Eddi Reader - Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns

(Muso's Guide, December 23, 2008)

Classic Album Review

One of the most comforting things about truly talented artists is their ability to ally themselves with any musical style going as long as they feel that it is right for them at the time. Take Eddi Reader. Her career, spanning more than 25 years, has seen her put in spells with artists as diverse as Gang Of Four and Eurythmics, not to mention a star turn at the head of Fairground Attraction, and yet is still being seen today as one of Scotland’s most enduring and captivating female vocalists.
The album Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns was first released in 2003, and the fact that this deluxe edition has made a reappearance just in time for the 250th anniversary of Burns’ birth could make even the most naive of music fans blush, but when the tracks on show are as timeless as these, Reader can be forgiven. In fairness, there are seven new tracks here, and from ‘Green Grow The Rashes O’ to ‘Of A’ The Airts’, they are as sensational as those on the original release.

Starting with the swooping strings of ‘Jamie Come Try Me’, Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns sets off at a canter with Reader’s distinctive cadence, leading the listener on a musical journey.

It straightaway becomes clear that the wonder and beauty of these songs owes every bit as much to Burns’ poetic soul as Reader’s melodious one. ‘My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose’, perhaps Burns’ most famous work, is rendered here as heartachingly touching. Reader infuses each word with her rich and inspiring vocals, and it becomes less the sort of thing people studied at school and more the sort of emotion that music has revealed and revered for generations.

The blissfully tuneful ‘Willie Stewart/Molly Rankin’ is determinedly Scottish, all whisking instruments and foot-tapped beats, while ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ is the most successful interpretation of parting’s “sweet sorrow” since Shakespeare took up quill to pen Romeo and Juliet.The album was produced with a bevy of skilled and accomplished artists, not least Kate Rusby and John McCusker, both of whom have gone on in the intervening five years to strike it lucky on something very special indeed in the music world, and then mine the associated success with yet more records and collaborations.

As is Burns’ wont, there is plenty on show here of an historical nature - unrest bubbles away on “Ye Jacobites” - “To whet th’ assassin’s knife, or hunt a Parent’s life, wi’ bluidy war, wi’ bluidy war!” - as Reader effortlessly retains her warmth but develops an edge to her delivery which is mildly chilling in its unexpectedness.

Eddi Reader boasts an unfeasibly beautiful vocal, and as a voice for Robert Burns, it is impossible to imagine anyone more suited. Even for sassenachs, Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns is a prime purchase - pop it on the stereo on January 25 and toast Rabbie wi’ a wee dram.