BALLAD LINES Will Release 18-Track Concept Album

The music from major new Scottish folk musical Ballad Lines will be released as an ambitious 18 track concept album on 12th September, bringing together leading female folk and theatre artists from both sides of the Atlantic.

The newly-recorded album will feature a talented cast of top musical theatre performers including Olivier Award-winning actress Rebecca Trehearn (Show Boat, New London Theatre), Frances McNamee (Girl from the North Country, UK/Ireland Tour), Olivier Award-nominee Kirsty Findlay (Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Duke of York's Theatre ), Amber Sylvia Edwards (TINA: The Tina Turner Musical, The Aldwych), The Stage Debut Award for Best Actress in a Musical winner Danielle Fiamanya (The Colour Purple, Curve Theatre, Leicester/ Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre), ITV's Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream finalist Owen Johnston (Miss Siagon, UK Tour), Parisa Shahmir (Jesus Christ Superstar, Watermill Theatre) and Dylan Wood, currently playing the leading role of Orpheus in Hadestown, West End.

Joining them on the album are a host of Scottish and North American guest artists including Gaelic Singer of the Year Kim Carnie, JUNO Award-winning banjo player Kaia Kater, four-time BBC Alba Scots Singer of the Year Siobhan Miller and Celtic Connections festival regular Beth Malcom. The album's all-female band is made up of one of Scotland's foremost acoustic guitarists Anna Massie, renowned Highland fiddle player Laura Wilkie (Kinnaris Quintet, Rachel Sermanni), electric guitarist Jenny Clifford (fresh from performing in Thom Yorke's Hamlet Hail to the Thief), bassist Charlotte Printer (who has performed with Joesef, Altered Images and Skipinnish) and Scottish-Icelandic percussionist and drummer Signy Jakobsdottir (who has performed with Lloyd Cole and Karine Polwart).

In the run-up to the full album launch, a teaser EP of 4 tracks will be released on 18th July and a single, Queen Among The Heather, will be released on 29th August. The release of the full album will be celebrated with a very special one-off concert at Cottiers in Glasgow on 15th September, featuring artists from the album.

Ballad Lines (previously A Mother's Song) is a heart-opening, 5 star-reviewed new musical that shines a light on how the songs and choices of our ancestors can change the course of our futures.

Sarah comes from a long line of ballad singers, but has severed ties with the folk traditions of her childhood. In modern-day New York City, Sarah's rediscovery of these songs and the family stories within them, force her to go on an unexpected and life-changing journey across time. Spanning continents and generations,Ballad Lines follows three women bound together by blood, song, and choice. In 17th-century Scotland, Cait, a minister's wife, wrestles with the constraints of her role. In 18th-century Ulster, Jean, a spirited teenager, steps into an uncertain future. In the present day, Sarah, a queer woman, finds herself torn between the life she's built and the deep, unexpected pull of her ancestors' voices. Ballad Lines weaves together original new songs with centuries-old traditional Scottish, Irish, and Appalachian ballads, breathing new life into music that has echoed through generations, unearthing the deep ties between storytelling, heritage, and identity.

The new album will feature 18 songs, including new arrangements of traditional ballads like Handsome Molly, The Four Marys and Let No Man Steal Your Thyme alongside 14 original songs by songwriter Finn Anderson. The musicians on the album come from a diverse range of folk, roots, pop, rock and alternative music scenes, and the music draws on a range of styles while staying true to its folk origins.

Conceived by Finn Anderson (whose previous musical Islander was performed Off-Broadway and Off-West End and recorded for BBC Radio 4) and Tania Azevedo (Resident Director & Juliet London West End), the musical began in 2014, commissioned jointly by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Northwestern's American Music Theatre Project. Workshops in Chicago and concert showcases at MacRobert Arts Centre honed the piece from 2018 through 2022, culminating in its critically acclaimed world premiere at Stirling's Macrobert Arts Centre in February 2023 under the show's previous title A Mother's Song.

“This has been one of the most challenging and exciting projects of my career so far — a culmination of everything I've learned working in music and theatre over the past decade” says Finn. “Our dream for this project was to create a true fusion of folk and musical theatre. For the album, we've brought together some of the most exciting folk and traditional musicians and singers from Scotland and North America, alongside some of the UK's best musical theatre performers. The result is an 18-track score that I hope captures both the authenticity of traditional Scottish and Appalachian ballad storytelling, and the dramatic emotional sweep of great musical theatre.

Most of the musicians and folk singers on the album have not worked in theatre before, and the Scottish and Appalachian traditional styles are relatively untapped territory for a musical. As an artist who straddles the music and theatre scenes, it's so rewarding for me to cross-pollinate and blend these two worlds, bringing artists from the different sides of my work together in a way that feels really authentic to who I am and also just really right for this story. Ballad Lines explores how songs travel — how they evolve, shift, and change hands over time. So it feels especially meaningful to have assembled a cross-genre, cross-continental company to bring these songs to life.”

“Ballad Lines places queer and female voices at the heart of an art form historically dominated by patriarchal narratives.” says Tania. “By reinterpreting traditional ballads through the lens of a modern queer woman tracing her matrilineal line, we both hope this show reclaims folklore as a space for diverse, intersectional storytelling—something rarely seen in either folk or musical theatre.”

The teaser EP featuring 4 tracks (Prologue, Unexpected Visitor, Back in the Box and Change of Plan) is available from 18th July on all major online stores and streaming sites. The single Queen Among The Heather will be released on 29th August. The full album will be released on 12th September.

Tickets for the Ballad Lines launch concert on 15th September are on sale from 18th July. Visit https://www.balladlines.com

The music from Ballad Lines has been recorded and released with funding from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland. The album is co-produced and engineered by David Macfarlane, with additional engineering by Ru Lemer and Kevin Burleigh, and mastered by Lauren Gilmour at Novasound. The project has been supported by Aria Entertainment and KT Producing.

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