itchy fingers, bagpipes

torky

Bill Black: The Dawning

Here's a small selection of favourite tracks. Wishing all friends, musicians and folk enthusiasts a merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year 2018.

Christmas 2017 and a Guid New Year

slow Air/Itchy Fingers

Itchy Fingers / The Wreck of the Old '97

Gordon Easton is from the Blackhills of Tyrie near Fraserburgh, where his family has crofted for generations. He learned many of his old songs from his mother and grandmother and is well-known for his fiddle, jew’s harp and ‘moothie’ playing, not to mention his considerable skills as a ‘diddler’. 

At the age of 84, he recorded this his first CD (www.springthyme.co.uk/ah05). In recent years he has become a fixture on the festival competition scene, sometimes entering as many as five competitions. In 2004 he was made an honorary life member of the TMSA. In 2007 he was a guest at the Whitby Folk Week.

The farm of Barnyards on the Delgaty castle estate a mile from Turriff gave rise to one of the most famous of the old bothy ballads. Greig opens his Buchan Observer article on Ploughman Songs with Barnyards (FSNE 4, GD 3: 347).

Scots Words 
The song is rich in the Buchan or Doric dialect of the Scots language. As with any language, the Scots tongue has its regional dialects. Click on the following link to discover more about Scots and get direct access to the online Scots Language dictionary: www.springthyme.co.uk/scotslanguage

The Barnyards o Delgaty

1: As I gaed doun tae Turra market,
Turra market for tae fee,
I met in wi a fairmer chiel,
Fae the barnyards o Delgaty.

Chorus:
Lilten adie touran adie, lilten adie touran ae,
O lilten lourin lourin lourin, the barnyards o Delgaty.

2: He promised me the twa best horse,
That ever gaed in iron sheen;
Fan I gaed hame tae the barnyards,
There wis naething there but skin and bane.

3: Noo the auld black horse sat on his hunkers,
The auld dun meer lay on her wime, [i.e. belly
And aa that I could up and cry,
They widna rise at yokin time.

4: Noo Lang Meg Scot she maks ma brose,
It's wi her I canna agree,
First a knot an syne a mote and then a knot, [i.e. a lump then a little
And aye the ither jilp o bree. [i.e. spill the rest

5: Noo Jean MacPherson maks ma bed,
You should see the marks upon ma shins,
Jean, the coorse illtrickit jaud, [i.e. mischievous girl
She fills ma bed wi prickly whins.

6: Fin I gang tae the kirk on Sunday,
Mony a bonnie lass I see,
Sittin by her faither's side,
An winkin o'er the pews at me.

7: Noo some can drink and nae get drunk,
Some can fecht and nae get slain,
I can coort anither chiel's lass,
An aye gang welcome tae ma ain.

8: Ma cannle nearly burnt oot, [i.e. candle
The snotter's fairly on the wane, [i.e. the wick burnt down
So fare ye weel ye barnyards,
Ye'll niver catch me here again.

Chorus:
Lilten adie touran adie, lilten adie touran ae,
O lilten lourin lourin lourin, the barnyards o Delgaty.

Gordon Easton: Barnyards o Delgaty

The Wassail celebration involves Christmas revellers taking a Wassail bowl, usually a large wooden vessel from house to house to distribute good cheer. This version was recorded in 1972 from Lemmie Brazil - a member of a large Gypsy traveller family in Gloucester. A near complete collection of the songs and music of the family is available as a 3CD set on the Musical Traditions label: The Brazil Family: Down by the Old Riverside - although this song was not included. But here it is sung by the 82 year old Lemmie:

Wassail Song
From the singing of Lemmy Brazil, Gloucester 26 December 1972.  Collected by Peter Shepheard  (Springthyme 67.8.3). 

He said I ain’t come here not to beg or not to borrow,
I have come here just to drive away my sorrow,
A bit of your good cake an’ a drop of your strong beer,
An’ I hope you merry Chrissemas an’ a happy New Year.

Come all you lucky gentlemen that sits around the fire,
Remember us poor wassailers who walks through muddy mire,
A bit o’ your good cake and a drop o’ your strong beer,
An’ I hope you merry Chrissemas an’ a happy New Year.


Lemmie Brazil: Wassail Song

Rising

Itchy Fingers

Iain McLachlan: An Island Heritage

Iain McLachlan's music comes as fresh as the sea breezes wafting over the Uist machair - Highland and Gaelic as his island heritage. I recall two wonderful music sessions with Iain at a ceilidh and dance in Daliburgh in South Uist back in 1976 and again at one of the famous Kinross Festivals where he played about a dozen pipe marches off the cuff with the unbroken link up that comes of playing at a thousand dances.

Iain, from Benbecula, is best known as an accordionist, but on this recording he also plays fiddle and melodeon, and is joined by Calum Iain MacCorquodale of Bayhead, North Uist on accordion and fiddle and by Calum Campbell of Balivanich on goose and jaws harp. His Highland Harry using the trill grace note which was a favourite ornament with the old Highland fiddlers, and the two pipe reels of Drummond and The Sheepwife on accordion with Calum on the goose, are truly inspiring.
[from sleeve notes by Aonghas Grant, Lochaber].

Here he plays a set of reels on the single row melodeon: MRS MacLEOD OF RAASAY
and HIGH ROAD TO LINTON. The set was recorded at the Kinross Festival in September 1976.

This is a track from the album Iain McLachlan: <a href="http://www.springthyme.co.uk/1022/" target="_self">An Island Heritage</a>.

Iain McLachlan: Mrs MacLeod Of Raasay/ High Road To Linton

Bill Black: MISS DELIA GRAHAM'S POLKA

Based in Perthshire, this is the fourth album on Springthyme from Bill Black and the band: Scottish dance music played with a rich style and a solid enthusiasm that has ensured the popularity of Bill and the band at ceilidhs and dances for over 30 years. The band are: Bill Black: button box; Kathryn Nicoll: fiddle; Niel Caul: piano accordion; Mabel Gray: piano; Robert McFadyen: drums.

The album includes dance sets for the Barn Dance, Polkas, Reels, St Bernard's Waltz, Postie's Jig and a Virginia Reel. Fiddler Kathryn Nicoll plays a superb slow air Fyvie Castle by Scott Skinner followed by a reel Mary Claire by the Canadian fiddle composer J. Holland.

This is a track from the album Bill Black Scottish Dance Band: <a href="http://www.springthyme.co.uk/1037/" target="_self">The Dawning</a>.

Bill Black: Miss Delia Graham's Polka

Bill Black: Reels: ITCHY FINGERS/ WICKED WILLY/ DINKY'S REEL/ MISS JANE OF VIOLET BANK

Based in Perthshire, this is the fourth album on Springthyme from Bill Black and the band: Scottish dance music played with a rich style and a solid enthusiasm that has ensured the popularity of Bill and the band at ceilidhs and dances for over 30 years. The band are: Bill Black: button box; Kathryn Nicoll: fiddle; Niel Caul: piano accordion; Mabel Gray: piano; Robert McFadyen: drums.

The album includes dance sets for the Barn Dance, Polkas, Reels, St Bernard's Waltz, Postie's Jig and a Virginia Reel. Fiddler Kathryn Nicoll plays a superb slow air Fyvie Castle by Scott Skinner followed by a reel Mary Claire by the Canadian fiddle composer J. Holland.

This is a track from the album Bill Black Scottish Dance Band: <a href="http://www.springthyme.co.uk/1037/" target="_self">The Dawning</a>.

Bill Black: Itchy Fingers/ Wicked Willy &c

RHYNIE

On Springthyme SPRCD 1039
Jock Duncan - Ye Shine Whar Ye Stan!

Jock Duncan learned this Aberdeenshire masterpiece from the singing of the great John Strachan (farmer at the farm of Crichie the other side of Fyvie from Jock's parents family farm) - who sang it accompanying himself on concertina. The song was included in Norman Buchan's influential 101 Scottish Songs published in 1962 and is in the Greig-Duncan Folk-Song Collection (GD 343) under the title Jock o Rhynie. An old man, William Forsyth, told Greig thet he 'remembered as a boy his mother sing Jock o Rhynie and this would take the song back to say 1830.' The farmer at Mains o Rhynie (in the high glens of Auchindoir in Strathbogie about 8 miles south of Huntly) from 1830 until his death in 1851 was John Gordon and he was known as 'Jock o Rhynie' but there may have been earlier Jocks at Rhynie and the song could well be earlier. He is said to have denied his work was 'ill to work' although he admitted that Rhynie's work was 'very hard.'

1: At Rhynie I sheared my first hairst,
Doun by the fit o Benachie,
Ma maister there was ill tae fit, [hard to please
But laith wis I tae loss my fee.
 Linten ourin ourin addie,
 Linten ourin ourin ee.

2: Rhynie's wark is ill tae work,
An Rhynie's wauges is bit sma,
Rhynie's laws are double strick, [i.e. very strict
And that's fit grieves me warst of aa.
 Linten ourin ourin addie,
 Linten ourin ourin ee.

3: Rhynie is a cauld clay hole,
It's nane een like ma father's toun,
Rhynie is a hungry place,
And it disnae suit a Lawland loon.
 Linten ourin ourin addie,
 Linten ourin ourin ee.

4: Sair I've focht and sair I've vrocht, [i.e. worked
Until I won my penny fee,
And I'll ging back tae the gate I cam, [i.e. the way I came
And a better bairnie I will be.
 Linten ourin ourin addie,
 Linten ourin ourin ee.

Jock: John Strachan was never bettered at this song about the hand shearin days before the reaper made short work of it. This young man's first shearin wis an unhappy experience, wages were sma and it wis a hungry place and the farmer's laws were double strict. Folk think o Rhynie as being 'My God, thats a wild place, there canna be much growin up there.' It's hilly and there's a lot a sheepie grun, but it's (also) some o the finest corn growin country that ever wis.

Jock never worked on Rhynie, but not long ago he and his wife Frances climbed the nearby hill Tap o Noth to look down over the lands of Rhynie.

Jock: Whit drew me to Tap o Noth wis the fine walk through the whin and up through the breem. You're gaun back 4, 5000 year because ye'd the vitrified fort on the top. And here's me standin on the top o the vitrified fort singin Rhynie, lookin doun, a beautiful sunny day, on the hairst parks o Rhynie away in the distance. And I wis thinkin o Jock –

This song is from the Springthyme CD Jock Duncan: <a href="http://www.springthyme.co.uk/1039/" target="_self">Ye Shine Whar Ye Stan!</a>.

Jock Duncan: Rhynie

Begin with a measure of music born in the Highlands of Scotland and across the sea in Ireland. Add a shaker of down home kitchen party, and fill to the top with rock and roll. THIS, is a recipe to fill flasks all across the country. The wail of the bagpipes blends with guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. The unique sound of the pipes soar above the crowd to get feet moving to a whole new sound with the most ancient of roots. 

​Back to our recipe... here are three skilled musicians, experienced in music of all genres, who decided to get together and mix it up! Ewan Brown, the rock and roll bagpiper who will pipe you an ancient tune from the Highlands to break your heart, then pick up his mandolin and sing you a classic rock song to cool your soul; Lexie will keep the rhythem going while harmonizing with ease; and Andrew will nock your sox off with his fantastic fiddle shreading. Every now and then we will be adding our accompaniment of "& Friends" to join along. They may bring drums, bass, bodhran, djembe drum, saxophone... Who knows what other seasoned performers will be spicing up this eclectic crew.

Whether it is a traditional Celtic tune, a blistering cover with a twist, or one of their rousing originals, Empty Flask will play your favorites and introduce you to new sounds. If you have never heard the pipes, let Empty Flask introduce you to this ancient instrument. 

The band will bring the usual guitars, but will be seasoning that with bagpipes and fiddle. HOWEVER, they may just toss in something to add to the mix. A mandolin, the penny whistle - who knows what else they'll dream up! Just when you think you have them pegged, they will take you down another musical road; one that has people dancing, singing, stomping and a little screaming... You may want to get ready to join in and lend a hand. This is a full participation, get into it, kind of party.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing"

Empty Flask 2018 Demo

Sura iskenderli Niye?

Springthyme is a record label dedicated to presenting Scotland's living tradition in song and music. Founded in 1974 by musician and singer Pete Shepheard, the label has introduced many fine singers, musicians to the world of recorded music. The very first album was recorded during the weekend traditional music festival held in Kinross in 1973 with musicians including Aly Bain and Tom Anderson and the Shetland Fiddlers and the first recording of ballad singer Stanley Robertson of Aberdeen. Other artistes on Springthyme include Jim Reid, The Foundry Bar Band, Ossian, Jock Duncan, Bill Black, Duncan Williamson, Lizzie Higgins, Jim Crawford, Tom Hughes, John Watt & Davey Stewart, Iain McLachlan and many more including a CD from Pete's own band Shepheard, Spiers & Watson. Springthyme has also issued recordings from their field recordings archive in cooperation with the Musical Traditions label.