Quinie – Forefowk, Mind Me

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BRAND NEW YELLOW VINYL VARIANT NOW PRESELLING – 300 COPIES ONLY WORLDWIDE.
THE GUARDIAN #1 FOLK ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2025!
‘it’s soul-rattling stuff, reminding us of the past as we approach our fragile future’
https:///music/2025/dec/24/the-10-best-folk-albums-of-2025
‘Alive with ideas , this record holds the past like a cauldron, broiling bewitchingly’ – 4/5 THE GUARDIAN FOLK ALBUM OF THE MONTH
‘Forefowk, Mind Me may have been several years in the making, and it may draw heavily on the songs of the past, but it feels like the perfect snapshot of a type of folk music that is unapologetically and gloriously present.’ – KLOF Album Of The Month
https://klofmag.com/2025/05/quinie-forefowk-mind-me/
‘Quinie mines an overlooked rich seam of traditional Scottish folk song treasure and brings it to the surface with wondrous results’ – WIRE
‘Instrumentally and vocally it’s a stunning set ; arresting, demanding, revealing and absorbing. These songs travel.’ – 4/5 SONGLINES + feature + cover mount track.
Quinie in session on BBC Radio 3 – Late Junction (29 mins 30 seconds in)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002cp81
‘With the album’s development taking place on Quinie’s travels across Argyll with her horse Maisie, the resulting record is remarkably transportative and evocative, feeling more rooted in an early Scots crofting community than it does of Glasgow in 2025’ –

“Listening to the record is to hear that tight knot of connections to her surroundings made palpable. It’s in the way her singing emerges with such easy power on unaccompanied numbers like ‘Bonnie Udny’ and ‘Generations Of Change’, and how it weaves so effortlessly into the enveloping drone of pipes on songs like the resonant ‘Col My Love’, the brooding ‘Sae Slight A Thing’ and the frayed ‘Cam A Ye Fair’. It’s in the way her vocals skitter and dance in tandem with fiddle on the delightful ‘Macaphee Turn The Cattle’, over a ramshackle rhythm”

The record is largely sung in Scots language, one of Scotland’s three official languages along with Gaelic and English. “Scots gives me a way of expressing myself which is connected directly with the landscapes I love. It brings the songs alive and it is a fascinating language. The name of the record is in Scots – Forefowk means the people who came before, or ancestors. When we say ‘mind me,’ we can mean a few things- remind, remember, watch over or care for me. The record explores how tradition needs to be constantly reconnected with, built upon, looked after, and shared.”
Quinie sings with a style inspired by Scottish Traveller singers. “I began singing unaccompanied Scots Song in 2015 after hearing Scots Traveller singer Sheila Stewart on the radio. Initially I felt like I shouldn’t sing these songs because I’m not a Traveller, and I saw people around me doing that in a way that made me uncomfortable. But on the other hand this music made sense to me and I felt driven to learn. Over the years I have met Traveller friends who taught me that settled people sharing these songs could contribute to raising awareness. Scottish Travellers are marginalised and discriminated against in modern Scotland, despite being custodians of so many of our important traditions. So I started to perform them and tell this story. From there I built on my repertoire and started writing my own songs”.
To develop this record, Quinie travelled across Argyll with her horse. They went on a pilgrimage of sorts through the ancient landscapes of the West of Scotland to explore the interconnected relationships between people, ancestors, animals, and place. The album’s vinyl release is accompanied by a book and film, documenting this unusual research process.
Forefowk, Mind Me was recorded in August 2024 at The Big Shed in Highland Perthshire with support from Creative Scotland. Quinie is accompanied by an ensemble of musicians: Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh (viola), Oliver Pitt (duduk, bouzouki, percussion), Harry Górski-Brown (small pipes, violin), and Stevie Jones (double bass, recording, and mixing). Each of these artists brings their own distinctive voice, bridging contemporary experimental practice with worlds of traditional and early music.