‘Zama Zama ...try your luck...'
Album released November 2nd on Temple Records
Available
as a CD via all good outlets, direct from Temple Records, or
digitally via itunes and all major download sites
‘Robber
Barons', the first single release from Battlefield Band's new album ‘Zama
Zama...try your luck...', has already received airplay on BBC Shropshire,
BBC Gloucestershire, BBC Scotland, Folkcast and
Celtic Music Radio. The track, written
by Alan
Reid, looks at greed through the ages, from the ‘Robber Barons'
of the Middle Ages in Germany to the modern day politicians
& bankers. The subject matter is as relevant today as it ever
was...
"This album
started as a collection of songs and tunes about gold.
But as we searched, like the alchemists of old, it turned into a wider idea. In
the process we saw the greed, disasters and victories inherent in the search and
exploitation of various sources of wealth in this world. Then, as if by demonic
serendipity, along comes the worldwide economic crisis. We watched the major
banks, insurance companies and Hedge Funds etc. implode, discrediting the entire
financial system and many of its managers and advisers - But there was still
more to come. We, in Britain, could only stand and watch aghast as many (too
many) Members of Parliament, and the House of Lords at Westminster, ‘the Mother
of Parliaments' were exposed for their cynical misuse of the expenses system,
often amounting to fraud.
As
we put this album together, with our producer Robin Morton, we have been
amazed, amused, angered, depressed and hilariously horrified. Who knew about the
Zama Zama Boys? Or Ku'ula-kai, the Hawaiian God of Fish; or the extraordinary
folklore and history of Chocolate?
We will leave you to mine these extraordinary stories for yourselves."
- Alan Reid
With the new album 'Zama Zama...try your luck...',
Battlefield Band offer us songs both old and newly composed. Alongside new songs
like ‘Robber Barons' are tracks such as Nina Simone's ‘Plain Gold
Ring'.
As always with Battlefield Band, they produce Contemporary
Scottish music - 2000
years in the making.
The release of the album celebrates the 30th Anniversary for
Battlefield Band and their label Temple Records. For 30 years they have created
and performed traditional Scottish music with a rare passion and joy, delighting
audiences around the globe and evolving into what the press have
called:
"...a
wondrous, perfectly paced display by musicians firmly in command of their
art...a Highland jam that rang the rafters." - The
Washington Post
Under their banner Forward With Scotland's Past, Battlefield Band
have been distilling their own unique form of the Scottish spirit and exporting
it worldwide, with concerts in China, Malaysia, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia,
New Zealand, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Syria, Jordan, India, Sri
Lanka, Egypt, U.S.A., Canada, Uzbekistan and the
U.K.
"What
the Chieftains have done for Irish traditional music, Battlefield Band are doing
for the music of Scotland" - Billboard
Inspired by their rich heritage of Celtic music and fired by the strength
and vibrancy of today's Scottish cultural scene, which indeed they have done
much to create and fuel, they have led, and been at the forefront, of a great
revival in Scottish music. Refusing to be limited musically by suffocating
antiquarianism, or the music business' fashions, they have mixed the old songs
and music with a new self-penned repertoire, all played on a fusion of ancient
and modern instruments - bagpipes, fiddle, synthesiser, guitar, flutes, bodhran
and accordion.
‘No tricks, no gimmicks, just very
fine music' - Mojo
Catch Battlefield Band live in England and Scotland at the
following venues and festivals
Sep 12 - Bromyard Folk Festival / Oct 11 - Banbury Canalside Folk
Festival / Oct 13 - Huntingdon Hall, Crowngate,
Worcester
Oct 14 -
Gulbenkian Theatre, University of Kent, Canterbury / Nov 20 - The Queens Hall,
Edinburgh / Nov 27 - Glasgow Royal Concert
Hall
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