ALI Smith claims to have little or no musical talent or training — other than having learned to read by looking at the labels of her older siblings' record collections in their Inverness council house.
"I have no musical background as such," said Smith, the Whitbread Award-winning novelist. "But I can play the harmonica . . . in a quite annoying way!"
Despite this Smith has just made a simple and stunning contribution to the Scottish music scene — with a song she co-wrote for the Ballads of the Book CD, recently released on Chemikal Underground Records.
This unique CD release brings together talents from Scotland's music and literary collectives, with well-known Scots authors and poets being paired with bands and recording artists from around the country.
There is no harmonica to be found on Ali Smith's contribution, although her poem "Half an Apple" was set to music by guitarist John Douglas of the Ayrshire indie band the Trashcan Sinatras — resulting in a classic love song.
"It brings me out, just listening to it, in those shivers which let you know something is a really well-made thing" Smith told Douglas after hearing her collaborator's touching composition.
Their joint songwriting effort came about almost by chance. Smith happened to meet Roddy Woomble — frontman of the Edinburgh band Idlewild — at what she describes as a "posh supper" in the glamorous surroundings of Holyrood House. Woomble discussed with her his idea for a CD which would be compiled of songs co-written by some of Scotland's finest writers and musicians and supported by the Scottish Arts Council.
"It was the best thing that happened to me that night for sure, in among all the old portraits of royalty," Smith said. "Roddy is such a good energy. And he simply asked me if I'd like to be involved in the project. He described it and I said yes".
Woomble struck gold when he decided to pair Smith up with the Trashcan Sinatras. Smith, born in Inverness in 1962 and now living in Cambridge, would give the project a Highland flair. The Trashcan Sinatras are known for crafting pop gems full of jangly guitars and memorable hooks reminiscent of the heady days of 1980s Glasgow label Postcard Records. The band has legions of devoted fans around the globe, although they still maintain a fairly low profile in the UK.
The pathos of Smith's poem appealed to their guitarist and gifted songsmith Douglas, who hails from Irvine and belongs to Smith's generation.
"Her work was something that I connected with," Douglas said. "She covers emotional and personal terrain and some of the other poets involved are known for their political or historical bent. As a songwriter I am drawn to the personal and shy away from the political."
"'Half An Apple' seemed to be a scene of domestic loneliness, a house and an inhabitant haunted by a love that is no longer there or possibly never was," he said.
Having been given the green light by Woomble to "take an axe to them if ye like", Douglas was given three poems by Smith and asked to choose one. He set about transforming the already accessible "Half An Apple" — an aching poem about leaving half an apple for a missing loved one — into a chilling ballad.
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"I sat with my guitar and the poem brought the mood," Douglas said. "A mood of loneliness, regret and somehow a slight flavour of the supernatural. So the music came slow and simple and heartbreaking. The flow of Ali's words had a natural rhythm so they lent themselves very well to melody.
"The bare songwriting was finished in an evening."
Frank Reader, the Trashcans' wispy-voiced lead singer and brother of Eddi Reader — who in 2003 released an album of songs based on the poems of Robbie Burns — then supplied a sensitive vocal interpretation. On the recording, Reader's voice is framed by Douglas' delicate acoustic guitar figures and Roddy Hart on upright piano.
Emma Pollock of the Delgados added a ghostly backing vocal and the piece was finished off by "Evil" Graham Lee of Australia's the Triffids, who recorded a cutting pedal-steel guitar solo.
Smith was delighted with the end product.
"John Douglas took the original poem and both slimmed it down and allowed it to expand into a beautiful song," she said. "It's one of my real favourites on the album. My other favourite is `The Good Years', a beautiful poem by Edwin Morgan rendered into what I think is a truly classic song by Karine Polwart.
"John found something profoundly haunting in it and gave it a perfect lyrical shape and Frank Reader has the kind of voice that makes the song intimate and moving, so that it's not easily forgotten."
It is high praise indeed from an author whose work has reaped the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award for 2004's The Accidental, a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award for Hotel World (2001) and several shortlistings for the Orange Prize and Man Booker Prize for fiction.
"Me and the boys in the band were totally cheered up," Douglas said. "In an unrewarding business it is moments like these that fling fuel on the fire."
The CD, which was released on 5th March, stands as a testament to the creativity this country has fostered over the last 25 years or more. Bringing together a number of award-winning authors including Morgan, AL Kennedy and Ian Rankin and critically acclaimed musicians like Vashti Bunyan and Woomble's own Idlewild, it really is a treasure trove of Scottish delights.
A documentary about the making of the album was aired on STV on 1st March.
Douglas also "Ballads of the Book" as a snapshot of the current Scottish music and writing scenes — one that he would like to see repeated, maybe in 10 years time.
"At its core, the album is a document of some of the talents kicking around these hills and glens and hopefully the idea will shine through the decades and be taken up again by future talents," he said.
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