Namesake family mark Burns Night with new interpretations of the Bard’s songs

WHEN the Burns family collaborated on a new collection of songs written by their most famous namesake, they had two priorities.

The first was to do justice to Robert Burns’ songs.

The second was not to burn the mince and tatties.

Singer-songwriter Ryan Joseph Burns called on the considerable talents of his family of musicians when recording Burns On Burns, a new interpretation of Burns songs, at his studio in Dullatur, Lanarkshire.

His aunt Jerry Burns is an acclaimed singer-songwriter whose work has been covered by Bryan Ferry and who regularly collaborates with Oscar-winning Glasgow composer Craig Armstrong.

Dad Gerard, one of Scotland’s most famous contemporary artists, was also a singer and frontman of the band Valerie And The Week of Wonders in the 1980s.

Older brother Matthew and younger brother Patrick were also around to lend their vocals.

Ryan, 26, said: “There were a lot of family parties when I grew up and there would always be singing. My dad taught me my first four chords, and as I got older I started playing at the parties, too.

“We’d play songs together and harmonise with each other. As soon as I started to record my own music, I thought, ‘Why would I get anyone else in, when I have ready-made singers to sing with?

“It’s that thing about family harmony, blood harmony. There’s something about the sound.”

“But when we were doing the harmonies for Up In The Morning early, which has me, my aunt, my dad and my brother Patrick on it, Patrick was in the kitchen making a pot of mince and potatoes.

“He walked in and told my dad it was his turn to stir the pot so he could go in to the studio to record his harmony.

“Then they swapped back – Patrick was back on the pot of mince and dad was in doing his harmonies. I wish we’d caught it on camera.”

Ryan, who is playing at two Burns Nights in Glasgow this week, admits he sometimes jokes when asked about his surname, teasing that perhaps the family songwriting connection stretches as far back as the Bard.

He said: “I’ve been asked in the past when I’ve been in America whether I was related to Burns. Sometimes it’s fun just to say yes, he’s a direct relation. But my Burns lineage only goes back a few generations to Ireland where the name was Byrne. For whatever reason it became Burns in Scotland.”

Ryan has every reason to be in jocular mood when visiting the States,
especially New York, where he launched his debut album Absence last April as part of the annual Tartan Week celebrations in Manhattan.

But back on home turf, Ryan is focused on the legendary Burns. His family has covered the words of the Bard on the five-track EP, released on Wednesday, which features atmospheric interpretations of Robert Burns’ Up In The Morning Early, Is There For Honest Poverty (A Man’s a Man), Ae Fond Kiss, and No Churchman Am I.

Ryan said: “A Man’s A Man is about poverty, entitledness and how you
overcome those things, which still applies today.

“Up In The Morning Early is about it being freezing and not wanting to get out of bed, and A Churchman Am I is a drinking song, which I put my own music to.

“People study Burns for years to understand his work. I took 10 months over five songs which meant something to me. I’ve called it Burns On Burns Vol 1, which means I might do another volume. There’s so much of his work, and when I tried some songs there was a sense of, not now, but maybe later’.

“It’s overwhelming how much of his work there is, and it was hard to pick just five.”