#mandola

Released June 2026. "OUR SHIP IS READY" - NEW ALBUM OUT JUNE 5TH.

There's a reason folk music has survived every storm humanity has thrown at it. It carries people through. And on their ninth album, Our Ship Is Ready, CARA do exactly what traditional music has always done - they look the hardest realities of our time squarely in the eye, and still see what's worth holding onto and celebrating.

Emigration. Love. Loss. Climate change. These aren't easy subjects, but CARA have experience of navigating choppy waters. With a repertoire spanning their own original compositions and finely crafted arrangements of songs and tunes from the Irish and Scottish traditions, the band weave the old and the new into something that feels both timeless and relevant.

"Singing the songs and playing the music of past generations can help us to engage with the realities of modern life in a different, and sometimes deeper, way." - Gudrun Walther.

Produced by Juergen Treyz at artes - Studio in Esslingen, Germany, Our Ship Is Ready also showcases an exceptional cast of collaborators - including award - winning musicians, Irish percussionist Cormac Byrne (Co. Waterford) and concertina player Susan Coleman (Co. Donegal), who bring a very special sense of pulse and colour to the album.

Cara have spent over two decades earning a reputation as one of Europe's finest folk acts, with two Irish Music Awards, a devoted international following, and critical acclaim.

"Music of the highest order" - Mike Harding

"They boldly go where others fear to tread" - Irish Times

"A musical force to be reckoned with...they can really fly" - The Scotsman

"Strong on emotion, story and poetry...impressive, dramatic and accomplished" - Folk Radio UK

"A world class band in top form" - Irish Music Magazine

Our Ship Is Ready is their most considered statement yet. It won't tell you everything will be fine. But it will remind you why it's worth trying.

Cara in profile:

Cara are a multi-national band with Scottish and German members, CARA tour worldwide with unique interpretations of Celtic music, firmly rooted in the Irish and Scottish tradition, presenting innovative arrangements of traditional material alongside critically acclaimed original compositions. Fronted by two female lead singers, CARA combine vocals, piano, fiddle, flute, guitar, uilleann pipes and accordion with a dry-witted and charismatic stage presence.

Gudrun Walther (fiddle, accordion, vocals),

Juergen Treyz (guitars, mandola, dobro, lap steel, electric bass, harmonium, rhodes, synth, vocals),

Simon Pfisterer (uilleann pipes, flute, whistles) and

Kim Edgar (piano, vocals).

https://cara-music.com/en/

https://www.facebook.com/caramusic

My art @artbysherryle

Submitting to @mostlycatsmostly

November 2023

Halt: *Looks at Will's mandola and raises his eyebrow*

Will, knowing what's going to happen: Oh no.

Fourths tuning was the older mandola/mandolin standard. This is generally true of plucked instruments along the Silk Road. Trebles change the least, and basses vary greatly in number and tuning.

If you can play two strings a fourth apart, you can pick up most any plucked string instrument from China to Italy.

All these instruments with flat finials instead of violin style scrolls (see those in the top right of the chart) can be traced back to the Central Asian/Greater Iranian barbat. I can hypothesize this because that same decorative pattern is found on lutes that have traveled outward from there: the Chinese pipa and Japanese biwa, the Yemeni qanbus, the East African gabbus/gabusi, the older styles of Italian mandolin, mandola, and colascione, and several varieties of cittern including the guitara portuguesa and the 18th century English guittar [sic].

Here is a baroque mandolino (Anglophone historical performance specialists have taken to appending the italian -o to the baroque mandolin to distinguish it from modern ones. This is stupid). It is in fourths tuning, though I believe the lowest sounding two courses are a major third apart (which aligns the outer courses at two octaves).

Gut strings on gut frets. Less clangy than post-industrial revolution steel wire.