Salut’s St. Andrew’s Day Jukebox
November 30, 2024
Andrew Curry writes: To mark St Andrew’s Day Colin Randall and I have put together a list of 12 songs by Scots singers and bands that we like. This is not an all time best or an attempt to be definitive. It is an idiosyncratic list of Scots music we happened to be enjoying this month. Do add your suggestions to the comments!
(Jukebox at Café D'Jaconelli, Glasgow. Photo: Richard Sutcliffe/Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0
Silly Wizard: The Rambling Rover: I love hearing Bob Fox or Siobhan Miller singing The Rambling Rover. But both would probably bow to its composer, Silly Wizard’s Andy M Stewart, who died in 2015. His solo and band versions were sublime. Here, he’s live with the band. (CR)
Bert Jansch: Needle of Death: Although he lived in London for many years, Jansch was born in Glasgow and raised in Edinburgh. Like many.I tried but failed to master Davey Graham’s piece of guitar genius, Anji or as Jansch had it Angie. Jansch performed it to perfection but is as well remembered for his drug-death lament for a friend, Needle of Death. More on the song here (CR)
https://youtu.be/VxedLNx6Q3I?si=LF2R1pU8Eg6fprvI
Kris Drever: Scapa Flow 1919. I first saw Kris Drever play at a mud-soaked WOMAD just after his first record came out. He’s gone from strength to strength since then, as a performer, a songwriter, and as a musical collaborator in Scotland and elsewhere. I’ve included a live version of his song about the scuttling of the captured German fleet in Scapa Flow on Orkney after World War I. (AC)
Capercaillie: Coisich, a Rùin Capercaillie launched like a breath of fresh air into the folk and roots scene 40 years ago, bringing Gaelic songs into the folk mainstream while also including songs in English in their repertoire. Their lead singer, Karen Matheson, has one of the great Gaelic voices. This is a Gaelic waulking song. (AC)
https://youtu.be/MQ954m-dpFM?feature=shared
Duncan Chisholm: Machrivanish Duncan Chisholm is, by general acclaim, the finest Scots violin player of his generation, with a distinctive and instantly recogniseable tone. His sequence of records based on places in the Highlands and Islands, from Affric to the Cuillins to Sandwood Bay, are deeply evocative. (We wrote here about him premiering his Black Cuillin record at Celtic Connections in 2023). But since we’re a bit light on trad music in this list, we’ve picked a tune here from his first record, The Door of Saints. (AC)
https://youtu.be/YuSFQOn-8Ws?feature=shared
The Poozies: Hey How My Johnny Lad. A multi-talented all-female band, originally formed by Mary Macmaster and Patsy Seddon, both Scottish harpists, with two Englishwomen, singer-guitarist Sally Barker and accordionist Karen Tweed. Kate Rusby would later join, briefly replacing Barker. Hey How My Johnny Lad, a song of “courting and abandonment” according to the Mainly Norfolk site and possessing some Robert Burns DNA, shows off the Poozies at their exuberant best. More in The Poozies on the site here. (CR)
Eddi Reader: The Calton Weaver or Nancy Whiskey. Eddi Reader started out with the post-punk band Gang of Four and was, famously, the voice of Fairground Attraction’s song Perfect. But in her solo career she has mixed traditional songs, and versions of Robert Burns’s songs, with her own material. (AC)
https://youtu.be/3d_1noDNyAQ?feature=shared
Archie Fisher: Thro’ The Recent Years: A revered figure of Scottish folk music kwith a captivatingly soulful voice, heard to great effect on the title track of Thro’ the Recent Years, an album he recorded with Barbara Dickson. (CR)
https://youtu.be/Jz1BNU47sG8?si=OB_ShU057ZbzxeqX
Barbara Dickson: Who Knows Where The Time Goes Barbara Dickson is essentially a folk singer who happened to find fame and fortune in more popular genres but always returned to roots. This is her 2013 live version of the Sandy Denny’s classic. (CR)
Rab Noakes: Together Forever. A familiar figure in the folk clubs of the late 1960s, later a member of Stealers Wheel, who died two years ago at the age of 75. Noakes was a clever songwriter whose work enhanced many careers. Together Forever his is one of his best-known. (CR)
https://youtu.be/vD4G1-db8jk?si=pelsHRBX4OhO1D8U
Julie Fowlis: Lon-Dubh Julie Fowlis grew in North Uist, and still mostly sings in her native Gaelic. In some ways Julie Fowlis followed the path that was beaten for her by Karen Matheson of Capercaillie. This is her version in Gaelic of the Beatles song Blackbird. (AC)
https://youtu.be/K3RVVS1feqE?feature=shared
Valtos: Pretty Girl. Valtos are an electro-folk band from Skye, where they were inspired by their fellow islanders Niteworks. And in some ways, they have picked up the baton from Niteworks, who called it quits this year. Sadly, their fabulous collaboration with Julie Fowlis isn’t on YouTube, so here instead is their remix of Lapwyng’s Pretty Girl. The video transports you to Skye. (AC)
We’ve also assembled versions of these songs in a Salut! Live St Andrew’s Day playlist on Spotify. Listen here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2FDau9LLzGPDcakd8Cn6vO?si=dKrP4mWeSZuUCASYPpl2LA&pi=e-IvjjR8U8SqqE
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