Country and Northern from the heart of the Orkneys, Haverin deliver a solid and sound debut, worthy of note and attention.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE

The Northern Isles seem now to be overtaking the Western Isles in terms of the number of bands they seem able to support, seemingly one hailing out of every town of every island. Haverin are the latest of these, from the Orkneys. They have been around for a while, big fish in their little pond, forming originally to play at a friend’s wedding, in 2022. Clearly far too good for a one-off, the six members decided to keep a good thing going, and now have an album’s worth of material to take on, not only the mainland of Scotland, but the world.

Probably best described via the A word, there are certainly country related fumes here, but there is also a heady whiff of traditional Orcadian folk in there too. Remember the band, Rock, Salt and Nails, from still further north, in the Shetlands? Well, they would be a good starting point for comparison.

Their calling card is likely the strong vocal front line, with no fewer than 4 lead vocalists, in Aileen and Megan Bain, Jenny Keldie and Graeme Miller, each capable of tackling songs alone, then coming together for rich harmonies. Keldie adds fiddle, with Miller on guitar, with Andy Brown, who also sings, on keys and Amy Berry on bass. Percussion comes from as stomp box, via Miller’s foot. The songs are predominantly written by Berry, with a couple or so shared credits.

SPECIAL SIBLING HARMONIES

Urgent guitar strokes inform the introduction to Before The Ship Goes Down, with one, then two female voices slotting in. The sleeve notes aren’t required to guess this must be Aileen and Megan Bain, such is the inbuilt kinship of their sound, sibling harmonies always providing something special. With the rest of the band joining from the second verse, the piano, together with the bass, lays down a solid scaffold for the fiddle to fly, chipping over and between the vocals like a bonxie, the great skua that swoops around these northern isles. It’s quite a start.

Miller and Kelpie get then to air their tonsils for White Flag, there no mistaking where we are: “The wind still blows and the world keeps spinning round“. This is an attractive duet, starting with Miller singing over his finger-picked guitar, his voice a slightly faltering tenor, swept, around the edges, by that wind. Kelpie has then a warm alto, the two fitting in perfect imperfection. Little snakes of fiddle drift around them, piano still the main ballast, dropping back for a briefest of acapella, it clear the Bain sisters are also present.

FROM STOMPY TO SAD

The stomp is well stompy for It’s My Time, which is the opportunity all for Berry to throw some low register shapes, in a song that is a prime slice of roadhouse country, with Keldie sawing away with gusto, as the the Bain sisters put their mouths where the money is. If this all sounds promising, the band next pull out all the stops for Monsters, a tremendously sad yet celebratory ode to defeating self-doubt: “All these monsters in my head, and the ghosts beneath my bed, and the fear that I’m not good enough“, demons familiar to many. To an elegiac circular piano motif, Aileen Bain finds enough kindness in herself, as she lives the song, to eke maximum compassion from and into Berry’s lyric.

Rivers And Roads then takes a folkier path, with what sounds like mandolin and more of that lyrical piano. The bass and stomp combine to effect a full rhythm section, fiddle emphasising and underlining Miller’s vocal, a song he co-wrote. With Megan Bain taking up the lead, the title track is one of those classic home songs that the Scottish idiom excels in, from Caledonia to Charlie Rich’s I Feel Like Going Home, as covered by the Battlefield Band. with warm glimmers of recognition from abroad.

CONTAINS SELKIES

Being Orcadians, there has to be a song about a Selkie, it’s the rules. Selkie Lass is a lively and light-hearted ballad of not just a Selkie lass but her Selkie man and their 7 babies. With the choral female voices and multi-tracked fiddles, it is a lighter song and reminds this listener of the Nova Scotian singing siblings, the Rankin Family. But there is only so much room for froth, as Clowns hauls the mood back into Appalachiana, mountain music from somewhere with none. Keldie’s fiddle is on fire, mandolin again joining the fray.

Pieces is an another construct of downbeat internalisism, set to piano and guitar. Despite the glass half empty words, the melody contrives to find some hope, unless that is mine, projected for the writer. Possibly realising the chilliness now present, Upside Down lifts the temperature, as Megan B. and Miller trade and share verses. With a slowed down rolling piano motif, think, astonishingly, Werewolves Of London, it is a catchy moodcatcher. Fairytales continues the idea of upside down, as in the emotions the band are plying, song by song. This sees Berry finding more solace than this sad sounding song initially has you expecting: “I found love that won’t let me down, more than a pretty crown, I got verb over noun, I found love that won’t let me down“. Written with Mary Ozaraga, it is sung by guest vocalist, Alice Tait.

STIFLE THAT YEE-HAW

Crazy Dance, with Miller’s slide guitar, or is it lap steel, evokes the strongest sense of country yet, the temptation to yee-haw needing stifling, with it then breaking into a commercial motivational anthem, replete with handclaps. Possibly a little out of place, amongst the sterner stuff on show, for what it is, they do it very well. As they do the Linda/Dolly/Emmylou style acoustic ballad, Thomas. More lap steel and chiming piano, but the stars of this song are the combined vocals, grouping around Keldie’s lead. Rather than Berry, this closing song was written by Keldie, and it forms an affecting conclusion to this really very good debut.

AND SWALLOW ANY HUMS AND HAWS

To haver means to vacillate or maunder; I’m guessing this the derivation of the band name, and it is a wry and deprecating dig at any 5 year plan or some such. It is such a lovely word and one that I use often, it describing also much of my activity. Let’s hope any haverin(g) won’t interfere with them getting off their island and on tour.

Here is the gauntly beautiful Monsters:

Haverin: Website

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