Paul Mounsey - NahooToo

Nahoo Too This album improves on the first. Two things are noticeable - there's a monster guitarist playing on some of the tracks which are heavier than on the first album, secondly there is a sense of humour. The similarity with the first album is the hauntingly beautiful music represented by The Fields Of Robert John.

Paul Mounsey has kindly corrected some of my notes and he has also given me some notes he made about NahooToo which I have incorporated into the page. Paul does not like discussing his work, he would rather that people made their own interpretations of the music, but I find that this insight brings an extra dimension to the album.
On the album as a whole he said:

'I think the album can be divided into two parts. The first part is about the idea of 'clearance' in general, whether it be in the Highlands of Scotland, Brasil, the US or anywhere else. All the tracks attempt to approach that subject in some way. The first part ends with Psalm. Turned On The Dog is a kind of entr'acte/intermission/link thing quite distinct from the overall discourse of the album - a bit of trivial fun to disperse any possible pretentiousness. The second part begins with Nahoo and, as far as I know, has no real coherent concept behind it. The exception would be Red River, which is related to the first part in that Red River is a place in Canada (Manitoba) where a group of cleared highlanders from Sutherland were massacred by indians in 185? or thereabouts.'

The sleeve is Different heads by Gill Vicente courtesy of the Futuro 25 Gallery in Brazil.
Iona IRCD050, 1997

Remembrance (Paul Mounsey) 05:27 - the lyrics are part Cavante, and part Yanomami (native Brazilian languages).The final phrases are in Gaelic, repeated in Portuguese. The instruments are Urua flutes and bagpipes. The whole thing rocks along - at first the vocals are discordant but the more you listen to it the more the music makes sense. Not an easy listen but worth persevering with.

'An opening statement. The Scottish element, reflected in the Gaelic text and the pipes, refers to a cleared highlander from Portree in the 1850s setting sail for Canada. This is mirrored in references to the 'cleared' indians of Brazil, through the Uruá flute and the vocals. The connection is established.'(Paul Mounsey)

Wherever You Go (Paul Mounsey) 05:04 - this time all the lyrics are in English, sung by Paul Mounsey and Luis Henrique. This is much easier to listen to than the first track. No traditional instruments here, and Serj plays a pretty mean electric guitar.
North (Paul Mounsey) 05:44 - American radio or TV broadcasts form a background to this beautiful piece of violin music by Maria Ester Brandao with Ilda Chaves Sergi providing a haunting soprano. Half way through good old Serj appears with a heavy guitar piece as a contrast. Finally there is a reprise of the violin theme. That sounds like three different tracks - or even three different CDs, but it works - I guess you have to hear it.

'And so to the crux of the matter. The Highland Clearances have provided a fertile ground indeed for folklore to romanticise the predicament of the highlander, transforming him into a victim of mythic proportions. The focus is always on the poor, down-trodden crofter forced off the land, obliged to set sail for another country. Little, or nothing, is said about the atrocities committed by those very same highlanders once they arrived in their new-found land. The cleared became the clearers; the exploited became the exploiters; and it is easy to understand how a Native American would see the Highland Clearances in a completely different light'. 'This song makes specific reference to the Cree, Mohawk and Inuit peoples.' (Paul Mounsey)

Infinite Contempt (Paul Mounsey) 05:05 - once again Serj's guitar is contrasted with traditional fiddle (it says violin in the sleeve notes).

'It's what you see in the eyes of the children of the down-trodden. I've seen it on indian reservations in the Amazon, in Arizona, in North Dakota. I've seen it all over Africa. I've never seen it in Europe. It's a look that is inherited, not learned. This track is sung from the point of view of the exploiter.' (Paul Mounsey)

Another Clearance (Paul Mounsey) 04:57 - an instrumental - it's Paul Mounsey so it has to be a haunting mix of traditional music from Scotland and North American Indian chants backed in places with a pretty mean percussion section - no credit is given for this so I think it must be a sample.

'Again, Scottish and Native American aspects are blended in an attempt to throw a different light on the Scottish element.' (Paul Mounsey)

Kaiwa Farewell

'It's the only track on the album that was written as a spontaneous reaction to something. In the state of Mato Grosso in western Brasil, there is a tribe of indians called the Guaraní-Kaiwá. They are literally killing themselves off out of despair. They are poor, have no land, no prospects of ever participating in white man's society, and when they manage to get work it's little more than slave labor. The suicide rate among them is much higher proportionately than that of Hungary, number one suicide country in the world. And the highest rate is among the adolescents. Anthropologists have been studying this phenomenon for years and the United Nations has instigated an investigation but many more will die before something concrete is done. The phenomenon has been labelled "The Silent Rebellion". This is not an isolated case. Mass suicide among Native Brazilians can be found in a number of regions.' (Paul Mounsey)

Psalm (Paul Mounsey, traditional) 01:41 - a little guitar instrumental.
Turned On The Dog (Paul Mounsey) 02:38 - this is so funny. A heavy rock intro is suddenly interrupted by a mild female Scottish voice and then restarts. At the end this very proper Scottish voice says that she got carried away .... well I guess you have to hear it. The track is Serj on a Mammoth guitar really letting rip with a little backing from bagpipes.
Nahoo (Paul Mounsey, traditional) 05:59 - a song about a sailor who returns home to find that his love is not there.
The Fields Of Robert John (Paul Mounsey ) 04:30 - this is the track most played by Bob Harris. If you want to be convinced that you should buy it this is the track you should listen to - it is so beautiful...

'About a hundred miles north of São Paulo there is a little town called Campos do Jordão (literally Fields of Jordan), a popular holiday resort among the affluent upper-middle class of São Paulo. Few people know that the town owes its existence today to a Scotsman called Robert John Reid of Inverness. At the beginning of this century he was hired to do a surveying job for a French firm. Before he could finish the job the firm went bust and they ended up paying him with the very land he was surveying. This Scot was responsible for building the school, the hospital, bringing both the railroad and the highway to the town. He devoted the rest of his life to the place and eventually died penniless. He is "remembered" today by a street that carries his name.' (Paul Mounsey)

Fall (Paul Mounsey, 'The Little Cascade' - W. MacLennan) 04:03 - another haunting piece of music
A Mhairead Og (Young Margaret) 1 ( Traditional arranged Paul Mounsey) 01:07 - a traditional ballad sung in Gaelic and English by Flora MacNeil backed by Paul Mounsey on keyboards with heavier instrumental breaks interspersed with and intertwining with the folk song.
A Mhairead Og (Young Margaret) 2 ( Paul Mounsey, traditional) 04:18 - Paul tells me that the difference between traditional arranged by Paul Mounsey and Paul Mounsey/Traditional is really for copyright purposes.
Red River (Paul Mounsey) 03:14 - This track features a rather nice bottleneck guitar, bringing in a piece of violin/flute music, wonderfully evocative. The flutes are played by Teco Cardoso and are transverse flutes, Brazilian wooden flutes and a tin whistle.
Hope You're Not Guilty (Paul Mounsey ) 04:41 - once again samples from radio/TV/movies introduce this track and then form the background. I'm afraid that this time I find the repeated samples irritating

'Not to be taken seriously. Having watched too much CNN one night, I called on Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Fernando Collor (our impeached President), the wife of the Oklahoma bomber, a crazy TV evangelist, a hooker and a cast of thousands to provide the lyrics about this one. After so much bullshit, all that remained was to have an entire football stadium tell them all where to stick it!' (Paul Mounsey)

Nahoo Reprise (Traditional arranged Paul Mounsey) 03:55 - not much more to say than - it's a reprise of Nahoo!
Lullaby (Tim Young, Paul Mounsey) 03:06 - sounds rather like a Clannad track. No heavy guitar, no samples - it's a lullaby.

'aka Lullaby For Denis. To round things off, a song for all the street kids everywhere. We have more than our fair share here in São Paulo. Late one night I saw Denis (no more than 8 years old) alone at his usual corner, standing in the pouring rain crying his eyes out. No shelter, no future, no point.' (Paul Mounsey)