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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Compact Disc in a plastic-free cardboard case with an accompanying 20-page booklet. Stunning Shetland landscape photography forms the backdrop to written stories behind all thirteen tracks, and a glossary of over 300 Shetland words helps with lyric translation.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Lasses Trust In Providence via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

A tribute to Jean Pole (1880-1965), a female Shetland fiddler at a time when this was unusual. I first encountered Jean when Tammy Anderson taught me a tune he’d learned from her around 1960. Tammy explained how Jean always played Da Boanie Polka sitting down, dancing the tune with her feet so the steps were almost discernible. I was instantly captivated by the image of an elderly lady playing with such spirit. Then, in 2016, when Christine De Luca was Edinburgh Makar, she invited fellow female fiddlers and myself to a celebration of the life and talent of Jean Pole in Waas kirkyard. Here, a headstone for Jean and her family was unveiled and blessed with tunes and a reading of Christine’s beautiful poem 'Heeven in haps an half-glivs'. This led me to an article which Christine had written for The New Shetlander magazine about Jean’s achievements. Reading it brought home just how quietly exceptional Jean’s life had been.

lyrics

Aged nine in Stove in Waas
A fiddle first I played
Soldier’s Joy an Hen’s Mairch
Da early tunes I med
Clementina’s fiddle
Wis cut fae board an treed
Seaman Faider’s playing
Wis aa da help we’d need

So on turning eighteen
In eighteen ninety eight
Tunes for wedding dances
Made music dan my fate
In Lerwick Faider bocht
My gaer ta tak in tow
Paying eighteen shillings
For fiddle, case an bow

Hadd oot a langer dances
Fae four o’clock to ten
Seventeen oors o playin
Fir me an twartree men
Bow apo me foreairm
An rockin too for aese
Fingers skynned bi tyoch strings
An ringin lugs fir days

Atween me spells o playing
Cam polkas, Shetland reels
Schottisches too I danced
An keekit up me heels
Mair as a decade passed dan
In lichtsome spree an foy
Whan I cam by thirty
Da fiddle wis laid by

Losin Dad an Tammie
An Clementine göd too
Left Leebie, me an Mam
Ta mak wir hom anew
Days taen up wi makkin
As postie an da lik
Foo life’s path is trodden
It passes in a blink

Trowe it aa my fiddle
Wis never far fae sicht
Fir neebor fock I’d play
Whan in aboot da nicht
Tammy took an interest
In aa da tunes I kent
Dan cam Erchie P Lee
My mindins fir ta hent

Noo I’m auld an happit
At eighty-five I’m don
But aye I sammas wissed
'At my tunes dey wid live on
Though blate I telt my tale
In hoop someen wid mind
Aa at’s geen afore wis
Da mett o love an vynd

credits

from Lasses Trust In Providence, track released December 10, 2018
Composition, vocals, fiddle: Claire White
Guitar: Robbie Leask

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about

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Claire White Scotland, UK

Claire White is an award-winning Shetland singer-songwriter and fiddler. She learned music from Dr Tom Anderson and has been performing and teaching internationally for twenty-five years. She has previously played in Australia, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, the USA, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sardinia, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, Poland, Ireland and the UK. ... more

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