van Is.jpg
Studio album by The Battlefield Band
Released 1980
Genre Celtic
Length43:23
Label Temple
Producer Robin Morton
The Battlefield Band chronology
Stand Easy Home Is Where the Van Is The Story So Far
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [1]

Home Is Where the Van Is, an album by The Battlefield Band, was released in 1980 on the Temple Records label. [2] The album, the band's U.S. debut, "continued the Scottish group's affinity for blending modern instrumentation into the country's folk tradition." [1] Several songs from the album notably featured band member Ged Foley on the Northumbrian smallpipes. [3]

Battlefield Band Scottish folk group

Battlefield Band are a Scottish traditional music group. Founded in Glasgow in 1969, they have released over 30 albums and undergone many changes of lineup. As of 2010, none of the original founders remain in the band.

Temple Records is a record label founded in 1978 by Robin Morton, previously a member of The Boys of the Lough.

Northumbrian smallpipes bellows-blown bagpipes from Northeastern England

The Northumbrian smallpipes are bellows-blown bagpipes from North East England, particularly Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. In a survey of the bagpipes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, the organologist Anthony Baines wrote: "It is perhaps the most civilized of the bagpipes, making no attempt to go farther than the traditional bagpipe music of melody over drone, but refining this music to the last degree."

Contents

Track listing

  1. "Major Malley's March & Reel/Malcolm Currie" – 2:27
  2. "Bonny Barbry-O" – 3:18
  3. "Look Across the Water/Mrs Garden of Troup/The Keelman Ower Land" – 4:29
  4. "Braw Lads O'Galla Water" – 3:35
  5. "Up & Waur Them A', Willie" – 3:25
  6. "Joseph McDonald's Jig/The Snuff Wife/Thief of Lochaber" – 3:56
  7. "Cockle Geordie/Miss Graham/Miss Thompson" – 4:01
  8. "The Boar and the Fox" – 4:10
  9. "Blackhall Rocks" – 2:53
  10. "The Lads O' the Fair" – 4:05
  11. "The Cowal Gathering/The Iron Man/Dancing Feet/Dick Gossip's Reel" – 4:34
  12. "Mary Cassidy" – 2:30

Personnel

Battlefield Band

Organ (music) musical keyboard instrument

In music, the organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria, who invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games. During the early medieval period it spread from the Byzantine Empire, where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. Subsequently it re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music tradition.

Synthesizer electronic instrument capable of producing a wide range of sounds

A synthesizer or synthesiser is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals that may be converted to sound. Synthesizers may imitate traditional musical instruments such as piano, flute, vocals, or natural sounds such as ocean waves; or generate novel electronic timbres. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device, often a MIDI keyboard or other controller.

Electric piano musical instrument used by many of the great musicians such as Ray Charles

An electric piano is an electric musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of the piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations which are converted into electrical signals by magnetic pickups, which are then connected to an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to make a sound loud enough for the performer and audience to hear. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument. Instead, it is an electro-mechanical instrument. Some early electric pianos used lengths of wire to produce the tone, like a traditional piano. Smaller electric pianos used short slivers of steel to produce the tone. The earliest electric pianos were invented in the late 1920s; the 1929 Neo-Bechstein electric grand piano was among the first. Probably the earliest stringless model was Lloyd Loar's Vivi-Tone Clavier. A few other noteworthy producers of electric pianos include Baldwin Piano and Organ Company and the Wurlitzer Company.

Guests

Also appearing on some songs are :

Electric guitar electrified guitar; fretted stringed instrument with a neck and body that uses a pickup to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals. The vibration occurs when a guitar player strums, plucks, fingerpicks, slaps or taps the strings. The pickup generally uses electromagnetic induction to create this signal, which being relatively weak is fed into a guitar amplifier before being sent to the speaker(s), which converts it into audible sound.

Record producer individual who oversees and manages the recording of an artists music

A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performer's music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many, varying roles during the recording process. They may gather musical ideas for the project, collaborate with the artists to select cover tunes or original songs by the artist/group, work with artists and help them to improve their songs, lyrics or arrangements.

Performances

The band played the album in its entirety at the 2009 Celtic Connections, as part of the festival's Classic Albums series. [5] The performance featured the line-up who recorded the album in 1980 (Alan Reid, Brian McNeill, Duncan MacGillivray & Ged Foley), playing together with the line-up of 2009 (Alan Reid, Mike Katz, Alasdair White & Sean O'Donnell). [6] [7]

The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of traditional Scottish music and also features international folk, roots and world music artists. The festival is produced and promoted by Glasgow’s Concert Halls. Donald Shaw, a founding member of Capercaillie, was appointed Celtic Connections Artistic Director in 2006. Shaw announced in February 2018 that he would be stepping aside from the role.

Alan Reid is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Battlefield Band, which combined traditional Celtic melodies and new material.

Alasdair White is a Scottish folk musician born in 1983 on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. In 2001, when he was only 18 years old, he joined Battlefield Band as a virtuoso fiddle player.

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References

  1. 1 2 Home is Where the Van Is at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  2. ↑ "COMD2006 Battlefield Band - Home Is Where The Van Is". Temple Records . Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  3. ↑ "A Complete Historical Discography of the Northumbrian Smallpipes". Northumbrian Smallpipes Encyclopaedia. nspipes.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  4. ↑ "The Battlefield Band: Home Is Where the Van Is (Temple TP005, 1980)". NigelGatherer.com. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Geddes (21 Oct 2008). "Celtic Connections Exclusive: 2009 festival line-up announced". Evening Times . Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  6. ↑ "Battlefield Band: Special Celtic Connections show and tour". Spiral Earth. 14 January 2009. Archived from the original on 17 January 2009. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  7. ↑ "Battlefield Band - Home Is Where The Van Is". templerecords.co.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2015.

Archie Macdonald Fisher MBE is a Scottish folk singer and songwriter. He has released several solo albums since his first, eponymous album in 1968. Fisher composed the song, "The Final Trawl," which he recorded on the album, Windward Away. Several other groups and singers, including The Clancy Brothers, have also recorded it. Starting in the mid-1970s, he produced four folk albums with Makem and Clancy. He also performed with them and other groups as a backup singer and guitarist. He hosted his own radio show on BBC Radio Scotland for almost three decades.

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