Track choice

Track of the Week: Fergus McCreadie, Wayfinder, Edition ****

marlbank30 July 20251 Mins read

The piece begins with a treble droning undertow and there are lovely little grace note flicks from McCreadie adorning the repeated motif and an arc in the playing intensity as the piece unfolds.

Hup. What’s this lead off track from The Shieling like?

In Gàidhlig the noun part of the album title in question means a hut or huddle of a few of the very same. I looked it up. Trio time once again from lilting pianist Fergus McCreadie on this tremendous Laura Jurd produced track from said album to be issued in the autumn and accompanied here by a video.

Everything needs to be visualised these days. But no one is selling anyone a pup. McCreadie has quite a following, a cupboardful of wee trophies, plaudits galore and deservedly so. Inspired by North Uist in the Outer Hebrides recorded in a small cottage, McCreadie is on an upright piano joined once again by bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson tapping a folk-jazz seam, their signature sound. Must be perishing up there – you’d be glad of a hut, a big coat and squirt of uisge beatha. The buoyant tune that’s full of impact is a pulsating McCreadie original and trickles along tantalisingly.