A CROFTERS’ buyout of a Highland estate has inspired a rousing trad album.
We Have Won the Land celebrates the unprecedented success of the crofters in buying back 21,000 acres of land on the west coast of Sutherland from a Swedish land speculator in 1993.
The efforts of the Assynt Crofters’ Trust to buy the North Lochinver Estate inspired many other communities to pursue similar projects and eventually own the land on which they live and work.
The album is the creation of Assynt born Rory Matheson and Orcadian fiddle, mandolin and guitar player Graham Rorie (below), a founding member of the three-time MG Alba Scots Trad Music award nominated band Gnoss.
“The crofters’ buyout of the North Lochinver Estate means a lot to me because my family supported the campaign and were heavily involved in the process from the beginning,” said Matheson. “It’s a really powerful story and an important part of Highland history that I was very inspired by.”
Matheson and Rorie have previously worked together as session musicians and are both former finalists of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of The Year but this is the first time they have composed together.
A piano and keyboard player, Matheson has toured throughout Europe, the US and Australia, despite only being a recent graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS). He is a founding member of Glasgow band Trip and can also be seen touring with fiddle-led quartet Fara.
Rorie is also a RCS alumni and was recently nominated for Original Work of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards for his solo album, The Orcadians of Hudson Bay.
The pair are joined by an impressive team of musicians on the album including Anna Massie on guitar, Charlie Stewart on bass, Craig Baxter on bodhran, Fraser Stone on drums and percussion, Kristan Harvey on fiddle, Tiernan Courell on flutes and whistles and James Graham on vocals.
We Have Won The Land will be available to stream on all major platforms and purchase on April 22.
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