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Sleeve Notes
Borderland — There is a famous legend that the 9th Legion of the Roman army set out on a punitive mission into Caledonia and were never seen again. Certainly the soldiers who manned Hadrian's Wall towards the end of the 2nd Century may well have been North Africans … perhaps the first to visit Scotland.
From Greenland — OK, after 40 years I've written a "leaving home" song. The snow goose keeps returning to Scotland so we have something in common. "The old piper" is the need for survival money.
W.M.D. — The acronym for "weapons of mass destruction ", "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. " George Bush March 18, 2003. This song was written around that time.
Wha's Like Us? — Question. Who is like us? Answer. Very few and they are all dead. Scotland's false confidence and curious identity crises are two of the reasons I love this country. There are many other sensible reasons.
Yankee Boots — Inspired by human rights activist, Karen Brandow. Karen spent a number of years in Guatemala assisting families of "the disappeared" and doing international labour solidarity work.
Bodhrans and Banjos — Singing sessions can be "compromised" by the enthusiastic instrumentalist. Good bodhran players are great, bad bodhran players are plentiful. We come into the second category but at least we know it. Oh yes we do!
The Vagabond — From "Songs of Travel and Other Verses", 1896.
Annie McKelvie — Iain Ingram is a Glasgow-based songwriter. Many of his songs are factual and "Annie McKelvie" is based on his father's account of living in Clydebank.
Instrumental
The Saddler's Bonny Daughter — A slow air named for a friend of Nick's
The Bonnie Birdy — A pipe and song tune often used for the sword dance.
Pipe Major Ian Grant — A 6/8 pipe march written in honour of the late Ian Grant, a great character and a fine musician.
The Easdale Ferry — A tiny open boat plies between Easdale and Seil Island. The timetable is, er, negotiable.
Hallelujah — We do admit that we lifted this off "Shrek".
Pint O' Wine — To the alternative tune.
Johnnie Sangster — Fairly severe dialect, so here's some help … for us! "Bandster", binder of sheaves. "Thraw", twist. "Tine", lose. "Blinket", deceived. "Grumphie", sow. "Bucht", sheep-fold. "Creesh ", grease. "Theek", line.
Both Sides Of The Tweed — This text ends the collection "Jacobite Songs and Ballads". "Closure"? We used Dick's editing of "King's sacred rights" to "land's sacred rights" with apologies to "The Ettrick Shepherd".
Auld Lang Syne — To the original Burns' setting.
Mallie Lee — The original text of "Mallie Lee" was written "about 1737" so the Prince with whom she danced was not Charlie. Pity! The song is based in Edinburgh.
Too Short — There's many the reason to write a song to list them all takes far too long but I discovered a secret which I will tell to you. It came to me in a moment of truth that most of my songs were far from good and I resolved to compromise and steal a word or two from classics of another age I studied them all, page by page and suddenly I realised what I had missed before. It's all to do with honesty Stories told, the truthful way and that is why I'll tell to you the reason for this song. We had a little problem, difficult to sort. Without this little gem, the album would have been too short.
