CD Odyssey Disc 515: The Rankin Family

A long weekend is a beautiful thing.  If you are like me and are lucky enough to be experiencing one right now, take a minute to appreciate it.  Also resolve to be particularly nice to all those people in jobs that have to work.  All those cab drivers, servers, and retail clerks that get paid low wages to ensure we nine-to-fivers can go for lunch, go shopping or otherwise entertain ourselves.  Treat them well, and tip them generously.

Disc 515 is…. Self-Titled

Artist: The Rankin Family

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover?  As folk covers go, I’ve seen worse.  This is basically just a family portrait taken in a studio.  Heather (centre) looks particularly radiant but what I’m struck by most is that two of the Rankin family (Raylene and John Morris) are no longer with us; victims of cancer and a car accident respectively.  Damned sad.  To both of them I can only say, ‘fare thee well’.

How I Came To Know It:  I was introduced to the Rankin Family in 1990 when I bought their second album and loved it.  I eagerly cast about for more by them and since they only had two albums at the time, this was the next thing I bought.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Rankin Family albums, which I think is all of them.  I like them all to varying degrees, but I must be honest and put their self-titled debut last in terms of how it stacks up.

Rating:  3 stars.

You could sum up the Rankin Family’s eponymous debut in one word:  cheerful.  In places it is almost too much so, but if you’re going to have a surfeit of something, cheer seems like as good a thing as any.

I bought this album very early in my exploration of Celtic folk music, and it was a nice entry point.  The three musical medleys (the “Piano Medley”, the “Fiddle Medley” and the “Jigging Medley” respectively are a couple of quick tours through a number of catchy traditional Celtic songs (thirteen little pieces in all, with a John Morris original, “Hull’s Reel” bringing up the rear of the “Fiddle Medley”).

The Gaelic tracks are accessible, and both have their titles translated so you will know what they are about, even if you can’t sing along.  “Chi Mi Na Morbheanna (Mist Covered Mountain)” is down tempo and haunting, and “Mo Run Geal Dileas (My Faithful Fair One)” is fast and fun.  “Mo Run Geal Dileas” is the first track and when I first starting listening to the album it was the first thing I heard as I walked to work.  It put a spring in my step and a smile on my face.

“Dileas” (pronounced jee-lass) means faithful, and when Sheila and I went to Scotland in 1996 we met a sheep dog at a highland pub named “Dileas.”  I remember that pub well, which was 90% locals (and given the size of the town, likely 90% of the available locals), a couple of U.S. sailors from a visiting aircraft carrier that had gotten a bit farther afield than their fellow servicemen, and us.  I usually hate having a dog in a pub, but when they are as friendly and well behaved as Dileas, I’ll make an exception.  Knowing what his name meant because of the Rankin Family made me feel that much more part of the local crowd.  Of course, the Rankins are Canadian (holla!) not Scots, but being Cape Bretoners their musical connection to Scotland and Ireland is easy to spot.

Another song that inspires me to flash a grin is “Mairi’s Wedding, also traditional.  If this song doesn’t make you want to dance then there’s something wrong with you.  Each of the three sisters and brother Jimmy take their turn singing a verse.  They do this throughout the record, and I would prefer that the stronger voices take more centre stage on some other songs.  That approach would just seem unkind given the wedding celebration vibe of “Mairi’s Wedding.”  John Morris doesn’t sing, but he tags his own fiddle reel (titled “Michael Rankin’s Reel”) onto the end of the song.  John Morris is an accomplished fiddle and piano player and his musicality is a big part of the album’s success.

The album is also an early demonstration of Jimmy Rankin’s songwriting.  Jimmy would later be responsible for many of the more memorable Rankin Family songs, and after the band went their separate ways, would release a number of excellent solo albums. At this early stage, his songwriting prowess is not yet fully developed, and I found songs like “Lonely Island” and “Loving Arms” a bit stilted or trite in places.  His best effort on this record is “Roving Gypsy Boy.”

Even so “Roving Gypsy Boy” has some odd lyrics.  Jimmy sings that the gypsy boy “left the high road to live on the low/And all different kinds that he met there.”  He means that he didn’t pursue monetary wealth, but in Gaelic lore the low road often refers to being dead, which made for a weird association for me.  Also, while I like this message…

“There’s a lot more to gain from this living than wealth

There’s a lesson to learn with devotion

Be kind to all others as well as yourself

Or you’ll drift like a boat out on the ocean.”

…isn’t a boat supposed to drift on the ocean?  It seems to serve the rhyme more than the thought, which is a poetic no no.  I still love the song, though.

The album can tend a bit away toward being a bit too ‘dear,’ and the ever-present cheerfulness lifts the spirit, but it doesn’t create enough emotional range.  “Lament of the Irish Immigrant” tries to deliver a bit of despondency, but sung a capella in such a technically precise manner it feels more like a musical exercise than a dirge.

Because of the beautiful harmonies, the early signs of Jimmy Rankin’s musical genius and the superb musicianship of John Morris Rankin, I bumped this record just north of three star territory but I still consider it the weakest entry in their catalogue.

Best tracks:  Mo Run Geal Dileas, Mairi’s Wedding, Roving Gypsy Boy, Chi Mi Na Morbheanna, Fiddle Medley.