The Battlefield Band from Glascow, Scotland doesn’t do Braveheart re-enactments. It has fought and won a battle in Scotland though – the one between traditionalists and pop musicians. The old Scottish bagpipe culture is basically ceremonial and formal. Bagpipes accompanied Scots’ clans in battle, the coronation of clan chiefs and the mourning of the dead.
This Battlefield Band has taken some of the solemn drone out of the bagpipe and added synthesizers, drums and guitars to give it a new sound. You’re as likely to hear them perform reels about Jesse Ventura as about Jenny of the Brays. The Batties are riding the wave of a Scottish invasion that began in the early 1990’s with books like “Trainspotting”, movies like “Rob Roy” and musicians like Belle and Sebastian.
As Mike Meyers likes to say: “If it’s not Scottish it’s crap.” We’re peeking up the kilts of Scotish music with the Battlefield Band, this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
The Battlefield Band (John McCusker, Alan Reid, Karine Polwart, and Mike Katz)