Artist: Seven Nations
Year: 2000
Tracks:
- The King of Oblivion
- Seeds of Life
- Fiddle Set
- Scream/The Surprise Ceilidh Band Set
- God
- O'er the Moor and Amoung the Heather
- All You People
- Skyezinha/The Egret
- A Rare Auld Time
- Pipe Set
- Trains
Seven Nations' seventh album, The Pictou Sessions, is subtitled "An Acoustic Album" but don't expect it to be exactly mellow. Their previous album, The Factory, followed a membership shakeup that saw the exit of the "Antipyper" Neil Anderson and the arrival of new highland bagpiper Scott Long and fiddler Dan Stacey. The Factory was energetic but a little rough around the edges. The Pictou Sessions finds the band meshing much more tightly and moves 7N back toward the middle of the Celtic-to-rock continuum.
Recorded over five days in the town of Pictou in Nova Scotia, Canada, with a bunch of their friends, this album captures the live, jam session sound that is Seven Nations' strength. Kirk McLeod and company also revisit two Anderson-era standards, Scream and God, and play one of the best up-tempo arrangements of Scotland the Brave as part of The Surprise Ceilidh Band Set.
This is easily their most professional-sounding album, and a great introduction to the band for newcomers.