Artist: Seven Nations
Year: 2000

Tracks:

  1. The King of Oblivion
  2. Seeds of Life
  3. Fiddle Set
  4. Scream/The Surprise Ceilidh Band Set
  5. God
  6. O'er the Moor and Amoung the Heather
  7. All You People
  8. Skyezinha/The Egret
  9. A Rare Auld Time
  10. Pipe Set
  11. Trains

Seven Nations' seventh album, The Pictou Sessions, is subtitled "An Acoustic Album" but don't expect it to be exactly mellow. Their previous album, The Factory, followed a membership shakeup that saw the exit of the "Antipyper" Neil Anderson and the arrival of new highland bagpiper Scott Long and fiddler Dan Stacey. The Factory was energetic but a little rough around the edges. The Pictou Sessions finds the band meshing much more tightly and moves 7N back toward the middle of the Celtic-to-rock continuum.

Recorded over five days in the town of Pictou in Nova Scotia, Canada, with a bunch of their friends, this album captures the live, jam session sound that is Seven Nations' strength. Kirk McLeod and company also revisit two Anderson-era standards, Scream and God, and play one of the best up-tempo arrangements of Scotland the Brave as part of The Surprise Ceilidh Band Set.

This is easily their most professional-sounding album, and a great introduction to the band for newcomers.

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