page_title: Bothy Culture
section_title: Bothy Culture and Beyond
hierarchical_section_title: Bothy Culture / Bothy Culture and Beyond
caption_attribution_description: English: SSE Hydro in Glasgow
context_page_description: Bothy Culture is the second studio album by the Scottish Celtic fusion artist Martyn Bennett, released in January 1998 on the Rykodisc label. After winning critical acclaim for his debut album Martyn Bennet, Bothy Culture builds upon that album's mixing of Scottish Celtic music with farther, international folk music styles and contemporary electronic music. The album celebrates and draws upon the music of Bennett's native Gaeldom as well as the music of Islam and Scandinavia, with Bennett finding and emotionally connecting to the similarities between the geographically dispersed styles. It mixes the styles with contemporary electronic music such as breakbeat and drum and bass.
  Named for the traditional party culture of Highland bothies, which Bennett related to modern club music subcultures, Bothy Culture was released to critical acclaim, with critics praising the effectiveness of the album's unique blend of disparate styles. Bennett formed the band Cuillin, consisting of himself, his wife and two other musicians, to tour in promotion of the album.
context_section_description: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Bothy Culture, and the 25th anniversary of the Celtic Connections festival, arranger and conductor Greg Lawson's GRIT Orchestra, named after Bennett's final album Grit (2003) and containing some 100 traditional folk, classical and jazz musicians, performed the show Bothy Culture and Beyond at the SSE Hydro, Glasgow as part of the festival on 27 January 2018. The shows were billed as a "music-vision-dance-bike spectacular," and feature Lawson's rearrangements of the tracks from the album, as well as visual spectacles, including internationally famous Scottish stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill, whose appearance was inspired by the film The Ridge (2014), in which MacAskill performed a stunt to the soundtrack of Bennett's "Blackbird". The show was Lawson and the GRIT Orchestra's second tribute to a Bennett album, following their Celtic Connections tribute to his final album Grit in 2015, although the orchestra was even bigger for Bothy Culture and Beyond, adding a backline of Scottish fiddlers including Duncan Chisholm, Chris Stout and Aidan O'Rourke. Lawson was a friend of Bennett, and when asked why he chose to perform Bothy Culture, he said:
  "Grit celebrated the vocal traditions in Scottish music whereas Bothy Culture is about the melodic and dance traditions. It’s about saying 'let's hold hands and go dancing and have a fantastic time.' Being glad to be alive is a thing to celebrate and that’s what Bothy Culture means to me."
  The bulk of the music was the result of two separate string sections, with numerous Scottish fiddlers leading the traditional melodies in one string section while accompanying soundscapes were provided by classical violins, double bass and cellos in the other. The voice of "Aye?" was provided by Innes Watson of the Treacherous Orchestra. David Hayman read Sorley MacLean's English translation of "Hallaig," while in a break from the album, Fiano Hunter and the Glasgow Chapel Choir recreated the Grit song "Blackbird", accompanied by Danny MacAskill's stunt cycle work. "Shputnik in Glenshiel" was accompanied by whistle from Fraser Fifeld, while “Ud the Doudouk” featured punches of brass, Innes’ spirited chants and a "perfectly-timed finish." Meanwhile, the “impossibly whacky” intro for "Joik" was translated to strings, brass and percussion, unifying the folk and classical string sections. "Waltz for Hector" was heralded in by drum beats and soft whistles and featured a percussion section from James MacKintosh capturing the song's complex beats.
  The show was critically acclaimed from the likes of The Scotsman ("an epic arrangement of another Bennett album"), the BBC, The Times ("the effect can be like standing in the actual landscape famously captured by a master in oils"), The Guardian, who called the show a "multimedia celebration" and "a weird fusion of the deep-rooted and brazenly off-kilter", and Folk Radio UK, who said the show "brought Martyn’s incredible music back to a live audience and proved just how complex his ideas, how inclusive his influences and wide-ranging his imagination really were." Bella Caledonia said: "If the original live show GRIT was about a celebration of lost voices – of remembrance – then this year’s event was an unapologetic and euphoric celebration of Bennett’s life, energy and vision. Bothy Culture is dance music first. Everyone was as high as a kite," while McFayden of Folk Radio UK said: "As Greg Lawson said on the night – this was one man’s music, and it took this immense event to bring that music back to the stage. This week is the 13th anniversary of Martyn’s passing, and the music he was making 20 years ago continues to inspire today’s musicians. That's always worth remembering."
caption: The SSE Hydro, where Bothy Culture and Beyond was performed.
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