The Tannahill Weavers   •   Cullen Bay

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  • Cullen Bay
    • 1990 - Green Linnet SIF 1108 LP (USA)
  • Side One
    1. The Standard on the Braes o' Mar & The Haughs o' Cromdale
    2. The Fiddler, The Fiddler's Jig, Jenny Dang the Weaver & The Reel of Tulloch
    3. Joy of My Heart
    4. Aikendrum
    5. Samuel the Weaver, The Panda, Thunderhead, The Cannongate Twitch & Allan MacDonald's Reel
  • Side Two
    1. Kintail
    2. A Night Visitor's Song
    3. Cullen Bay, Dalnahassaig, S'iomadh Riud a Chunnaic Mi & Alick C. MacGregor
    4. Braw Burn the Bridges

  • The Tannahill Weavers
    • Roy Gullane: Guitar, vocals
    • Phil Smillie: flutes, whistles, bodhrán, vocals
    • Iain MacInnes: highland bagpipes, Scottish small pipes, whistles
    • Les Wilson: bouzouki, keyboards, vocals
    • John Martin: fiddles, viola, vocals
  • Credits
    • Produced by the Tannahill Weavers
    • Recorded in 1990 at Pier House Studios, Edinburgh, Scotland
    • Engineered by Peter Haigh

Sleeve Notes

Of the tunes on this recording Samuel the Weaver, Jenny Dang the Weaver and The Reel of Tulloch are traditional, the latter being referred to in old sources as Righ na puirt - King of tunes.

Modern tunes are represented in Cullen Bay (a beautiful area between Buckie and Banff in the north of Grampian) by Ian Duncan, The Panda by Gordon Duncan (no relation), and Allan MacDonald's Reel. The Fiddler was written by Donald MacLeod, who ranks alongside G.S. MacLennan (Dalnahassaig and Alick C. MacGregor) as the finest composer of pipe tunes this century.

Grey Larsen's Thunderhead slipped into the Scottish piping tradition by way of the St. Mark pipe band in Brittany, and is known at home as The Jig Brest St. Mark.

S'iomadh Riud a Chunnaic Mi is a Gaelic Port a Beul, a piece of mouth music intended for dancing to. The lyric, describing objects on view during a night stroll through a Highland village, is largely devoid of profound meaning.

Kintail (Theid Mi Dhachaidh Chró Chinn T-Sáile) - I will go home to Kintail - a Gaelic song melody which deals with the perennial themes of exile and return. In piping circles the tune is sometimes known as The Seaforth Lullaby, and bears all the hallmarks of the pibroch-song tradition.

This music was recorded at Pier House Studios, Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 1990. Special thanks fo Stuart Morison who joined us with his cittern on Braw Burn the Bridges, Jenny Dang the Weaver, and A Night Visitors Song.
Thanks also to Herschel and Sarah Freeman, for their friendship and support!