This is another track written for my "Clutha Project" - songs inspired by or linked to the River Clyde. In this case it relates to fading memories of a day when I was about 20yrs old, and in a period of unemployment whilst living with my parents in a village on the north side of the Clyde. Whilst bumming around on the beach, I looked across Loch Long at Blairmore Hill, which stands at about 1000ft, looking over the Firth of Clyde and remarked that there must be a bloody good view from the top of that hill. The two mates I was with agreed and as we pondered this, we hit upon the idea of rowing across in a dinghy owned by the father of one of my mates to Blairmore, from  where we would ascend the hill. The plan was agreed and the next day we set off on a beautiful and still summer's day, armed with some sandwiches and drink and only a rudimentary idea of how steep this hill might be. It turned out to be very steep and took us a long time to scramble up and we were bitten by lots of ferocious midges as we climbed. When we got to the top, we felt like we had really achieved something and sat down to eat our picnic in triumph. It was at this point we noticed that there was in fact a far easier route on the other side of the hill that we could have walked up. We admired the view (it was excellent as we had surmised...) and took some photos. I scratched my name onto a piece of flat stone and added it to the small cairn that stood at the top of the hill. We then set off back down to the shore, using the same steep route as before, as to take the easy route down would have been defeatist. The tiny village of Blairmore at the bottom had a single shop-cum-post office and we entered it to stock up on refreshments. The post-master instantly saw we were not local (on that side of the Loch, anyway...)and asked with some suspicion what we were up to. We told him of our valiant climb and I said to him "It's a wonderful view from up there, isn't it?" (naturally assuming he would have gone up there as he lived next to it). "I wouldn't know, " he said. "I've never been up there." Have you not lived here for very long then?" says I. "Only 24 years," he said. "It's been on my to-do list, but I just never got round to it." 

"Does running this shop keep you really busy then?" I asked. "Not that busy," he admitted. "I guess I wasn't that bothered about doing it after all...."

I've never been back up that hill since then but I'm glad I did it at least the once. We spend a lot of time and resources going away on holidays to far-flung places and so often we are blind to the beauty of what is actually around us or on our own doorstep.
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This track contains ambient recordings made by "juskiddink" which he has released on the FreeSound website for general use under CC Licence:
https://freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/101921

The female vocalists are 8DIO's Laurie Anne Haus and SoundIron's Linda Strawberry Coloma. The scratchy male vocals are by me... :-)

The image is provided courtesy of the excellent photographer Colin Milne (@argyll66 ). Check out his work on Instagram.
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Blairmore Hill

Pull on the oars
Slide over the water
Over the glitter
That pours from the Sun.

The gulls are above us
Blairmore is before us
We'll climb up that summit
Before this day's done.

When you are youthful
No river can stop you
No mountain's too high
As you reach for the sun

When you are older
You lose your momentum
As you stop to look backwards
At all you have done.

Take care to remember
That view from the summit
For once you have climbed it
You have to come down.

(c) enlimila 24/08/2018

Blairmore Hill (Clutha Project)

(Clutha Project) Blairmore Hill

Comments & ideas for collaborations appreciated. 
Instruments: violin, mandoline, acoustic, bass and electric guitars, harmonica, tin whistle, darbuka, sansula, roland synthesizers. 
Recording with Cubase Elements 11 

Recommending these inspiring musicians: 

https://soundcloud.com/the-plugs ;  https://soundcloud.com/pleudoniem ;  https://soundcloud.com/markjbennett ; 
https://soundcloud.com/dan-lockhart ; 
https://soundcloud.com/julsy ; 
https://soundcloud.com/houckjt ; 
https://soundcloud.com/tante-meli .

Musician. Can't really sing but I do it anyway.

This is my spill-over page for newer stuff. The older material is at https://soundcloud.com/enlimila.

Thanks for looking. :-)

2023 - For the past few months I've been working with Public Resource, a California based non-profit to release an extensive collection of older music for free use. In addition to audio, we'll be releasing the music as MIDI and musicxml. Last week we started posting a new featured piece every week on the Public Resource Soundcloud page (@PublicResource). Follow there, or look for frequent reposts here. It'll include classical music, pop music before 1927, ragtime, folk songs, and more. The main collection will be at the Internet Archive, and will be called the "Internet Jukebox". I'll post more about it as it grows.

Our vibe is a mixture of Chillhop, Soul, Lofi, Trip hop and a few others..
Much love
Meraki Ghosts

I don’t have as much time at the moment to be on Soundcloud. I always appreciate listens and feedback and will respond when I can. 
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Thank you for visiting. It’s always appreciated. 
You’ll mostly find blues colliding with other sounds, styles and traditions here. Lots of improvisation. Lots of guitar and some other instruments. Hope you find something to enjoy!

I could scream my secrets to the world.. 
The wind would soon tear them, scattered syllables.. The sea, in her roarings, would drown the phonemes, each wave an intonation.. 
You would wonder where this noise comes from, which evokes a voice, in an ever foreign language..
August 2011
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Je pourrais crier mes secrets, au monde.. 
Le vent aurait tôt fait de les déchirer, syllabes dispersées.. La mer, dans ses grondements, en noierait les phonèmes, chaque vague une intonation.. 
Tu te demanderais d'où vient ce bruit, qui évoque une voix, dans une langue toujours étrangère..
Août 2011



Chris, hailing  from North West  Tasmania in Australia, is a singer-songwriter who pens originals, and  plays vintage music the way it used to be.  Her mashup of  Folk, Blues,  &  Americana  draws on a lifetime of  encounters with places, people, and the magic of nature;  echoing  a multitude of  global grassroots traditions. 
Traveling around carrying her “band” like a pack pony ~ lap-slide, banjo, uke, as well as a few plain ole guitars, she  regularly performs in Australia and Europe.
Growing up in Merseyside, England, Chris was exposed to the vibrant music scene of the late 60’s and 70’s,  and her music is has been influenced by  traditional folk, country blues, and  world music .
In 2016 she represented her State at the International Blues Challenge & National Women in Blues Showcase in Memphis,  and her second album,  “Wailin’ & Raggin’ the Blues” was  a   finalist for “Best Self-produced CD with the Blues Foundation , USA.  Her third album, “Twisted Roots & Twisted Highways” was  a finalist for Blues & Roots Radio Album of the Year in 2018.
www.chrisokunbor.net

(Clutha Project) Blairmore Hill

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