Robert Service’s melodramatic work, The Cremation of Sam McGee, must be one of Canada’s best-known poems, especially in the West where its gold-rush setting and frozen imagery ring almost true.We learned its internal rhymes in school, and loved the heroic absurdity of its logically entailed train of events.
It’s quite a treat to hear this epic again, not in the plodding singsong of our childhood recitation but as a deadly serious narrative that Michael Marra speaks in an earthy Scots brogue. And that’s not even the best part.
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Christine emerged triumphant from a very long fistfight sporting a Pinteresque keeker applied in instalments during her formative years.She then decided to build a cathedral and could have used film, paint or the printed word, but she chose music and went off with Sam McGee to fight amongst the Northern Lights.
She rose up twinkling from that scrap and her work is sublime. These delights are the first of many from a great artist.
Michael Marra
Friday 21 December 2007
The Cremation of Sam McGee
Posted by wishy on Friday 21 December 2007 - 08:11:00
Wednesday 26 September 2007
Sam Now Available in CD Format
Posted by Christine on Wednesday 26 September 2007 - 12:26:00
For anyone that would prefer Sam in full CD format with complete artwork/credits it is now available through our online store.
The price includes shipping, and is usually posted with in 24 hours of purchase.
The price includes shipping, and is usually posted with in 24 hours of purchase.
The Recording Session - Band Line Up
Posted by wishy on Wednesday 26 September 2007 - 11:02:00
The recording of Sam was a bit of a lock in. The album was recorded in September 2005 at Watercolour Studios, Ardgour, which is in a fairly remote part of the West Highlands - across Loch Linnhe from Fort William. My idea being that if we were surrounded by beautiful scenery, a wee bit isolated, living and playing together, and not distracted by things like mobile phones and email, some really great spontaneous music would happen.
Over four days the band and I hung out, played music, and recorded everything. I wanted the recording of Sam to be a performance, and as close in spirit to the original gig as possible.
The tracks that you hear we got in the wee small hours - sometime around 3am. We were about to call it a night until, on a whim, we decided to go for one more take - it was magic. Something just clicked. We could all feel it, and it went down in a oner.
When you are listening to Sam images of the High Arctic and Northern Lights may float through your mind, but perhaps now you can also imagine the session where these eight talented and creative musicians and I recorded The Cremation of Sam McGee.
To them I am grateful for their enthusiasm and intuitive work, which made this recording the way I always wanted it to be.
Enjoy...preferably late at night with a wee dram.
x Christine
Narration - Michael Marra
Trombone - Rick Taylor
Guitar/Mandolin - Kevin Murray
Fiddle - Bruce MacGregor
Fiddle- Aidan O'Rourke
Double Bass - Kevin McGuire
Piano/Accordion - Brain McAlpine
Percussion - James Mackintosh
Tuesday 25 September 2007
Sam McGee - The Live Show
Posted by Christine on Tuesday 25 September 2007 - 00:51:38
A brilliantly atmospheric travelogue in music, words and pictures, Christine Hanson's Sam McGee presentation celebrates both the Scottish birthplace of Yukon poet Robert W. Service and his greatest creation, the irascible, ill-fated and fascinating Sam McGee.
Exploring the Scottish tradition, the members of the Sam McGee ensemble - featuring some of Scotland's finest traditional musicians drawn from top bands including Blazin' Fiddles, Shooglenifty and Session A9 - begin by showcasing their individual and collective talents before the first half closes with the unique, gravel-voiced Michael Marra fronting the full, eight-strong band.
Hanson's musical adaptation of Service's The Cremation of Sam McGee switches locations to the frozen Yukon frontier where the cellist's original compositions take the audience across the snow in tandem with this quirky, tragicomic tale.
Narrated with conspicuous relish by Michael Marra and with the celebrated Canadian artist Ted Harrison's beautiful Arctic icescapes projected as a backdrop, The Cremation of Sam McGee is a chilling, enthralling and entertaining work whose music opens a window on deeper themes of friendship, promises made and eventual rebirth.
* * * * *
Rob Adams
Glasgow Herald
Exploring the Scottish tradition, the members of the Sam McGee ensemble - featuring some of Scotland's finest traditional musicians drawn from top bands including Blazin' Fiddles, Shooglenifty and Session A9 - begin by showcasing their individual and collective talents before the first half closes with the unique, gravel-voiced Michael Marra fronting the full, eight-strong band.
Hanson's musical adaptation of Service's The Cremation of Sam McGee switches locations to the frozen Yukon frontier where the cellist's original compositions take the audience across the snow in tandem with this quirky, tragicomic tale.
Narrated with conspicuous relish by Michael Marra and with the celebrated Canadian artist Ted Harrison's beautiful Arctic icescapes projected as a backdrop, The Cremation of Sam McGee is a chilling, enthralling and entertaining work whose music opens a window on deeper themes of friendship, promises made and eventual rebirth.
* * * * *
Rob Adams
Glasgow Herald