Seven/Ten
author: Hot Press Magazine ( Ireland)
This five piece band hail from Texas and play an eclectic blend of Irish, Scottish, Breton, Canadian and
American and original tunes plus contemporary songs by everyone from Holly Near to Todd Rundgren. The first
track on the CD sets the pace, with the Irish session classic “Julia Delaney” segueing into an alt-countryish
rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”, which is in turn followed seamlessly by the old Bill Monroe bluegrass number
‘Jerusalem Ridge”. Two strong female singers -Christy McLeod and Betsy Cummings- handle most of the lead
vocal duties, but happily the splendidly gravel-voiced Gordon McLeod is on hand to relieve any excess sugar.
Highland piper Richard Kean adds a fine Caledonian element to the mix.
SEVEN/TEN
SARAH McQUAID--Hot Press Magazine March 13, 2003
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The vocals are wonderful, the arrangements are fantastic, and I just can't
author: Catherine Sherer
From: "Catherine M Sherer"
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 2:00 AM
Subject: Strange Turns
I just wanted y'all to know i really love this album! I just can't stop listening to it! The whole album is really good, it actually moves me! The
vocals are wonderful, the arrangements are fantastic, and I just can't
get enough of it. What y'all've done is really impressive. and i just thought you should know . . .
love,
Catherine Sherer
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--mesmerizing--a band that likes to blend genres, and does it well
author: Dirty Linen
Beyond The Pale, a quintet from Texas incorporates a little bit of everything on Strange Turns (self-produced BTP 3059 ( 2002)).
The primary orientation is Irish-Scottish, but this is a band that likes to blend genres and does it well. There are a couple of highly effective bagpipe-led medleys, including a mesmerizing Breton tune set dubbed “The Hoochie Dance”, a surprising Celtified cover of Dolly Parton’s country hit “Jolene” that’s sandwiched between and Irish reel and a Bill Monroe tune, and a fiddle/squeezebox/hammered dulcimer track called “Traveling North America Set” that begins with a Quebec reel, jumps into an Appalachian clog dance, and ends up with a Tex-Mex polka. Other songs range from an Irish transport ballad to a music-hall ditty to a gospel-flavored a capella chorus.
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Go get this one,! You’re gonna love it.
author: The Ceili--John Hebley
CD Review
Strange Turns – Beyond the Pale
Take components of two of the finest bands in North Texas, mix together and blend in one heck of a piper and one cannot fail to produce exceptional music. The newly reformed Beyond the Pale combines the talents of Gordon and Christy McLeod with Betsy Cummings and John Delaney from Lost Tribe and the very fine piping of Richard Kean. This, their first CD with this new five-piece lineup, is all that I expected it to be. Strange Turns, so named because of the way it suddenly changes gear and goes of in a new direction, is a mixture of old and new, jigs, reels, and even polka, traditional and modern. It contains some of the songs that we have heard in live sets for some time as well as new and original material.
Who but Beyond the Pale could combine the traditional Julia Delaney, played on the fiddle by Gordon, with Dolly Parton’s Jolene sung by Christy and then take another turn by ending with Gordon’s fiddle and foot tapping in Jerusalem Ridge. That’s the way this CD starts, and it continues with the same meanderings.
Betsy Cummings takes the lead as she sings one of my all time favorites, Green Among The Gold. A beautiful ballad telling the story of how the Irish prisoners who were transported from Britain to the penal colony of Australia, and how they took their own culture of music and dance with them to the new land. 200 years later the Irish influence in southeast Australia is as strong as it ever was.
The ancient Irish legend of the Children of Lir was the inspiration behind Gordon’s original composition, The Fate of the Children of Lir. The legend tells of a widowed king Lir, beguiled by beauty, chooses a wicked stepmother Aoife, for his four children. Over time, Aoife becomes jealous of the affection Lir has for his children. She decides to take them into the forest and leave them there. Once in the forest, she decides instead to cast a spell on the children. She transforms them into swans; swans that can sing. They are forced to endure this fate for 900 years.
Just when think you understand where the music is leading you it takes yet another strange turn. From the legends of ancient Ireland we are rapidly transported to the all to horrific truth of King Henry VIII’s England. With Her Head lucked Underneath Her Arm is a macabre piece of musical wit, by Bert Lee, R.P. and Harris Weston, referring to Anne Boleyn, the most famous of King Henry Vlll's unlucky wives. The King had her beheaded, but soon found that she wasn't through with him-for every night at midnight she walked the tower, her bloody head held underneath her arm. Gordon puts on a strong London accent, stressing the “‘ead tooked oonderneef ‘er arm” to sing us this tale. The Yeoman Warders of the Tower (Beefeaters) will tell you with an absolutely straight face that even today her ghost can be seen at midnight walking the high battlements.
There is hardly anything more stirring than a good pipe tune. Richard Kean’s pipes really sing in The Hoochie Dance, aptly named because that is just what this tune makes one want to do. Try it and see if you can sit still all the way to the end. And who could resist Sputnik’s Lullaby, Richard’s song to his toothless cat. Throughout the CD, the tunes are as much fun as the songs, even for someone like me who really gets “into” singing along.
For most of the CD, and for that matter during live concerts, John Delaney is the master behind the hammered dulcimer, or flute or whistle. On Honest Work, however, he walks to the front and delights us with an a capella version of Todd Rundgren’s all too timely tale of union workers who are not afraid to work, but who are sadly driven to drink and despair through lack of honest work.
A new song that I have never heard before I got a sample of this CD takes you on yet another strange turn. I’ll not spoil it by telling you the whole story behind the song. Suffice it to say that The Widow is an amusing tale sung by Betsy, of the battle between the widow and the Devil and, more importantly, which one wins.
If you don’t have a Beyond the Pale CD in your collection, shame on you; get out and buy this one! If you do already have one or more Beyond the Pale CD’s, go get this one, too! You’re gonna love it.
Beyond the Pale are joined on this CD by Morgan McLeod on drums and Dirje Smith on Cello. Production, recording and mastering is by Gordon McLeod.
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