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Press Releases

Leading Baroque Band Ruckus and Violinist Keir GoGwilt Release 'The Edinburgh Rollick' of Niel Gow Works

March 11, 2025 | By April Thibeault | AMT PR | april@amtpublicrelations.com

DYNAMIC TRACKS COMPOSED BY NIEL GOW - ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FIGURES IN TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH MUSIC

“the world’s only period-instrument rock band” - San Francisco Classical Voice

“achingly delicate one moment, punchy and incisive the next” - The New York Times

Hailed as a shapeshifting collaborative baroque ensemble with a visceral and playful approach to classical music, Ruckushas announced the Mar. 11 release of its sophomore album The Edinburgh Rollick, an ebullient follow-up to its acclaimed debut album Fly the Coop (with Emi Ferguson). In The Edinburgh Rollick, Ruckus joins forces with the formidable violinist Keir GoGwilt, reveling in the music of Niel Gow (1727-1807), Scotland’s most celebrated fiddler. The Edinburgh Rollick is a dynamic folk-Baroque feast of Celtic dance music: weaving jubilant, foot-stomping and nostalgic18th-century tunes into large-scale dramatic forms.

Niel Gow is often credited with helping define and shape the distinct identity of Scottish fiddle music. The Edinburgh Rollick finds a stellar band exploring and arranging dozens of Gow’s masterpieces and lesser-known works. The 80-minute album brings to life dance tunes from the Gow Collections of Strathspey Reels Books 1 and 2 (1784, 1788) that are full of the signature “Scotch snap” and rhythmic drive, along with a refined lyricism.

“Given that Ruckus is a baroque continuo band, some of the 18^th-century Italianate influences visible in Gow’s collections are baked into our sound: gut strings, short bows, and instruments like the harpsichord, baroque bassoon, and viola da gamba. Rather than accepting the notated versions in Gow’s collection as authoritative texts, we play these melodies with an ear to their cumulative historical and contemporary soundings. Precisely because these books played a significant role in the selective canonization of Scottish folk music, it has been a gratifying journey to work our way through and beyond these texts, and to find a sound unique to our own hybrid paths through these musical traditions.” – Keir GoGwilt

Thrillingly, the album is graced by Edinburgh-born violinist Keir GoGwilt (founding member of American Modern Opera Company), whose cutting-edge approach to the folk-Baroque genre matches Ruckus’s improvisatory ethos andcontemporary sound. This gorgeous new recording features vocalist Fiona Gillespie and the baroque equivalent of a jazz rhythm section: guitar/theorbo (Paul Holmes Morton), harpsichord/organ (Elliott Figg), bassoon/spoons (Clay Zeller-Townson), percussion (Rami El-Aasser), and bass/viola da gamba (Douglas Balliett).

The Edinburgh Rollick was recorded in Vermont at Yellowbarn. Available in CD & audiophile HD formats at RuckusEarlyMusic.org and on all major retailers.

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