Album Reviews:

Daily Record:

GIVEN there’s a Homecoming (of sorts) album reviewed I thought I’d do the other side of great Scottish music. Ridge Records are releasing the incredible pipe playing of Fred Morrison - known as the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes. It kicks off with Train Journey North - the pipes sounding
like the wheels getting faster and faster - accompanied by acoustic guitar then banjo. Fred’s fingers fly faster than the Flying Scotsman.
I’ve already iPoded this for the Hogmanay party. Another fantastic barnstorming number is the title track which adds some bluegrass banjo and mandolin to make your feet dance of their own free will.
Even Leaving Uist and Nameless’ use of low whistle makes the sound almost South American.
An incredible album that really stirs the blood.
 
Rock n Reel:
One of Scotland’s foremost pipers, Fred Morrison is equally at home on Highland bagpipes, smallpipes, uilleann pipes and any number of whistles, and has been blowing up a storm on the Celtic music scene for a number of years with the likes of Clan Alba and Capercaillie. This collection, whilst showcasing his dazzling talents, is something of a departure, drawing on common ground between Irish, Scottish and bluegrass traditions.
Drafting in Ron Block on five-string banjo and the always-excellent Tim O’Brien on mandolin, tunes such as ‘The Wildcat’ and ‘Kansas City Hornpipe’ blend the traditions beautifully, in the manner of the best sessions from The Transatlantic Sessions, with each side of the pond enriching the other and none of the dilution that can so often occur in such experiments.
There are moments of reflection, such as Hebridean ‘Leaving Uist’ with its exquisite low whistle over Matheu Watson’s guitar and Martin O’Neill’s bodhran, but overall this is a joyous, celebratory album that exudes sheer exhilaration.

The Scotsman:
PIPING virtuoso Fred Morrison is in full, exuberant flight once again, Highland, Irish and reel pipes blazing … but, hold on, is that, er, a banjo I hear twanging alongside? Morrison's latest musical journey takes him to Nashville, to record with bluegrass banjo ace Ron Block and Grammy-winning guitarist and mandolinist Tim O'Brien, as well as well as Scottish colleagues percussionist Martin O'Neill and Matheu Watson on guitar.

The relationship between Scots and Irish fiddle and bluegrass is well charted. Throwing bagpipes into the mix is less common, but here makes for an often exhilarating collaboration. There are soulful moments on low whistle and Morrison's lovely strathspey Seonaidh's Tune, while the "yeehah" factor gets well cranked up in the title track, with reel pipes rollicking alongside Block's banjo, or in the hell-for-leather closer, The Hard Drive.

The Herald:
Despite the Scottish tradition’s significant presence in Appalachian music generally and bluegrass particularly, bagpipes don’t feature much in these American folk forms. But if they did, the results would probably sound a lot like this. Recorded in Nashville and Glasgow with top bluegrass and Scots pickers, Outlands captures piping ace Fred Morrison in his free-flowing, expressive pomp on Highland pipes and their Irish and lowland cousins, as well as magnificently soulful low whistle. Great playing all round, with the title track and Kansas City Hornpipe especially giving tacit permission, just this once, to yell yee-haw at a piper.