Album of the Week – Laura Wilkie ‘Vent’

Written by celtic music radio on July 27, 2024

Scottish fiddler LAURA WILKIE’S intriguing album ‘Vent’ is centred around waulking songs – ancient women’s work songs which were sung for hundreds of years in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Women sang the songs whilst waulking the tweed, the process of beating tweed to shrink and soften it before use.

It was a laborious process so the waulking songs were used in a practical sense to keep the rhythm of beating, but also as a social occasion, acting as an opportunity for women to catch up on local news and gossip.

Laura, from Tain, studied these songs to adapt them for the fiddle, immersing herself in the Scottish archives and working with friend, tradition bearer and one-woman-ceilidh, Rona Lightfoot.

Vent is a mesmerising nine-track collection that explores the melodies of these ancient songs and how they have individually and communally provided a sense of safety, shared knowledge, power, love, humour and freedom to not only rural working women’s communities, but to Laura as a non-Gaelic speaker.

Vent features Ian Carr on guitars/harmonium; Sarah Hayes on keys/flute/vocals; Joe Rattray on bass; Rachel Sermanni on vocals; Hannah Read on electric guitar; and Alice Allen on cello as well as improvised vocal samples by Pippa Blundell, Hannah Findlay, Gillian Fleetwood, Rona Lightfoot and Imogen Macleod.

You can hear Laura talk about the songs in our Album of the Week Show with Liz Clark today at midday.

• Album of the Week Show – Laura Wilkie in conversation with Liz Clark – midday – Saturday, July 27, 2024.