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Come on ye wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beasties!

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It’s Burns Night this evening and Scots all over the world will be celebrating the birthday of Robbie Burns, The only Burns Supper I have ever been to was in the rather posh Stockholm suburb of Lidingö. I do wonder if home-sick ex-pats take it even more seriously than those who live in Scotland.
I did learn that evening that Burns is rather popular in Russia.

Do any of you normally attend an event or watch a special Burns Night TV programme? Or attend a gig at Celtic Connections?

Are young people interested or is it just something for the oldies?

This year will be a very Zoomy, YouTubby Burns bash.

I have not a drop of Scots blood in my body (but rather too many drops of Famous Grouse), but I would greatly enjoy a little celebration of Scottish music, poetry, fiction, cinema, cooking…

Please post a track or two of your favourite Scottish artists. Or give us a few tips on books or movies.
I am going to kick off with a clip that MikeH recommended recently. Iona Foyle singing a song by Michael Marra. Perfect!

I just found out that Iona has been receiving a lot of criticism and worse recently for singing in the Scotch language. My Burns must be turning in his grave!

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Comments

  1. McCatnip, as you know.
    I have been to a few over the years, the most memorable in Wick, 1979, simultaneously the one I have least memory. On my student elective period: a 10 week attachment of my choice, myself and a chum spending the time in the “care” of a local GP and sitting with him and with the consultants at the two wee local hospitals. He felt it important to take us to a Burns Night to remember. In a gloomy kirk hall all the great and good of the town were bekilted, thirsty for the evening ahead. Sipping our pints of heavy, we were aghast as bottles of Grouse were handed around the tables, 1 per every group of 4. I remember lots of speeches, addresses and toasts, the bonhomie enormous. I don’t remember being sick outside, but I was.
    For a time in the 80s and into 90s I was the in demand guest, to address the haggis, for a friend who was social secretary for Round Table in South Birmingham. The brummies wouldn’t have known the probable inauthenticity of my accent and everyone was fairly wet by the time my showpiece came around anyway. I even knew it off by heart, and could act it out, dramatically stabbing the “puir wee beastie” with my skean dhu replaced, for the evening, by a massive kitchen knife. Less enamoured of wild nights out these days, the day is usually marked by a decent dram at bedtime, but this year, given the gloom of the moment, the three of us are dressing up, the wife, the step-dter and me, and we’ll make a damn good show of it. The step-dter, with no discernible scots blood in her body, is an embarrassment to her yorkshire ma, so enraptured she is with all things scottish, so it’s bagpipe night on the sonos!

  2. Is it just the older generation? Good question and I’m not sure! I’m maybe not the best to ask as I’ve always had a slightly closer connection to Burns through my family’s interests, plus I played in a ceilidh band for a few years so Burns Night was always a thing.

    I should point out I live in Burns country (Ayrshire) as well!

    No events this year obviously, but we always have haggis at the very least! (In fact, we eat it year round….)

  4. Of course I’m posting a Del Amitri song. No, wait a second…. This from their new album to be released in May is somehow appropriate. Lots of chat about what it all means I n Del Amitri circles…To me it’s a Brexit dig aimed at Johnson, Gove and co from across the border. Currie is such a clever bastard…

    “Close Your Eyes and Think of England”

  5. Ooops! I will be very careful, Arthur, that my accent is Pure Pinner and has not the slightest Celtic flavour!
    I didn’t quite understand. Do people pretend to be Scottish? Or do they want to impress in some strange way?

    One Scot who for a lot of praise in the Lodestone List was Erland Cooper.

    He’s got quite a back catalogue with The Magnetic North

    and Erland and the Carnival

  12. It will come as no surprise that I am at a Burns Night on the nearest Saturday, every year, in a late medieval town house in the middle of Chester. I don’t think a soul there has any Scottish connection, but it’s like any of the midwinter pagan festivals, that are worth doing for the fireside cheer in the dark depths of the winter. There is dancing, there is a Chester miracle play adapted to Burns, I am asked for a song, which usually ends up being Wild Mountain Thyme. It’s a lovely night.

    I’ve had to make do with cooking my own haggis tonight, and I’m getting through my house measure of Glen Scotia.

    Here’s the post you were all looking for :

  13. Does anybody else have a soft spot for Glasgow band, Camera Obscura?

    I saw them at Roskilde back in the day and very good they were too.

    I suddenly remembered that they’ done some Burns. Yup, they did a whole Burns Night set at Peel Towers!

    What a treat!

  14. Here is a fine duet. The late, great Michael Marra and Patti Smith perform Burns’s Sweet Afton.

    And here’s Michael with his version of Ae fond kiss.

    And now a question. who organises Burns Suppers?

    Local clubs? Pubs? Culture Centres? Hotels? Anyone who feels like it?

    If I’m in Scotland on a normal January 25th where should I look to find a Burns Night? And what will it cost me?

  15. Loads of organisations put on Burns suppers as a fundraiser. So, yes, anyone who feels like it.

    On this night, I particularly like to recall his poem “On The Late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations Thro’ Scotland”:,from whence my name comes:

    Hear, Land o’ Cakes, and brither Scots,
    Frae Maidenkirk to Johnie Groat’s; –
    If there’s a hole in a’ your coats,
    I rede you tent it:
    A chield’s amang you takin notes,
    And, faith, he’ll prent it:

  16. And, of course, no Burns Night is complete with Michael Marra’s marvellous rendition of “Green Grow the Rashes O” – in which, as he liked to point out when playing it live, Burns makes the daring assertion (for the time) that God is a woman:

  17. Thanks to Covid and Brexit no haggis consumed tonight in Château Wrongness. Usually we’ve been back to the UK around now and brought back several of MacSweeney’s finest. Tried ordering online – £30 “Brexit admin surcharge” and “delivery date cannot be confirmed”.
    Years ago I found myself in Fochabers and noticed the local butcher had just won Haggis Maker Of The Year. Naturally I bought one of the wee beasties. I invited a bunch of mates round, laid on ample stocks of Glenmorangie 20 yr. old and started the cooking. The kitchen soon smelled like I had massacred an entire herd of sheep and when cut open the stomach sac revealed a frankly frightening assortment of intestines, organ scraps and god knows what. Women fainted, men went pale and we all decided to walk down to the nearest pub for scampi and chips.
    Ever since and until tonight Mr MacSweeney did his job.

    • A Simon Howie haggis is better than a MacSween one, I’ve found.
      I didn’t have a Burns Supper tonight because apart from the tatties I had none of the other essentials.
      I had a haggis for dinner on Thursday and Friday as it happens, with boiled potatoes and red beans in chilli sauce. It was jolly nice. I quite often have haggis, but usually with either baked beans and spuds or Bombay Potatoes. Haggis is stocked in my local Sainsbury’s all the year round.

      • Howie’s – or someone acting for them – sent one of their haggises up under a balloon with a camera attached, high enough that the sky was black and you could see the curvature of the earth. Saw it on twitter, but must be elsewhere.

        We prefer their haggis to MacSweens, and have it quite often, though our Sainsburys has stopped selling it.

        We often break the haggis up, and use it as you’d use minced beef. It makes a wonderful lasagne and pakoras. Howie’s do a very nice black pudding, too, though the Clonakilty puds are even better.

  18. The 2021 edition of Celtic Connections is still in full flow online, and very good it’s been too. I’m watching an excellent set from Ross Ainslie right now. One of the stand out performances so far has been by Blue Rose Code, whose 2020 album ‘With Healings of the Deepest Kind’ just gets better and better with every listen.

  19. As I live in Dumfries where Burns spent his final years, I took a 10 minute walk this morning across the river Nith to St Michael’s cemetery where his mausoleum is sited. I then walked up the river and across the ‘old bridge’. It struck me that Rabbie would have crossed the same bridge in his time and looked at the Nith flowing ever onwards as I did. I ventured in to the centre of the town, a 5 minute walk, and passed by the Globe tavern where he spent some time with his friends. Sadly, the pub is currently closed due C19. However, it retains a lot of it’s history with the chair which it is said was the one he usually sat upon. Also, he scratched his name on one of the windows of the Globe. It was a wee bit sad today that the town was so quiet unlike other years when the Big Burns Supper would be in full flow for several days. I would recommend Westlin Winds by Dick Gaughan (it’s on Youtube), a fine rendition.

    • Wow! You really are in the centre of the action.

      Except of course, this year nothing is happening anywhere!

      But I enjoyed your city stroll anyway. And Dick is splendid! Thanks!

  20. A few discoveries from the Postcards from Scortland site

    The exquisite voice of Hannah Rarity . The Rose of Summerlee

    The hypnotic Talisk – music that I just drift away on.

    Mesmerising Niteworks from Skye

    Scottish Gaelic Country and Western (??) from Jenna Cumming and Alasdair Codona.

    This Postcards from Scotland playlist is superb.

  21. And some jazz – courtesy of Fergus McCreadie who has a new album out later this week. Very fine young player and if anything like his first album will have a distinct Scottish flavour to it.

    Also – some scenery – a beautifully shot short film about the River Dee as it winds its way downstream – available for a short while on the i-player. Julie Fowlis reads the accompanying Robert McFarlane prose:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008z3c/upstream

    Staying in the Cairngorms – a stunning reading of Nan Shepherd’s classic “The Living Mountain.”
    https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Living-Mountain-Audiobook/1786899361

    That’s it – one more from the Robert Burns Arran Single Malt my daughter bought me for Christmas. Very pleasant.

    • An excellent list of stuff, as ever, Morrison. Lots to enjoy!

      Fergus is very promising.

      Sadly, the MacFarlane film is not available in Sweden. But the trailer is on YT. It looks very hypnotic.

      I found this clip about Nan Shepherd. It’s in Scots.

      Let’s have a little more of that Cairngorm scenery!

  22. Being in Singapore and it also being so close to Chinese New Year, some friends combined the two into a “Chinese Burns” night. I wasn’t going to go but they twisted my arm……..

  24. Rabbie Burns means absolutely nothing to me. Never has. The parochialism makes me sick to my stomach. The fawning is so disingenuous too. Once a year they all gather and toast a man that otherwise they would all shun if they met him on the street.

    • I can see your point, Bellows, Some of the stiffer, parochial, more formal and conservative Burns celebrations would get my goat too.

      But the likes of Eddi Reader, Capercaille, Michael Marra and Iona Fyfe would get on like a house on fire with Robbie.

      Thanks for all your suggestions and comments.

      If you have any more ideas, do please post them here.

      I made a playlisr. Now there’s a surprise!

    • I am not so sure.

      My Grandfather, who left school at a very early age and worked the mines in the war, as well as other outdoor jobs, idolized Burns, to the point that I had to read A man’s a man at his funeral.

      It wasn’t parochialism that drove his admiration.

  30. Yesterday was a great night for whisky sales. Not such a great one for all the musicians in Ceilidh bands who missed out on a good night’s income.

    I was thinking about the fact that it is no coincidence that Celtic Connections coincides with RB’s birthday and stumbled across this Scotsman article in which various luminaries, from Boo Hewerdine to Fergus McCreadie, name their favourite Burns song.

    https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/it-always-evokes-huge-emotion-celtic-connections-performers-pick-their-favourite-burns-songs-1397439

    • Great choice! It’s A cracking song and Findlay does it proud.

      But let’s actually have a few from Hamish Imlach himself. He sounds like a remarkable chap. Very amusing and a great live performer.

      Gallows Pole and Bourgeois Blues. (uploaded by the AW’s very own Colin Harper!)

      Live in Germany

    • Great stuff, Carabara! What a panorama of Caledonian pop we are coming up with.

      For Stockholm today, there is no better song than this one by Aztec Camera.

      Discovery of the day for me was the tuneful pop of the BMX Bandits

      Stuart Murdoch, like Burns, comes from Ayrshire, so we’d better include his band.

      And finally, talking of Arab Straps, let’s have these cheery tunesmiths.

    • I am NOT complaining, Retro.

      Lots of interesting new names to explore , and you are setting me up nicely for a Haggis Hamper. not every day you see one of those.

      Back to the 1960s , Hamish Imlach and the Folk Revival for a moment.

      I found this excellent mini biography.

      https://www.theballadeers.com/scots/hi_01.htm

      Lots of titbits.

      He became a mentor for younger Scottish guitarists in the early 60s and later for Billy Connolly.

      He was big in Germany and Denmark where he became a very regular feature at the Tonder Folk Festival, not only performing but making a mega-curry for al the volunteers for any years.

      His daughter remembers that well:

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/folk/2010/08/remembering-hamish-imlach.html

      Hamish was born in 1940 (in Australia) Bert Jansch in 1943 in Glasgow.

      Here he is with John Renbourn in a clip from the mid 60s.

      And from 1973, a clip from Norwegian telly of Bert and Finn Kalvik.

  46. As we are celebrating Scottish music, I am going to put in a word for an extraordinary album that was released last year and which Fitterstoke voted for in the Lodeypole. Many thanks to Salwarpe too, for bringing it to our attention yesterday.

    “The Edge Of The Sea

    Composers Craig Armstrong and Calum Martin have today released on Modern Recordings their brand new collaboration ‘The Edge of the Sea’, an album exploring the unique spiritual tradition of Scottish Gaelic psalm singing.

    Here’s the congregation on Lewes. Extraordinary stuff! Hector Zazou, the great producer who produced a fabulous album of Corsican polyphony, would have loved it.

    Here is Calum doing a wee Covid ceilidh. He kicks off with Hank Williams! Very Scottish!

  47. Thinking about modern Scottish fiction and Irvine Welsh, I came across this review.

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/26/reheated-cabbage-welsh?mobile-redirect=false

    The final sentence is food for thought:

    “Here the bad bard of Leith is giving the nod to the big bard of Ayrshire, and thus tending to his “kailyard” – literally, the “cabbage patch” of parochial Scots culture. Without the Burnsian inheritance, which kept alive a bastard alternative tongue to invert conventional English for centuries, Welsh would probably not exist as a writer.”

    True of any bands? No Burns, no Arab Strap?

    No Burns, no Janey Godley?

  48. Thanks for all those extra suggestions, Retro and Caraba.

    You’ve opened up all sorts on interesting doors.

    I got very interested in Hamish Imlach and to my joy, just stumbled across his autobiography, Cod liver oil and orange juice, which you can read here.

    https://gallus-publishing.webs.com/Cod%20Liver%20Oil%20text%20for%20second%20printing%20at%2010th%20November%202010%20isbn%209780956599018.pdf

    Hamish was great pals with Billy Connolly and that brings me to Gerry Rafferty, Tam Harvey and the Humblebums.

    John Peel “discovered” them in 1969 and featured them often on his show.

    https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/Humblebums

    They did one session for him.

    For nerds (like me), here it is. (Uploaded by Colin Harper, no less. Thanks, Colin!).

    And that naturally brings us on to Gerry Rafferty. Hearing Aldous Harding sing Right down the line, reminded me what a great songwriter he was.

    Some interview clips. Interesting when he talks of his Paisley upbringing.

    And finally, here’s a little more Billy….

    • I was reading about Billy Connolly’s extremely tough childhood and early days. Then I got to the story abut his appearance on Parkinson and the joke that made his name…

  49. I can’t let this thread come to an end without mentioning the only Scottish band who played at Woodstock (as far as I know): the Incredible String Band.

    Here they are on the Julie Felix Show. She joins in on the second song, Painting Box.

    (Originally from California, Julie was the queen of the folk scene in mid 60s Britain. Worthy of a thread in her own right. She died in 2020, 81 years old.)

    This recent article gives a good overview of their career and has some excellent photos.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-39304909

    Their Woodstock show was no great success. Introverted Scottish folk was not what the audience were looking for. By this point, their girlfriends had joined the band. I saw this version of the ISB at the Royal Albert Hall and they were excellent.

    From German TV show Beat Club.

    Joe Boyd signed the ISB and produced all their albums.

    He is s a fan to this day and produced a tribute show at the Edinburgh Festival a few years back.

    http://www.joeboyd.co.uk/the-official-edinburgh-incredible-string-festival

    • This comment reminded me again how much I love the ISB. Aren’t they incredible? I love how laid back they both are. They just sit back and invite you into their strange world and seem indifferent whether you choose to join them or not. Two young handsome hip guys, the toast of the late 60s pop intelligentsia… yeah man, that’s a sitar I’m playing… that song was about the interconnectedness of all things and this next song is about embryos…

      And Robin’s guitar playing is wonderful! Unmistakable, and the perfect balance between ham fisted thrashing and twiddly finger picking.

      • I was listening to that radio clip of The Clutha live at Cecil Sharp House in 1967. Very nice it is too.

        And then it struck me that at the very same time the ISB were active on the Scottish folk scene. what a contrast! People must have felt they were from another planet.

        When Joe Boyd curated a tribute concert at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival, he got an inpressive line up:

        “For this very special concert paying homage to the group, former Incredible String Band manager and producer Joe Boyd invites guests to perform songs alongside collaborators from the group’s original recordings – including founder member Mike Heron and legendary bassist Danny Thompson.

        Guests include Justin Adams, Barbara Dickson, Green Gartside, Robyn Hitchcock, Janis Kelly, Greg Lawson, Sam Lee, Neill MacColl, David McGuinness, Karine Polwart, Alasdair Roberts, Georgia Seddon and Withered Hand (solo).”

        https://www.eif.co.uk/whats-on/2017/incrediblestringband

        I wonder if any of it was recorded.

        Here are Heron and Boyd being interviewed.

        http://www.classicalbumexperience.com/incredible-string-band-at-edinburgh-international-festival-interview-gallery/

        • Another interview with Mike Heron @ArthurCowslip.

          I think you will enjoy this. The Bookshop Band create a really relaxed atmosphere and Mike has lots to say. Charming chap.

          • How have I missed these events! Here I am raving about the ISB and as recent as 2017 we have had a tribute concert and a book festival appearance, both within easy driving distance of me! My head obviously wasn’t in a String Band place in 2017.

            I saw Robin Williamson in concert as a duo with John Renbourn in… ooh about 2005 or something? at Oran Mor in Glasgow. A very nice evening it was as well. Robin played a big harp the whole night, which I wasn’t expecting!

            Thanks, will have a watch of that clip after I finish work later. (Work, you say? What are you doing on the Afterword blog? Get back to it….)

  50. A few days ago, @ArthurCowslip mentioned that we have forgotten Mr Leitch.
    I was just looking for the right clip. Honest!

    Here is Donovan talking about his Scottish childhood. Excellent stuff.

    The clip is from a documentary , Jock and Roll, which covers the Scottish contribution to pop and rock music. I just stumbled across it.

  51. We’ve missed teen sensation Jackie Dennis!

    Here he is on Six Five Special. All the way from Edinburgh! Love all those teen fashions and haircuts and the very unhip presenter.

    • RS was born in Highgate. So we at best he is Scotch-lite.

      Great list of artists, there Sithere. Thnaks!

      Howzabout some Mogwai?

      Malcolm Middleton

      Danny Wilson

      Gary Clark’s next band, King L, was short-lived but had some fine songs.

      Niteworks, Jon Hopkin, Boards of Canada…. Is there any more Hibernian electronica we should know aout?

  54. I fear I may have had a few too many drams of Grouse at the AW Burns Night.

    I missed the coach home and am stuck here in Scotland. And I’m rather enjoying it. So much to learn!

    Just discovered that John Martyn was not actually born in Scotland but in New Malden, Surrey inn 1948. His parents were both opera singers; Belgian-Jewish mum, Beatrice and Scottish, Greenoch-born dad . Parents broke up when he was five and he was shuttled between England and Scotland, The wiki page is excellent.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Martyn

    Time to mention two Scottish bass players, who both cast a gigantic shadow.

    First, Danny Thompson.

    Ooooooops! Got that so wrong. He was born In Teignmouth in Devon. It was the Martyn connection that led me to believe he was Scottish

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Thompson

    But I am going to sing his praises anyway. Martyn’s partner in crime and then so much more.

    Here is Songhai: Danny with Toumani Diabate and the guys from Ketama.

    Now we have a genuine Scottish bassist: Jack Bruce.

    He was a great hero of my teenage years as a member of Cream. Hmmm. Surprising. They only lasted three or so years!

    Here is the title song from his first post-Cream solo album played together with Leslie West.

    • Good point, Si!

      If a sportsperson can represent the country of their parents’ origin, can we deny a musician the chance to do likewise?

      Of course not!

      And anyway, how important is it?

      When there are many bands or singer.-songwriters competing for attention, I suppose it can be a useful USP to mention that you are from the Orkneys, Rayners Lane or Kiruna.

  56. Two gigantic figures from the word of dance and disco.

    Great clip of Billy Mackenzie and Associates live in George Square , Glasgow. Makes me realise how popular they wete.

    And the unexpected story of Billy’s US marriage and wedding in Las Vegas,

    https://www.thefreelibrary.com/BILLY%27S+SECRET+WIFE%3B+On+the+10th+anniversary+of+pop+star%27s+suicide…-a0157476459

    In the mid 80s, I spent a winter in Helsinki working as an English teacher. Very cold (minus 20 Centrigrade) and very badly paid. But not without its enjoyable moments.

    Greatest of these was when the Communards played at the local jazz club, Joyous and exhilarating..

    And let’s not forget Bronski Beat. I checked Wiki. Founded not in Glasgow, but in Brixton

    The band appear in a concert scene in the film Pride.

  58. With nudgement against my better judgement, towards that hamper here’s We Free Kings.

    I must admit a personal investment as Colin Blakey who went on to join the Waterboys was the neighbour of my ex partner in Falkirk.

  61. Nice work , Lando.

    Two fine bands that I had never heard of. Reading Wiki it seems they were both local heroes

    Now it’s time for me to get nerdy and take us back to Cecil Sharp House in 1967 where Robin Hall and Jimmy MacGregor are hosting a show by the Clutha (named from the ancient name for the Clyde). They were very big in the 60s.

    I discovered them after stumbling over this very informative obituary of their singer, Gordeana McCulloch.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/17488849.obituary-gordeanna-mcculloch-influential-scottish-folk-singer/

    The Clutha were invited over to play at Harvard. Great photo! They look so like a folk band!

    I stumbled across Gordeanna because she sung at a special concert at Celtic Connections in 2001: Scots Woman.

    A line up of many major Scottish female singers.

    Scots Women – Live at Celtic Cennections (folkmusic.net)

    It’s on Spotify. The only names I now are Karine Polwart and Stravaig who Cheshire mentioned earlier.

    Here is a taste. What a ridiculously catchy tune. If you are not singing along by the final verse, there is no hope for you!

    And finally I just stumbled across this database of recordings of English and Scottish ballads. A real labour of love.

    https://www.childballadrecordings.com/

    “Francis James Child (1825-1896), was an American scholar and educationist, and collector of what came to be known as the Child Ballads. His final collection was published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-1898), incorporating 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants. Typical topics of these ballads are romance, supernatural experiences, historical events, morality, riddles, murder, and folk heroes.

    Over the years, but especially after the folk revival in the 60’s, many folk artists rediscovered the beauty of the poetry of these ballads; this Child Ballad Database (CBDB) is an attempt to list all those recorded versions of Child ballads.”

    That will keep me busy for weeks!

    • Gordeana McCullough was a teacher/lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow. One of her former students is an aquaintance of mine and lives just round the corner. She’s quite famous in trad circles……Marie Fielding. Also Adam McCullough is the son of Gordeana, and is well known on the folk circuit, solo and in various bands. Last time I spoke to him, he was doing janitor work at a local school. Also(again), there’s a group of women singing in Dundee. Michael Marra worked with them, but they didn’t have a name. He suggested ‘loadsaweeminsinging’.

      I won’t post youtube links because this page already takes forever to load on my tablet, but enjoy your haggis hamper.

    • Thanks, Si! Yet another fine song that I’d never heard .

      One of the enthusiastic YT comments cracked me up: “Bony Scotland.”

      Give a new twist to the Caledonian songbook.

      My Bony lies over the ocean, My bony lassie o’ Dundee etc

  63. That wonderful chap, Retropath2, who has become my go-to-guy for Scottish music. mentioned this fascinating project on TS Eliot thread.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballads_of_the_Book

    Scottish poets and musicians come together to create something new under the aegis of the Chemikal Underground record label.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMEhze6s49Q

    I really like what Stewart Henderson from Chemikal Underground has to say

    “One thing that turns me off about things that are on the face of it very Scottish is the tub- thumping parochialism of it. There will be no saltires on the cover of this album”

    A man after my own heart.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzttK21AIv0

    A thoroughly interesting project!

  66. No mention, either, for the godfathers of scottish folk, who were pursuing their furrow of bagpipe, fidddle and keyboards ahead of many, with a revolving door on folk passing through their ranks, the most notable being Brian McNeill and John McCusker, but always a grand night out. Alan Reid was their de facto point of continuity for many a long year, but he too has moved on. I think they still exist, tho’ helmed by the handsomely bearded Mike Katz and Stornoway fiddler, Alasdair White, who have a nice duet album on bandcamp.
    Here’s a youtube clip that features, amongst others, the pair with another pair.

    • I thought I saw Brian McNeill’s name farther up? No? Maybe it was another thread. Anyway, Brian comes from Bothkennar, which is in Falkirk district, which is where I’m from too. He must have lived only a few hundred yards away from where the river Carron runs in to the river Forth. That’s where our famous Kelpies are, and it’s also the start of the Forth and Clyde Canal. ‘The Boys That Broke The Ground’ is his song about the navvies who dug out the canal about 1790. ‘The Lads o’ The Fair’ is from around the same time, when Falkirk had a market and folks would travel from all over to sell their wares. Both on youtube, and both have been part of my little repertoire for years. Our folk band opened for him years ago.

  68. More jazz.

    Bit late for Burns Night…but this sublime musical version of “My Love is Like a Red Red Rose” by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra is very lovely. You can skip to 4.34 for the music – unless you want to hear great Scottish saxman Tommy Smith read the poem.

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