Fred Morrison- Outlands (2009)

Bagpipes and bluegrass might seem unlikely musical bedfellows, but for the Scottish piper Fred Morrison, one of Celtic music’s most profoundly skilled and audaciously inventive exponents, they form a wholly natural alliance. His latest album project, Outlands, featuring such top Americana luminaries as producer Gary Paczosa, banjo/guitar ace Ron Block and Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Tim O’Brien, sets out to explore the inherent connections Morrison perceives between their traditions and his.

“I’ve always heard a really strong affinity between my own South Uist background and the Irish travelling pipers’ style played by people like Paddy Keenan,” he says, “and when I started playing the Irish pipes myself, I also found this deep-down rhythmic connection with bluegrass music – to me it’s as if they’re all one and the same.”

1. Train Journey North
2. The Wildcat
3. Leaving Uist
4. Seonaidh’s Tune
5. Nameless
6. Outlands
7. Downtown
8. Kansas City Hornpipe
9. Drumcross
10. The Hard Drive

Fred Morrison- Outlands
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