The Battlefield Band have long been one of Scotland's finest keepers of the regional folk music tradition. While the group's earliest releases--which date to the mid-'70s--were steadfastly true to their Celtic roots, 1984's ANTHEM FOR THE COMMON MAN--their ninth release--expands the band's sound by incorporating pop-influenced instrumentation and arrangements. ANTHEM also signals a change in personnel; founders Brian McNeill and Alan Reid are joined here for the first time by Dougie Pincock and Alistair Russell. In part, the addition of Pincock and Russell may have transformed the band's instrumental composition, since the usual arsenal of fiddles, citterns, mandocello, pipes, flutes and mandolins is augmented by the presence of electric guitars, keyboards, and drum computers. Fans of the band's older material needn't be alarmed, however, as the songs are still deeply grounded in Celtic forms, as McNeill's lilting ballad "The Snows of France and Holland", hypnotic jigs such as "Ina MacKenzie" and even the tender reading of Richard Thompson's "The Old Changing Way" demonstrate.