Claire Hastings announces debut album

Claire Hastings

Since winning the BBC Young Traditional Musician of theYear title in 2015, folk singer Claire Hastings’ debut album Between River And Railway has been hotly anticipated. The album features exciting arrangements of traditional folk songs alongside Claire’s self-penned material, including the stunning ‘The House at Rosehill’. This song features the album title in the lyrics, and is a reference to Claire’s childhood home near Dumfries. Songs are brought to life with band members Jenn Butterworth (guitar & vocals), Laura Wilkie (fiddle) and Andrew Waite (accordion) as well as guests Martin O’Neill (percussion) and Duncan Lyall (bass).

Recorded at Carrier Waves Studio (Glasgow) and produced by Ali Hutton (Treacherous Orchestra, Old Blind Dogs) one of Scotland’s foremost multi-instrumentalists, the album showcases Claire’s beautifully clear voice in the Scots and English languages.

The album includes Claire’s alternative melody to Robert Burns’ ‘The Posie’, which has been controversially deemed superior to the original. A lively rendition of ‘Let Ramensky Go’ also features, which Claire has performed twice with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Proms in the Park and at BBC Music Day, where she also sang alongside Lulu, Jamie Cullum and Deacon Blue. ‘The Gretna Girls’ was written after a visit to the Devil’s Porridge Museum near Gretna, once the site of what during the First World War was the UK’s largest munitions factory.

Claire will be touring the album with her band in May and June this year following a solo tour of New Zealand in April.

Artist’s website: http://www.clairehastings.com/

‘The Posie’: