Where The Good Ship Lands is Alastair Savage’s seventh album release and his first recording alongside the acclaimed cellist Alice Allen. The double album reflects the duo’s work together over the past seven years and includes music from their range of traditional based melodies alongside newer compositions from Alastair, many of which were written during the period of lockdown from 2020 onwards.

The album’s early tracks focus on the 18th century fiddle golden age with melodies used by Robert Burns for his songs and other classics by Niel Gow, Nathaniel Gow and William Marshall. As the album develops, tunes from Ireland and America are explored and the duo complete the first disc with an original composition dedicated to the story of America’s Underground Railroad. Other original compositions by Alastair include the title track inspired by his home town of Ardrossan and its shipbuilding past. Also reflecting his Ayrshire roots are melodies celebrating the Isle of Arran. The second of the discs features a strong James Scott Skinner focus, being a special part of Alice Allen’s heritage with Skinner originally from her own home town of Banchory.

The album was expertly captured by outstanding sound engineer Stuart Hamilton at Castlesound Studios in Pencaitland and further builds on a number of Alice Allen projects at the same studio alongside a host of celebrated Scottish musicians. For Alastair, it is his first album recorded at this venue after previous album projects working at Dougie MacLean’s Butterstone Studios, Dave Gray’s Sound cafe in Penicuik and location recording alongside engineer Colin Stephen including a celebrated solo fiddle recording made at Crathie Kirk in Royal Deeside released in 2016.

This album showcases the versatility that is possible from a fiddle and cello combination with Alice’s assured rhythmical underpinning of the melodies a throwback to the cello as accompanying instrument of choice in the bygone eras of Gow and Skinner. The wide expanse of music, both geographically and historically, carries listeners through an adventurous world of sound bringing them an emotional journey through the centuries.

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