* Ballads Of the Book, an elaborately ambitious project featuring some of Scotland's best writers and musicians.* The brainchild of Idlewild's Roddy Woomble, Ballads Of The Book began as a simple idea to bring together the literarytalents of Scotland's writing community with a diverse range of new and established recording artists. Roddywanted to explore the possibilities of more artistic collaborations with various writers providing original lyrics for recordingartists to interpret in whichever way they saw fit.* From the literary world, the list of those involved reads like a who's who of the great and the good in Scottish literature. Thegiants of Edwin Morgan and Alasdair Gray rub shoulders with cutting edge, contemporary writers like Ali Smith, A L Kennedy,Louise Welsh and Ian Rankin. Esteemed poets like Robin Robertson, Bill Duncan and Rody Gorman feature alongsidesuccessful writers and novelists like Michel Faber, Alan Bissett, Laura Hird, Rodge Glass, Hal Duncan and JohnBurnside.