Artist: Karen Matheson
Album: Still Time
Label: Compass Records
Release Date: 2.5.2021
Still Time is an absolute delight, a truly superb, eleven-track release that is nothing short of sublime. Matheson is best known for her voice as singer with a leading Scottish Celtic band, Capercaillie, where she is often heard working in her native Gaelic language. Here, however, she sings only in English with a range of remarkable story-telling songs that hold and capture the very essence of traditional Scottish folk and roots music.
Supported throughout by strong writing from Glasgow writer James Grant and her keyboard Capercaillie colleague, Donald Shaw (who also acts as producer), the album includes two classic tracks from Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, and —perhaps a surprise here but excellently delivered—Si Kahn’s “Aragon Mill,” a song of protest with a biting lyric that is emotive, evocative and carries the power to engage and sadden.
Still Time started over 15 years ago when Donald Shaw—the moving force behind Scotland’s wonderful international festival, Celtic Connections—first wrote the title track; it then grew in focus and format as the years passed, with Matheson herself putting these songs on the back burner while working on other musical projects. Thankfully, the time has finally come for the release of a body of work that is extraordinarily moving, touching, compelling and beautiful. Matheson has a crystal-clear voice and, in addition to Donald Shaw on piano, is accompanied by the likes of US roots wizard Dirk Powell on banjo, Ireland’s Mike McGoldrick on pipes, and John Doyle on guitar. The result is a breathtaking, heart-aching masterpiece.
—Iain Patience
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