Speaking of trends, which I was, here is further evidence of another, most prevalent in Scotland but also by other artists living on the margins of the country. I refer to making aural paintings of their home towns or the areas where they live. Grace Stewart-Skinner is a clarsach player and ethnologist, now resident in Glasgow but originally from Avoch, a fishing village on the Black Isle. Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie, Grace’s debut album, is a tribute to Avoch and its people.
Where to begin? For Grace it began with the chance discovery of a recording of her grandfather reciting one of his own poems. To her disappointment she could find no more examples of the Avochie dialect in any archives and so set out to create her own. The dialect is quite unlike anything else you might have heard. Some words are English, although the pronunciation is non-standard, and some are probably Scots – there may even be some Scandinavian roots – but the Auchies didn’t use Gaelic.
Grace composed the music as background or sometimes foreground for her field recordings but she helpfully prints transcriptions of the spikkin’ so we foreigners know what’s going on. She is supported musically by Rose Logan on fiddle, Rhona MacDonald on double bass and Ewa Adamiec on percussion – all part of the Glasgow music scene. Grace prioritises the music to the benefit of the casual listener – had she done it the other way round it wouldn’t have worked so well – but the spoken word remains at the heart of the album.
There is poetry, reminiscences some, like ‘Womun’ quite amusing, a list of boats in the harbour and ‘Whit’s ‘ad Lochie’ in which two speakers try to remember the name of a loch and finish up on Skye. I still can’t work out how that happens. You really do need the printed texts to follow what’s going on and it’s not easy even then. What’s a munakie, for example? Or square up day, or kistacks?
Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie is an enjoyable album, restful, amusing and informative – an insight into the past life of Avoch and its people. Something of an oddity, perhaps, but no matter.
Dai Jeffries
Artist’s website: https://gracestewartskinner.co.uk/
‘Dad’s Poem’ – official video:
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