Harps, Pipes And Fiddles

Collections should sometimes carry a health warning.

Temple Records are responsible for this release, a gabháilful of fine musicians, most with Scottish roots, purveying a snakecharmer's mix of slow airs, songs and dance tunes, played on Scotland's stalwart instruments. And that's where the Surgeon General needs to step, centrestage, scalpel in hand.

The first half dozen tracks showcase the harp in all its feathery glory. It's a sound that works well in concert, but can grate rawly at the nerves in large quantities - and that's what happens here.

The pipes section is a little more coherent, but still lumbering to ears not accustomed to the breadth and depth of their palette. While the Battlefield Band's 'Blackhall Rocks' stands on its own merit, the hardline pipes of Dr. Angus McDonald, Dougie Pincock and P/M Iain McDonald are far from balm to the spirit.

And so it's left to the fiddles to compensate. And they do, with a flourish. Aly McBain and John McCusker are but two of seven fine contributors. But it's too little too late.

A fine idea, misplaced in the market, Harps, Pipes And Fiddles is likely to fall between two stools: too purist for the general listener, too diluted for the purist.