Threads
The Battlefield Band'sThreadsis dominated by traditional material. Thus it's a reminder of those heady days in Scotland a quarter century ago when the formerly separate strains of bagpipe music, dance music, and ballad music were suddenly united by progressive-folk groups who could do it all.Threadsis no nostalgic look at old times, however, for the Battlefield Band's current fiddler, John McCusker, wasn't even born when the great Scottish folk renaissance of the '70s began. In fact, Alan Reid is the only original member still in the band, and his three mates give such Scottish standards as "Sleepy Maggie," "McPherson's Lament," "Snow on the Hills," and "The Indian Lass" a vigorous shaking that makes them well worth hearing again.--Geoffrey Himes