Mary Jane Lamond first rose to prominence through her Scottish Gaelic vocals on Ashley MacIssac's hit single "Sleepy Maggie," though she had already spent years steeped in the musical traditions of her grandparents. Her debut album, Bho ThirNana Craobh (From the Land of the Trees), appeared in 1994 and grew directly out of fieldwork conducted while she pursued a degree in Celtic studies at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. To assemble the record she mined the university archives for material to arrange and adapt, then consulted longtime members of Cape Breton's Scots Gaelic community. The finished collection fused deeply rooted traditional elements with wider pan-Celtic touches, including the Irish bodhran, and contemporary pop textures. Such stylistic range was consistent with Lamond's own path: she had moved among several towns in Quebec and Ontario while growing up and had logged more hours in punk bands than in bagpipe ensembles. The album won her a loyal following across Canada's maritime provinces, even as some listeners complained that her updated approach endangered rather than protected traditional sounds. Her association with MacIssac, however, carried her name well beyond the East Coast and helped Suas E!, issued in 1997 on A&R records, reach a broader commercial audience. Built around her smooth low vocals and fast ribbons of rhythm, the album took its title from the shouts of encouragement audiences deliver at live performances, a phrase that translates roughly as "Go For It!" After extensive worldwide touring she returned to Gaelic cultural work, contributing a column to the Gaelic-language quarterly Am Braighe while preparing her next project, Làn Dùil, which Wicklow Records released in early 2000.
