Tag: Anna Massie

The name of Hebridean singer/ songwriter Norman Paterson has graced our pages in the past. He made his musical debut with Torn at the age of 65, followed that with Stornoway and now releases his third album, Loved. The title means loved in the sense of cherished without any romantic overtones and the subjects of his songs are people and places, sometimes long gone and far away, who were cherished by someone. Norman doesn’t play much guitar on this album but leans heavily on a number of distinguished musicians: Anna Massie, Ian Sandilands, Angus Lyon and Alan Train with backing vocals by Susy Wall and Ruby Shah.

There is a strong American feel to the music principally through Anna’s banjo and I have mixed feelings about this. There are some songs that suit the banjo and others that really don’t. The opener, ‘The Crofter’, is dominated by the banjo which I find detracts from a fine song about a lost way of life and it’s Alan’s pedal steel that tops ‘Abandoned Homes Abandoned Hearts’ about an old, deserted cottage. ‘When A Memory Awakes’ pares back the accompaniment to chunky guitar and mandolin as Norman recalls his boyhood on Lewis.

The story of the Iolaire was little known outside Scotland until recently when it hit the musical headlines. ‘The Night Of The Iolaire’ tells the story in a relatively matter-of-fact way which actually serves to highlight the nature of the tragedy. This is a song that shouldn’t suit the banjo but it does. ‘The Tumbling Waltz’ refers to another aspect of a life that is now in the past, as does ‘The Saturday Cowboys’ which talks about black-and-white westerns on afternoon TV. They are still around on the dusty end of your remote control which says something about the power of nostalgia. The pedal steel gets its chance to shine. Nostalgia rears its head again in ‘The Map Maker’ telling of his life and work in Canada; “pour himself a memory” as Norman puts it.

OK, there is a bit of romance in ‘Daisy In December’ about Norman’s wife, although it’s not a typical love song by any means. ‘Ain’t Like Scotland’, with a nice ragtime feel, is a song for anyone away from home and wishing they were back there and ‘Remembering St Kilda’ is a story of childhood on the island taken from Tom Steel’s book, The Life And Death Of St Kilda. Norman looks at the event through rose-tinted glasses but these days it would probably be considered child abuse. How things have changed. ‘Big Red’ is the story of a Stornoway character of the sort that doesn’t exist any more and ‘Lullaby’ looks to the future of a young child. Loved indeed.

Loved has grown on me with the listening. There are some fine songs here but I still have my reservations about some of the arrangements.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: https://normanpaterson.com/

‘Big Red’ – official lyric video: