Kaela Rowan - Menagerie

(July 2014)

11 Tracks: In Your Eyes * To Never Know * Lady * Apocalypse * Ballad (And The Stars For Their Love Did Weep) * Save The Day * Woolgathering * Mon Ami * Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place) * Move On Sam * Marty Song.

A unique debut solo album from Kaela Rowan, former lead vocalist with the Gaelic band Mouth Music and co-founder of The Bevvy Sisters.

Menagerie was written, recorded and co-produced with James Mackintosh, drummer of Shooglenifty and the Transatlantic Sessions.

10 of the 11 songs written by Kaela and showcases her strong vocal line.

Kaela Rowan (vocals, guitars, ukulele, percussion), James Mackintosh (drums, percussion, guitars, bass, vocals, kalimba, programming). Guests Quee MacArthur (berimbau, pandeiro) Luke Plumb (telecaster) Rick Taylor (trombone) Donald Shaw (piano) Colonel Glegg of Glegg Hall (bugle) Mooncat (vocals) Marty (vocals) and Nick Prescott (mandolin).

"There's a moment in time we all find peace. That tiny moment before we sleep, when the fall into that replenishing condition is about to claim us, yet we remain sentient enough to recognise the act of failing. It's a place of supreme tranquillity. The effect of ‘Menagerie’ the latest album from Kaela Rowan, is precisely the same but you’re wide wake and your senses record every moment..... This is a dreamtime experience, an exorcism of a kind. Washing away the stress and pressures. Wrapping a warm balm of sound around your troubles. Listening to this album will do you so much good the medical profession should prescribe it." Tim Carrol, Folk Words.

"She's flirted with retro-americana by being one of the girls who formed the Bevvy Sisters, and she took big beats into Highland traditions as vocalist with Mouth Music, but this, her first solo album, co - produced with partner / percussionist, James Mackintosh, Kaela Rowan has written most of the ten dreamily sustained, classically arranged songs .The emotional , idiosyncratic wash of mbira , kalimba , ukulele and berimbau mixes with guest trombone , piano, guitar and mandolin, then with creatively imaginative vocal lines and harmony to make this a powerfully unique album." Norman Chalmers, Scotland On Sunday.