Wild and Beautiful

Silly Wizard

album cover

Spellbinding Scottish Fables, Jigs, and Reels

The "young rover" is a familiar figure in Irish and Scottish ballads. He leaves his home to sail off for grand adventures, expecting that his lady will await his return. "If I Was a Blackbird," the opening track on the aptly titled Wild and Beautiful, turns the tables: The rover returns just in time to wave good-bye to his lover, who's embarking on a journey of her own. The young man is initially stung by this, and then overtaken by melancholy; by the time Andy Stewart, Silly Wizard's lead voice, finishes the tale, the rover is rueful. He's learned the meaning of loss.

That twist is characteristic of Silly Wizard, which formed in Edinburgh in 1971 and disbanded in the late 1980s. A band of traditional musicians, they were expert at twisting folk standbys and familiar songs into new, and often revealing, configurations. On "Blackbird," for example, the instrumental backdrop is typically calm and measured, while the harmony vocals on the refrain stretch out wildly, becoming increasingly haunting as the tale progresses. Stewart adapted the song from several different versions handed down by members of his family, and wrote two verses of his own. These additions show the group's finesse: They make the rover's plight clear without laying on too much pathos. (The Wizards save that for the tragic ode "The Fisherman's Song.")

One of the most dynamic traditional ensembles in Scottish music, Silly Wizard was esteemed not just for Stewart's heavy-heart vocals, but also for instrumental pieces that showcase the deft accordion of Phil Cunningham and the fiddle playing of his brother, Johnny. Among this album's treasures is a song called "The Pearl," a chamber-music rhapsody written by Phil Cunningham to mark his parents' thirtieth wedding anniversary. It is pure, undiluted sweetness.

Genre: World, Celtic
Released: 1981, Shanachie
Key Tracks: "If I Was a Blackbird," "The Pearl," "The Fisherman's Songs"
Catalog Choice: Caledonia's Hardy Sons; Glint of Silver
Next Stop: The House Band: Stonetown
After That: Hank Dogs: Bareback
Book Pages: 701–702