Reviews

Scotland on Sunday Review

These innovative, assured and beautiful arrangements place the young Edinburgh harpist at the forefront of the current
evolutionary surge in Scottish musical technique and accomplishment.
It's not just the molten fingering in the flying, percussively driven reels and dance grooves, or the relaxed precision in
clever variations of traditional pipe tunes. But it's especially in the slow and medium tempos, as in the re-paced 'Favourite
Dram' with James Ross's arresting piano chords, that her harp exerts its undeniable and inexorable tug at the heart strings.

Folkwords Review
Ailie Robertson is a fine musician of that there is no doubt. She’s also individualist and inventive, and takes her virtuoso harp
skills in directions many ignore or are too afraid to try. Her debut solo album reflects that, it also proves the clasarch is not
simply a solo instrument, in Ailie’s hands it’s equally at home leading a band. Ailie’s album ‘First Things First’ is a golden
opportunity to hear a harp played with flair, precision and consummate skill, plus passionate drive and gentle reserve.
There's so much depth to her music it could take a long time to discover it all, but keep listening you'll love the journey.
Ailie’s list of awards is enough to recognise her skill. There’s many clichés you could use such as ‘old head on young
shoulders’, and ‘talent beyond her years’ – but they don’t come close. You know without doubt you’re listening to inspired
genius. Ailie effortlessly blends traditional Scottish and Irish jigs, contemporary tunes, airs, hornpipes, reels, and polkas with
her stunning original compositions. ‘Spirits’ is an outstanding air and once more Ailie proves,were it needed how delicately her
fingers can touch the harp. Another of her compositions is Sands of Hosta’ - it’s just exquisite that’s all you need to say. This is
quite simply music for the soul. Ailie’s standing as an accomplished exponent of the clasarch precedes her, this album will
only strengthen that reputation.

FolkradioUK Review:
This is an incredible debut solo from Ailie Robertson. Her credentials are astounding for a young musician of 24 years. I
really struggled to find enough words to put across my praise for this magnificent debut. It's moving, beautiful and
totally original. It is a masterful album that combines Irish and Scottish influence as well as an undeniably clever
contemporary twist. Ailie shows that the Celtic harp can be just as at home with guitar, bass, percussion and piano as it can be
as a solo instrument. This album will take you to places you have never been before, quite simply it is mind-blowing!

Chicago Irish-American News: "This new album is wonderful. A really talented harp player, Ailie Robertson, with a fresh
take on the music. Who said all harp music sounds the same? A real contender for Newcomer of the Year."

LiveIreland.com: "Wow! Harp player, Ailie Robertson has just released First Things First. What a brilliant debut! We're
listening to this repeatedly. Wow!"

Maverick Review
Award winning harp player produces debut CD sprinkled with magic and joy. From the smooth jazz rhythm introduction of
the opening The Exploding Bow and throughout the entire album there is evidence of a confidence in the instrument and
material that allows Ailie to take a mixture of traditional and contemporary tunes and bend them to her musical whim. Tunes
like Swerving for Bunnies, and The Futterat, with their complex time changes fairly skip and dance and bring the inevitable
smile. Alongside these are tunes like the self-composed Sands of Hosta and the beautiful, haunting Spirits which in the hands
of a player of Ailie’s class has the ability to tear your heart out. It is this intelligent juxtaposition of the old and new, ancient
and contemporary along with the sheer standard of the playing which makes this CD so vibrant and compelling.

Scotsman Review:
AILIE Robertson's debut CD confirms the major promise that the Edinburgh harpist has shown in the course of picking up an
armload of prizes at successive National Mods. The harpist is pushing the instrument in fresh and contemporary-sounding
musical directions, and the band setting that she adopts here is a very effective complement to her own virtuoso technique
and expressive interpretations in the role of lead instrumentalist. Her lovely, evocative execution of slow airs is particularly
impressive, but she is equally intent on underlining the fact that the harp is also an appropriate vehicle for flying jigs, reels and
polkas, all dispatched in vibrant, sure-fingered style.
Taplas Review:
THE SURGE of wonderfully creative tradition-inspired musicians from Scotland continues apace with this absolutely
stunning debut album from harpist Ailie Robertson. Her credentials are already impeccable and impressive, with
numerous awards to her name.Ailie pushes the boundaries of harp technique in exciting but always intensely musical ways.
Joyous, lively and forthright tracks, such as jazz-tinged The Exploding Bow, are balanced by a couple of slow airs for solo
harp, where the beauty, the poise, the pauses and the lyricism took my breath away. With First Things First,
Robertson earns herself a place among the cream of Scottish musicians.

Irish Times Review

Shattering preconceptions about the fragility of her chosen instrument, Scottish debutante harpist Ailie Robertson basks in a
heady excavation of the driving rhythms that lie dormant between the strings. Forget misty images of lovelorn maidens at
lattice windows. Instead, step into a world where Robertson's harp jousts with percussion, bass, guitar and piano. Her
opening salvo, The Exploding Bow, sets the tone for a funky excursion. The tunes revel in the unpredictability of newfound
company. Robertson's genius is in straddling the Irish and Scottish traditions with a fresh-faced and utterly bearable
lightness of being.

LIVEIRELAND Review:
Good heavens, Ailie Robertson of Scotland can play the harp! So, there are lots and lots of harp players, right? Correct. But,
now, Ailie Robertson becomes the third in a full trio of the best of the best in the music. She is a superior musician,
understands the tradition, has her own style and is at home in trad as in the jazz idiom. The amount of major awards she has
won for her harp playing would fill this column. The awards don't tell the story. Her music does. Get this album. We are
playing it constantly. This is wonderful. A major, new star.

Netrhythms Review:
Young Scottish harpist Ailie's pedigree is already impressive. Each track brings its own special delights, starting with the
almost jazzy insouciance of the opening set of jigs, where the rippling joy of the harp line offsets James Ross’s classy
piano. The playing is sprightly, yet with an enviably relaxed precision of attack that holds the listener's attention throughout
- and this quality applies equally to the slower-paced items, notably the gorgeous slow air Spirits, which forms its
centrepiece. The Irish and Scottish hornpipes that are wedded together on the gently swinging Marry Me Now set are a
model of delicate playing, with Ailie's deft syncopations and skilfully bent “blue notes” enticingly complemented by
guitar and bass; Ailie's treatment of The Favourite Dram brings out its inherent beauty in a way I've not heard on any other
recording of the tune, while her own composition Sands Of is both genuinely tranquil and introspectively evocative. And
you can hear Ailie taking the harp technique into hitherto-uncharted areas of innovation and expertise on tracks such as
the infectious Angus Jigs set: the closer you listen, the more detail there is to revel in. First Things First is a thoroughly
charming disc, replete with both a consummate finger-dancing intelligence and an irrepressible joie-de-vivre.

JMI Review:
Robertson’s numerous awards and performances have brought her much attention so far, but this recording definitively
marks her rising status, and she is set to become an important figure in future conversations about the harp. The
taste and balance exhibited in First Things First reveals that Robertson has the ability to record music which is both
detailed, virtuosic and accessible, ensuring her a widespread audience. Her virtuosity is audible throughout the recording,
but never over emphasised. The note has been struck; both First Things First and Ailie Robertson will sustain for
quite some time to come.

Irish Music Magazine Review:

Harp and soul: Ailie Robertson's debut recording delivers both in fine style. This is innovative harping, true to the roots of
the music but adding new fruits and branches, without gilding the lily. The old, the new, the borrowed, and even the blues
are polished and embellished by Ailie's harp. Marry Me Now, Spirits and The Lisnagun are just some of the wide and well-
chosen selection which First Things First spreads before us. First rate music, first class playing, and first place on my list
of albums for 2008: Ailie Robertson's debut CD has all three.

American Public Radio: "Get ready, gang. We'll be playing this a lot in the next few months. A stunning debut called, First
Things First. Scotland gives us a real winner. Listen to this..."