Track List

1. The Dark-haired Youth / Taladh ar Slanair
AC - zither, Chinese flute
    The second of these is a rowing or waulking song tune, converted to a hymn by Father Ranald Rankin sometime before 1855. The first is almost certainly a Gaelic air which found its way into "Kerr's Merry Melodies".

2. Freumh as Craobh Taigh Challadair (The Hawthorn Tree of Cawdor)
AC - clavichord; RS - violins and string arrangement

3. Wasps in the Woodpile
AC - whistle; IB - bass guitar; RC - hammered dulcimer; DC - piccolo trumpet; ME - violin; LH - violin; MS - electric guitar & lap steel; LL - alto sax

4. Turning the Tide
AC - English concertina; RS - violins & string arrangement

5. Alalá de Castro / Ronda de Cuestacion
AC - zither, shawm; SN - guitar; RK - bass guitar; IB - piano; RS - violins

6. Seana Mheallan
AC - zither; RK - bass guitar; RS - violins & string arrangement
    This appears in Ross's collection as "An Old Highland Air". To avoid confusion with S2 Tr.5 it hereby receives the name, which means "ancient, small lump", of a hill I lived opposite for a couple of years. Night, a dog of great brain, considered it unworthy of her time, and would turn back if a walk looked like it was heading that way.

7. Giullan nam Bo (The Cow Boy)
AC - zither; RM - harmonica; RS - violins & string arrangement
    The words to this tune, which sounds to me like a iorram, a rowing song, apparently tell of a beloved missing, perhaps drowned or enlisted.

8. Our Captain Cried
JT - vocal. Everyone else - admirable restraint

9. Ho ho Nighean Donn / The First of May / The Prince of Wales' Jig
AC - shawm, whistle, cimbalom, zither; LH - mandolin, violin; IB - bass guitar; RC - tambourine; MS - lap steel; BJC - pedal steel; ME - violin
    This sequence is opened and closed by another tune with the feel of a iorram, from Mingulay according to the singer, Nan Mackinnon, and dealing lyrically with the threats of a lecherous foster-father. The First of May is a hornpipe.

10. The Saratoga Hornpipe
AC - Steelpans; RS - octave violin; ME - violin; RM - harmonica; IB - clarinet

11. An Old Highland Air
AC - zither, whistle; DC - trumpets, flügelhorn; RS - violins. Strings & brass arranged by RS with DC, ME and LH.

SOURCES

All the tunes except Turning the Tide are traditional. Thanks to the following for helping to pass them on:

    Kerr's Collection of Merry Melodies for the Violin for The Dark-Haired Youth, Wasps in the Woodpile and The Saratoga Hornpipe.

    Uilleam Ross, in his 1885 Collection of Pipe Music, for An Old Highland Air, Seana Mheallan and The Hawthorn Tree of Cawdor (which he has as Cockabendie).

    The Rev. P. Donostia, in the 1954 edition of The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, for Ronda de Cuestacion.

    Nan Mackinnon, Vatersay, via James Ross and Francis Collinson in the latter's 1966 book The National and Traditional Music of Scotland, for Ho Ho Nighean Donn.

    Simon Fraser, and the collections of his father and grandfather, combined in the 1874 edition of his book The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles, for The Hawthorn Tree of Cawdor and Giullan nam Bo.

    Father Ranald Rankin, via Margaret Fay Shaw in her book Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist, 1955, for Taladh ar Slanair. Singers and musicians in La Guardia, and the Coral de Ruada de Orense, for Alalá de Castro.

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Digital releases
From March 1st 2013 all the CDs on Cloud Valley - the three most recent by Andrew Cronshaw and the Žegar Živi CD - are available as digital downloads via iTunes and other legal online sources. But we'd much prefer you to buy the physical CDs; that way you get the whole, rather nice, package, the way it was originally designed. The Andrew Cronshaw albums that were made for Topic, including this one, have also recently been released digitally.