Angus Macleod - Intrduction
Torquil Productions
My name is Angus Macleod and I have recently joined the Little Scotland
group. My family originated on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer
Hebrides, before being evicted from their croft and transported overseas by
Lewis landlord James Matheson. Both my father and grandfather were native
Gaelic speakers. In fact my grandfather and great grandmother were both
talented interpreters of Gaelic song. My earliest memories of my grandfather
are of a kindly old gentleman singing to me in a strange and awkward tongue.
At the time I thought that the old man was making up his own "special"
language. I was in my teens before my father explained to me that my
grandfather was really singing to me in Gaelic, the ancestral tongue of our
Hebridean homeland.
Last year I released a CD entitled The Silent Ones, A Legacy of the Highland
Clearances. The recording tells the story (in song) of 109 families who were
evicted from their crofts on Scotland's Isle of Lewis in 1851 and shipped
overseas, settling together in a block of farms in Bruce County, Canada. The
group who has become known as the Lewis Settlers maintained their language
and culture well into the 20th century. I even know a couple of local
families who still speak Gaelic in the home.
The Silent Ones CD is especially dear to my heart as I am direct descendant
of these Gaelic pioneers. In February of 1998, I left a comfortable
administration job and returned to Bruce County where I set up Torquil
Productions and Recording Studio on land first cleared and settled by great
grandfather and namesake, Angus Macleod (a native of Mid Borve on the Isle
of Lewis' west side and one of the evicted crofters). The Silent Ones was
recorded, there, on the very homestead of my great grandfather. Producing
the recording at the exact location where my ancestors lived, breathed and
toiled so diligently in the Canadian wilderness was truly an emotional and
deeply spiritual experience for me.
The motivation to research and record The Silent Ones CD came as a direct re
sult of a family history fact finding mission. The location was the Isle of
Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides where on a cold and rainy November
morning I found myself surveying the ocean and a tiny collection of ruins
which looked more like randomly placed rock piles than former dwellings. I
had come to Lewis with my aging father to find the village of our ancestors.
With the village in sight and tears dripping down my cheeks from the emotion
of the moment and from the gale force winds pounding off the Atlantic, the
motivation to pursue my life long dream came like a thunderclap.
Returning to Canada, I vowed to tell the story of my family and their forced
exile from their ancestral homeland - a story that can be echoed by
literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians of Highland and Island descent.
To tell the story I knew that I had to return to the place of my childhood -
a place where there was still a glimmer of my Hebridean past, a place where
images for The Silent Ones were first stirred within in me some forty years
earlier.
My production company, Torquil, is devoted to preserving the Highland and
Hebridean Heritage of North America with The Silent Ones CD being the new
company's flagship production. We are also involved with a number of
community related activities including a Gaelic learning program and an
annual Hebridean Heritage Festival. The first festival took place last
August and we had visitors from all over North America in attendance
(Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, California, New York State,
Manitoba and New Brunswick - just to name a few locations). In addition, a
special contingent made the trek over from the Isle of Lewis. The contingent
included the Convenor (Mayor) of the Western Isles and the Gaelic
Development Officer.
I spent around three and a half years researching and recording The Silent
Ones project, interviewing old-timers, pouring over seemingly ancient
manuscripts and family histories kept many of the area's Lewis descendants.
Many of the area's older generation still possess wonderful old photos,
family bibles and a variety of antique artifacts including a spinning wheel
dating back to the 1700's brought to Canada during the 1851 Lewis evictions.
The Lewis Settlers were, of course, deeply religious people with the church
being the focal point of their community. Like most Gaels, however, they had
a pagan and mystical side to them and were quite superstitious. Aeneas
McCharles, a Cape Bretoner, who was the settlement's first schoolmaster,
chronicled his experiences among the Lewis Settlers in his book, Bemocked of
Destiny. In the book he describes a couple of strange ritualistic ceremonies
conducted by a woman known as the Lewis Witch. She also pops up in a number
of local history books and within the folklore of individual families in
Huron Township, Bruce County. She appears to have been a practitioner of
herbal medicine who also performed some fairly bizarre fertility rituals.
Interestingly enough, I have been contacted by several Lewis based
historical societies regarding McCharles' book and the Lewis Witch in
particular. On the Isle of Lewis, little is known about the music, dance and
customs of the island during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Presumably,
such things would have been considered pagan and vigorously resisted by the
church. Because written and documented material was largely confined to the
church and to business, there are few accounts of rural life and culture on
Lewis for this time period. It is therefore quite interesting that the Lewis
folk's pagan side would pop up here deep in the Canadian wilderness
thousands of miles from the settlers' homeland.
Further information on The Silent Ones CD, the Lewis Settlement of Huron
Township, Bruce County, Canada and the Highland Clearances in general can be
found at my website located at http://www.torquil.net
I look forward to participating in the group!
Mise Le Meas
Aonghas MacLeoid
MEDIA RESPONSE TO "THE SILENT ONES" CD
ANGUS MACLEOD'S EPIC MUSICAL SAGA OF THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES
"a must for anyone who wants to understand the many links between Scots and
the New World."
from a review by
Alasdair Maclean
The Scots Magazine
Dundee, Scotland
"The production is exceptionally good, very much in the style of
Capercaillie at their best.
...Unless you happen to be a blinkered adherent of heavy metal or
improvisational jazz or are totally devoid of a soul, this recording
deserves a place in your CD rack."
From a review by
Brian Palmer
The Ileach Newspaper
And Web
Isle of Islay, Argyll
Scotland
Nominated for Album of the Year
"The story and history are fascinating and the music is stunning."
Patrick Laffan
Host/Producer
Celtic Connections
Radio Show
Middletown, CT
"The music of The Silent Ones is absolutely stunning, both in performance
and content, more so, because it comes from deep within the soul of Angus
Macleod. Perhaps all Celtic music flows from the heart, but very little of
it has the heartfelt quality of The Silent Ones."
Frank A. Mills
Celtic Heritage Magazine
Halifax, Nova Scotia
"a hauntingly beautiful experience"
Moira Mackay
Scottish Memories Magazine
"hauntingly beautiful...Angus Macleod's music has a compelling eloquence..."
SCOTS - Celebrating Our Scottish Heritage Magazine
Bowral, N.S.W., Australia
"The Silent Ones has to be one of the best concept pieces that I've heard in
decades and as a composer/ arranger, Macleod's work is absolutely brilliant.
It is a rare treat indeed to listen to an extended work that is as
sensitively melodic throughout as this one is.
As well, this CD offers a composition/arrangement mix of traditional and now
sound that is so well blended, it deserves a style name of its own.
Allegorically, the sound of this CD would visually translate as watching
cinemascope on the big screen after black white 17" television."
From a review by Alan Argue, Creative and Performing Arts, The Wellington
Advertiser, Fergus, Ontario
"The most wonderful history lesson accompanied by superb music."
Jo Hayes
KOHM Radio, Lubbock, Texas
"It's all too easy for such works to be shrouded in a faithless Scotch mist
of fairy-tale and Brigadoonery; but The Silent Ones has a darkness at its
heart, as well as an undeniable romance, which gives it a strength and
validity it could all too easily lack."
Roy McMillan
Manx Radio
Douglas, Isle of Man
"Absolutely amazing...an incredible project. The Music is first rate."
David Chiasson
CKDU Radio
Halifax, Nova Scotia
"wonderfully atmospheric Gaelic verse and narration, fantastic instrumental
music, and accompanying Angus on vocals, the soothing and at times haunting
voice of 16 year old Sarah Buckingham - a talented singer who's got a bright
future ahead of her... anyone with Celtic heritage will not fail to be
moved by this album."
Calum Macdonald
Celtic Set
Isles FM 103
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
Scotland
"All at once encapsulating, touching and unforgettable."
Andrew McDiarmid
Host, Simply Scottish Radio
Harlingen, Texas
"Angus Macleod has done us all a great service by researching the story of
his forefathers, how they worked and toiled in a land so foreign, and how
they ultimately survived".
Steve Fruitman
Producer & Host
Back to the Sugar camp
CIUT-FM, Toronto
"Angus has mastered the art of the concept album to a tee!"
Doug Gibson
Songs From the Wood
CKWR FM
Waterloo, Ontario
"a post card of respect and love to those who have come before and not been
forgotten."
from an album review by
Robert Reid
The Record
Kitchener, Ontario
"A wonderful tribute to the Celtic heart of Canada's history."
Tom Coxworth
CKUA Radio Network
"It is rare that one can find such an emotional piece of work. I'm
definitely looking forward to hearing more from Angus in the future!"
Bill Chrapcynski
Celtic Rock Radio
"The CD is probably not like any you have heard before...You can feel the
history, the great sadness and loneliness at forced emigration and the
longing to return some day."
Catholine Butler, The Celtic Connection Magazine, Vancouver, British
Columbia
"Angus Macleod's The Silent Ones is an ambitious, well-crafted recording. An
obvious labour of love, the CD succeeds in relating hardship, fear and
longing of his ancestors."
Jan Vanderhorst, Just Us Folk, FM 92.1, Brantford, Ontario
"one of the greatest works from or about Scotland in many years"
Dave MacLean
ScotRadio
LINKS TO INFORMATION ON "THE SILENT ONES" CD
A Tribute to the Ancestors - Cover Story, Magazine Section, Hamilton
Spectator Newspaper
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/magazine/475525.html
Rambles - A cultural Arts Magazine Review
of The Silent Ones
http://www.rambles.net/macleod_silent.html
Music & Heritage of
Outer Hebrides, Scotland
http://www.globalgazette.net/gazrt/gazrt73.htm
Contact:
Angus Macleod
Torquil Productions
Phone: 519-395-5346
Toll-free 877-489-4693 (US & Can)
Fax: 519-395-5347
E-mail: in...@torquil.net
Website: www.torquil.net
-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----