****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I met Fiona some years ago when we we were both doing a storytelling Gig in Dingwall,Scotland.Her expertise in storytelling and in her singing was so reminiscent of her father, the late and great Calum Kennedy,an artist who was as at home with the classics as he was in the Gaelic. I am so pleased therefore that Fiona has taken up and borne the banner of Gaelic Scotland and the Gaeltacht that her father carried with such style with her rendering of some fine Gaelic songs on this album. It was my pleasure and privilege to personally have known Calum and indeed I was attendant at one of his last concerts in Inverness before he sadly passed away.Fiona however has carried on the great heritage left by her father and does no disservice to his memory,indeed quite the opposite.for her beautiful voice and the musical arrangements on this album are a living testament to her own professionalism.Her warmth of character too is a joy to experience and this too shows itself in so many discreet ways throughout the album.I wish though that she would do more of the Gaelic songs like for instance Mary Mhor Nan Oran (Big Mary of the Songs) who did so much through her campaigning and her composing and in her singing did so much to preserve crofting on Skye and indeed was central to the Marines sent to evict the Crofters being put back into the sea by the women of Skye who struck a decisive blow for the preservation of crofting and the Highland way of life by their solidarity at the Fairy Bridge and on other occasions and helped to initiate an investigation into the hardships suffered by the Crofters with the Highland Clearances resulting in the Napier Commissions establishment of crofting as a valid and valued way of life.Needless to say though that Fiona in her own right is an excellent performer, a five star singer,and she sings both the gaelic songs and the traditional in English ones with a voice like an angel.She is also a fine storyteller and a fine and gracious lady easily comparable with the late Lady Diana Spencer who I also had the honour to meet and greet .I f you are going to buy any album buy this one and of course the others too by her are equally well worthy of a groat or two..
