Greenwood Gone by Wren Song

Tired of the rat race, the hustle and bustle of living in the modern world? Then take a gentle stroll through the mists of time into the mystical world of Wren Song and open your ears to the beautiful sound of Celtic Folk Music. Their stunning new album ‘Greenwood Gone’ has just been released and is available for download at: http://www.wrensong.org/Greenwood_Gone/Album.htm

Regular readers of this blog will know Adele Treskillard. She has many ‘strings to her bow’ and is a member of our merrie band of Whistling Arrows. Not only is Adele a talented author, a traditional harpist and a vocalist in many Celtic languages, she is also currently researching the legend of Robin Hood through the ancient traditions of the ballads and performing them with Wren Song.

Adele formed Wren Song together with her sister Ness, her brother Leighton and her father Robert. They regularly perform traditional Scottish, Irish and Manx music, combined with Gaelic stories and legends accompanied by harp, tin whistle, fiddle, bagpipe and mandolin.

You might recognise the cover of their newly released album ‘Greenwood Gone,’ it was one of the many pictures I took of Burnham Beeches during my visit last year. Adele thought the picture would be perfect for the concept of the album.

Adele said, “It almost looks like a doorway! So the concept would be that Robin & Little John are to the 'greenwood gone' to hunt the wren, or that there is a path that leads to the greenwood, through which others can go. Or that we speak of the "Greenwood Gone" by, in terms of, the ancient legend of Robin Hood ... or that the Greenwood has gone. So there would be multiple interpretations.”

Their new album is described as a unique collection of songs, some of them based on the almost unknown Celtic tradition of Robin Hood. This is where Adele’s extensive research and reconstruction comes in. So for the first time in many centuries the listener can experience the hauntingly beautiful tracks, King Robin (Robin Y Righ) , We'll Go to the Wood (Imigh Gys Y Coille), I Hunt the Wren (Shelg Mi An Dreathan), and Shaunnie o' Braidalaw.

On her blog, Adele translated the 5th track on the album, the beautiful Scottish song ‘Iain Ghlinn Cuaich’ from Gaelic into English:

"Oh! Iain of Glen Cuaich, it is not often that one encounters you’re like,
That ringletted head of hair tight curled to the roots.
It was your beautiful handsome appearance that left me love-sick,
And there is no fault to be noted about you from head to toe.

I can’t begin to express a third of your worth,
Better to catch a glimpse of your face,
Than the new grown dew laden forest in sun.
The desire of my eyes is to catch close sight of you,
My love deserves a crowned heiress under him.

Iain, Iain, my love, why did you turn your back on me?
Without a thought for the love we once had?
I never gave my respect to any other man under the sun but you,
And neither will I, until my body is under the ground…."

The wonderfully evocative tracks on Wren Song's new album Greenwood Gone are:

1. Mountain Dew
2. Be Thou My Vision
3. Mo Thruaigh Léir
4. Coisich A Rùin
5. Iain Ghlinn Cuaich
6. Sí Do Mhaimeó í
7. I Hunt The Wren
8. Casadh an tSúgáin
9. Stitches and Britches
10. Shaunnie o’ Braidalaw
11. Robin Y Righ
12. Scotland The Brave

More details of Wren Song’s new album ‘Greenwood Gone' can be found at http://www.wrensong.org/Greenwood_Gone/Album.htm

I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from Adele and Wren Song in the future!