"An absolutely wonderful album's worth of entrancing whispered glowing heart-warming Celtic/old English (Pagan?) folk, embroidered with cleverly delicate instrumentation. ... Calming, uplifting, ethereal and a slightly new feel on something very traditional and unashamedly rooted in very old ways."
- ORGAN Magazine

"almost like a spiritual experience, an album of death, the afterlife, ghosts, moral injustices, mystical otherworlds and noisy garden power tools." - Progressive Ears

My debut album is called Mind The Gap and came out in August 2007 as a hand-made release, limited to 100 copies. It's now available as a full pressing on specialist psych-folk label Sonic Spongecake.

Mind The Gap features a mixture of lovingly recycled traditional songs and stuff I've written or co-written with friends ... fiddle and 12-string guitar rubs shoulders with Irish pipes and electric guitars in an ethereal strange-folk mix.

Much of it is the work of other musicians who have kindly given me their time and talents. They include Steáfán Hannigan (uillean pipes), Martyn Kember-Smith (fiddle), Steve Lang (guitar), Jason Gazda (didgeridoo) and William Shaw (mandolin/fiddle). My garden rant Leafblower features art rock star Phideaux Xavier on guitar, with Molly Ruttan on drums and production by Gabriel Moffat.

Available to order direct from me in the UK, price £9 + £2 p&p. If you'd like a signed copy, just ask! (there's a space to type messages on the PayPal page)

If you're in the US it'll be quicker to order from CD Baby.

from CD Baby

Also generous with her time and talent is New York artist Jeri Riggs, whose beautiful quilt design "Fall From Grace" features as my front cover artwork. It amalgamates a traditional Islamic star pattern with the skeletal symmetry of the World Trade Center and the unusually deep colours of the New York autumn of 2001. Aside from its many layers of symbolism, it has a compelling soulfulness that I instantly fell in love with. Please do go and have a look at Jeri's online gallery, her work is beautiful.

Mind The Gap is a phrase instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever travelled on the London Underground. It's a recorded announcement by a chap with a frightfully plummy English accent and plays in a loop in some tube stations ... as a reminder to passengers that our worthy British trains and platforms don't always line up properly. It's really a polite way of saying please don't fall to your death while alighting from the train.

My friend Russ always said it's a warning about French wasps, because the chap's accent is so posh it sounds like he's saying "mind the guêpe". Stand clear of the bees please.

I have to admit that London and I don't like each other very much, but the phrase is ingrained in British national consciousness.

The reason I chose that title is because my music comes from the liminality, the places where one state crosses over into another. There's always a gap, or a hole to drop through. It works both ways. Sometimes you're gliding happily along and a hole opens up and swallows you. Other times you can't see any glimmer of hope until suddenly you drop through an unexpected gap into the light. And of course it's the Alice-in-Wonderland-style hole that you fall down for adventures and inspiration. But worlds or states of consciousness don't always fit together smoothly. It's a little reminder to take care when stepping between dimensions.

The album also features an acclaimed cover of Pink Floyd's lost psychedelic B-side classic, Julia Dream, a song which I've loved since childhood.

~*Rebsie Fairholm

Mind The Gap track listing

Round Window (4:41)
The Unquiet Grave (7:00)
MacCrimmon's Lament (4:13)
Buain A' Choirce (Reaping Oats) (3:15)
Blackbirds & Thrushes (3:48)
Spirits of the Dead (2:19)
Leafblower (3:41)
Fine Horseman (3:14)
Geordie (5:05)
Julia Dream (3:18)
She Moves Through the Fair (5:20)

You can listen to some of the songs on MySpace or by clicking the 'Listen' link above, where you can listen to AND DOWNLOAD FOR FREE some alternative mixes of album tracks.