2008 has been a busy year for Mid Argyll Pipe Band. After being awarded the Scots Trad Music Scottish Pipe Band of the Year Award, the Band took an unprecedented step in their history to embark upon the monumental journey of making their first album. The Blackwood & Hickory album is a bold and exciting step into new musical territory with innovative arrangements of new and traditional piping tunes. In addition to some excellent Band sets, the album showcases intriguing original compositions by Pipe Major Tony Higgins of Lochgilphead and Rod Buchanan from Kilmartin. With influences drawn from Brittany, Cornwall and the Argyll homeland, these are compositions to be heard for the first time on any production, adding to the uniqueness of the album and making a major contribution to the Piping culture. Two of Scotland's most in-demand musicians, James Mackintosh of Shooglenifty and Brian McAlpine of Session A9, lend their inimitable class to contemporary and often anthemic arrangements, with Wild Biscuit and former Capercaillie guitarist John Saich producing the album and bringing together the full complement of musicians from the live show. New additions Ashleigh Kilgour and Bethan Philips make their recording debut as new members of the drum corps, having joined the band following the sell out Blackwood & Hickory live show in September 2007.

Recording the album has taken the project from Mid Argyll to Glasgow and back. In two contrasting but deeply appropriate environments, the Blackwood & Hickory sessions began with James's drum takes at Glasgow's Ca Va Sound Studios. Tony Higgins, Bill Halliday, Rod Buchanan, Anna Halliday and Alan King joined the production team at Glasgow's Cava Sound Studios in March to work with James Mackintosh on recording drum kit parts ahead of the full Band sessions. For the Band members this was an opportunity to work in a hi-tech environment that has produced albums for Deacon Blue, Texas and Belle & Sebastian, and to experience recording in one of the music industry's favourite and most iconic studios. The sessions then returned home to Kilmory Castle at Lochgilphead from within which the Argyll & Bute Council Chambers were temporarily transformed into an ideal recording space over three intensive weekends, by sound engineer Grant Milne.

Grant began his career working with The Associates and within his extensive portfolio has recorded albums and sessions for Capercaillie, Kate Rusby, piper Fred Morrison, former Love & Money front man James Grant and Karen Matheson. The performances captured in the idyllic surroundings of Kilmory over three weekends in March are some of Mid Argyll Pipe Band's finest work, and are certain to resound with pipers, drummers, and lovers of traditional and fusion music at home and all around the world. The results are breathtaking, from the anthemic beauty of Tony Higgins's Bill Halliday Conquers Mont Blanc and Rod Buchanan's Somerled's Legacy, to the up-tempo urban chic of the cunningly titled Marching Hens of Mosspark and Clipper Music.

The Blackwood & Hickory album takes the same eclectic approach produced for the live show, with Band members adding small pipes, whistle, fiddle, djembe and bodhran to a range of styles and influences throughout. Chanter students that appeared in the Blackwood & Hickory show (and have now progressed to Highland pipes in the intervening months) reprise their chanter ensemble performance of Somerled's Legacy by Rod Buchanan.

The Band have not played at competitions in recent years but have gained their respected reputation for community work and for taking their cultural heritage to new audiences in Europe, most recently in exchange visits with the Czestochowa Pipe Band in Poland. After the initial nominations from some of Scotland's top music industry professionals, support for their Scottish Pipe Band of The Year Award nomination came from North America, Canada and across Europe. Voters closer to home included the notable Scots singer Sheila Wellington, who famously sang at the opening of the Scottish Parliament. This, coupled with the overwhelming votes and support from the Mid Argyll Community and throughout Argyll and Bute, secured the Band their title.

The Band is known for having a strong and growing youth element and encouraging new members, with a standard of achievement now remarkably evident in a choice of material for the album that goes beyond traditional Pipe Band repertoire. This is "traditional music with a twist".