BALLAD LINES (2025 CONCERT CAST EP)

BALLAD LINES (2025 CONCERT CAST EP)
https://www.sendspace.com/file/o4mh5i

Show: Ballad Lines

Music & Lyrics: Finn Anderson

Book: Finn Anderson & Tania Azevedo

Co-created by award-winning Scottish singer-songwriter Finn Anderson (Islander, Streets) and award-winning director Tania Azevedo (&Juliet, But I’m a Cheerleader), Ballad Lines (previously A Mother’s Song) is a heart-opening new musical directed by Azevedo that shines a light on identity, belonging and the stories we choose to carry with us. The musical began in 2014, commissioned jointly by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Northwestern’s American Music Theatre Project. An earlier iteration of the musical received its world premiere in 2023 at Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling under its former title A Mother’s Song. Ballad Lines is written by Anderson and Azevedo with music and lyrics by Anderson. Full casting for the London premiere will be announced in the coming months.

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 Ireland, 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 performed by an all-female band, breathing new life into music that has echoed through generations, unearthing the deep ties between storytelling, heritage, and identity. A new 17-track concept album, recorded by an all-star guest cast, will be released on 12 September 2025. To celebrate the release there will be a special one-off concert at Cottiers in Glasgow on 15 September featuring live performances from a host of talented Scottish artists from the album including Gaelic Singer of the Year Kim Carnie, Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland Award-winner Kirsty Findlay, Celtic Connections festival regular Beth Malcolm, Dylan Wood, currently playing the leading role of Orpheus in Hadestown in London’s West End and Parisa Shahmir, fresh from starring in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Watermill Theatre. They will be joined by the album’s full all-female band featuring one of Scotland’s foremost acoustic guitarists Anna Massie, renowned Highland fiddle player Laura Wilkie, 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).