Yont The Tay

71-year-old Dundee-born Jim Reid is a folk singer of the old school, but there's nothing outdated about the production of his first album for the Greentrax label. Reid's rich voice is beautifully set off against spare, elegant accompaniment courtesy of some of the finest musicians on today's Scottish music scene, including accordionist Sandy Brechin, guitarist Frank McLaughlin and the above-mentioned Aaron Jones (who seems to becoming rather ubiquitous) on cittern. Several tracks feature Reid's musical settings of lyrics by Scottish poets Violet Jacobs, James Grewar and Helen B. Cruickshank; if his adaptation of Cruickshank's poignant 'Up The Noran Water' rings a bell with Irish listeners, it's because the same poem was recast by Padraigín Ní Uallacháin as 'Innisvaddy Annie' and recorded by Len Graham on the first Skylark album.