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my agrees. “I’m more than happy to take a bit of a cut on what I might earn with another band to go and hang out with those girls.” “I’m constantly astounded at the sound that comes from us,” adds Olivia, still awestruck by her own band. “It’s not a normal, run-of-the-mill sound that comes out. What each person brings is really special.”
A
And so, having survived a decade, The Shee came up with quite an extraordinary idea – get other people to write their new album for them. “I thought it was a great idea,” says Amy. “I thought it’d be really interesting to hear what people thought we could achieve or what they already thought we sounded like.”
“We didn’t know whether anyone else would ask to write for us so we thought we could just do it ourselves and ask them,” explains Shona who first came up with the notion. “When we realised it was gonna be our ten-year anniversary,” Laura-Beth recalls, “we thought maybe we’d treat ourselves!”
Rachel wasn’t quite so convinced this was the right direction for
the group’s fourth album. “I had my doubts about it because what’s really a big part of The Shee is our arrangements, so it felt like get- ting other people to write for us might not work. But actually, because of the way people wrote for us we ended up doing a lot of the arrangements anyway.
“We had the launch gig at Celtic Connections in January so we were a bit like, ‘Why are we doing this to ourselves?’ I was just so nervous about it. We had all the composers there for that gig which was amazing. I remember Chris Wood getting on stage and saying, ‘It’s like we’re proud parents at a nativity!’ I just cried throughout the whole gig.” “It came out better than any of us would’ve been able to imagine,” agrees Olivia.
And here, in their own words, are the stories behind those commissions.
Ower Late For The Lasses / Sheepolska – Kathryn Tickell (commis- sioned by Shona): “My dad’s a Northumbrian piper so that kind of music has been in my family from an early age. I felt that Kathryn would know us and know our strengths and highlight that in an interesting way, but also in a way that’s connected to the traditions we’ve grown up in. She played around with a tune from my dad Gor- don Mooney’s book and that starts the piece off; she returns to it at the very end. She sent us a scored piece of music for each person, apart from the mandolin part. I think she was the only person who did it in that way. I just trusted her.”
The Jute Mill Song / Song For Mary – Karine Polwart (commis- sioned by Rachel): “It wasn’t long after I’d worked with Karine Pol- wart and Inga Thompson in her trio, and that affected me a lot. Karine just gets what’s important to me and so she wrote about a strong inspiring woman: labour activist, feminist and songwriter Mary Brooksbank. Karine is very conscientious in the way that she approaches her work. We could be sure that she would do that with the commission. We were just so delighted with it.”
Lady Grey – Andy Cutting (commissioned by Amy): “Back when I used to learn music in Stockport, Andy Cutting would come along in his various line-ups. I remember the Two Duos Quartet doing some workshops. I also spent a week doing work experience with Karen Tweed and she lived with Andy at the time in Derby. I remem- ber he was a very good cook! His tunes are just so lovely and warm- ing on the ears. And on the other side of it some of them are a little bit weird and wacky and that’s a style of music that particularly appeals to me! But there’s always something familiar-sounding about them – always very playable. This definitely sounded like one of those tunes. I have a particular love for three/two hornpipes as well so I was really pleased. The arrangement came to us very quick- ly; the tune really spoke to us.”
Cradle Song – Hugh Lupton/Chris Wood (commissioned by Olivia): “Chris was an immediate choice for me; I didn’t have to think about it. I’d never heard of Chris Wood until I did the course at New- castle. And I was with him for some lessons and he took some of our group sessions. I was completely struck by his voice and the way he interpreted song. There are lots of great musicians and singers but there’s only one or two that actually catch you right in the heart. I just love his stuff. I told him I trusted him implicitly to do whatever
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