ALY BAIN

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Aly Bain, Russell Kostulin & Violet Tulloch: Heaven's Gate &c


Aly & Young Champions: Margaret's Waltz &c


Heaven's Gate/ Le Grande Chaine/ Waiting For The Federals
or Margaret's Waltz/ Laird O Drumblair/ Deil Among The Tailors
on springthyme/ soundcloud

1. MARCH & REEL 2.50 Aly Bain & Violet Tulloch
Dr. Donaldson (R. Cooper)/ The Anvil (R. Cooper)
Two tunes by the prolific Shetland musician Ronnie Cooper.
Recorded at Thurso High School

2. SLOW AIR 4.43 Aly (fiddle), Scott Williams (flute) & Violet Tulloch (piano)
The Ross Memorial Hospital (P. Cunningham)
A fine slow air by Scottish accordionist and composer Phil Cunningham that has become a part of the popular traditional music repertoire.
Recorded at Thurso High School

3. CLARSACH DUET 3.20 Gail Ross & Vicki Ferguson (Clarsach duet)
Buain an Rainich/ Brochan Lom/ The Cockle Gatherers
A clarsach duet from two young highland musicians. Buain an Rainich (Reaping the Bracken) is a traditional lullaby often performed it as a 'puirt na buel' or 'mouth music'. Brochan Lom (Thin porridge) is another popular 'puirt na buel'. The Cockle Gatherers is a well known traditional gaelic song (Trusaidh mi na Coilleagan) and was brought to the wider public after it was collected in the early 1900s by Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser from the singing of Kenneth Macleod’s elder sister Marion on the Isle of Eigg.
Recorded at Thurso High School

4. MARCH, STRATHSPEY & REEL 3.22 Bruce Lindsay (Accordion) & Violet Tulloch (piano)
Balkan Hills (J. Gillan)/ The Duke of Gordon (Trad)/ Deil and the Dirk (Trad)
A set of tunes (march, strathspey and reel) from Bruce Lindsay of Windygates in Fife. Young Bruce started playing button box/ melodeon at a young age - taught by his Scottish dance band leader father - also Bruce, founder of the Windygates Button Key Club. He was also taught by two renowned experts on the button box - Jim Crawford of Ladybank and the great Jimmy Shand.
Recorded at Thurso High School

5. SONG 2.39 Scott Gardiner
The Pear Tree
Click for [Full song text]
A well known song in Dundee and the Angus countryside. Recorded at the Corran Hall, Oban during the Young Champions tour of 1992. Sung by Scott Gardiner, brought up in Angus in a family where old songs and bothy ballads were a part of life.
Recorded at the Corran Hall, Oban

6. MARCH, STRATHSPEY & REEL 4.09 Russell Kostulin (fiddle) & Violet Tulloch (piano)
Mr. Michie (A. Fitchet)/ J. F. Dickie’s Delight (J. M. Henderson)/ J. F. Dickie’s Reel (J. M. Henderson)
Three classic northeast fiddle tunes. the first a march by Angus Fitchett followed by a strathspey and reel. Jimmie Dickie, the subject of these two tunes was a very influential fiddler - born in New Deer, Aberdeenshire in 1886. His father was a concertina player, and his brother John was a champion penny whistle player. By the age of seventeen he had started winning fiddle contests. As a fiddler his biggest influences were James Scott Skinner, whom he knew, and Bill Duguid of Aberdeen. His style is very much in the Skinner camp, and is very much of its time. His friend J Murdoch Henderson (composer of the two tunes) wrote of him, "A player of great taste and polish. In the rendering of slow strathspeys and E flat airs in general his style is inimitable."
Recorded at Glasgow City Hall

7. GAELIC SONG 3.24 Vicki Ferguson (Clarsach & Vocal)
An Ataireachd Ard
Vicki accompanies herself on clarsach on this well known gaelic song.
Recorded at Ballachulish Community Hall

8. MARCH, STRATHSPEY & REEL 3.54 Scott Williams (Whistle) & Violet Tulloch (piano)
Brig. Gen. Ronald Cheape of Tiroran (W. Ross)/ Aspen Bank (Trad)/ Major David Manson (P. R. MacLeod)
A set of tunes (march, strathspey and reel) played by Scott Williams on tin whistle accompanied by Violet Tulloch on piano.
Recorded at Glasgow City Hall

9. SLOW AIR & REEL 4.47 Simon Thoumire (Concertina)
Ardgualich (S. Thoumire)/ High Road to Linton (Trad)/ Dookin for Apples (Trad)
Champion of the English concertina, Simon Thoumire won the BBC's Young Tradition award in 1989. Since then he has recorded numerous albums and set up his own label and website www.footstompin.com and founded the Scots Trad Music Awards. The first tune was composed by Simon while camping on the small Ardgualich camp site beside Loch Tummel in Perthshire. The other two tunes are both well-known traditional tunes - but given inspirational treatment by Simon.
Recorded at the Lonach Hall, Strathdon

10/11. CAJUN WALTZ, FRENCH/CANADIAN REEL & AMERICAN REEL 4.33 Aly Bain, Russell Kostulin & Violet Tulloch
Heaven’s Gate (Ella's Waltz) (D. M. Mansfield)/ Le Grande Chaine (Trad)/ Waiting for the Federals (Trad)
The first tune is from the lovely dance scene from Michael Cimino's film masterpiece Heaven's Gate with Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert, and music by David Mansfield (who plays the bandleader). The second tune is a French/Canadian reel and the third an American reel. Recorded in the Corran Hall, Oban during the Young Champions tour of 1992.
Recorded at the Corran Hall, Oban

12. MARCH, STRATHSPEY, REEL & JIGS 5.35 Martyn Bennett (Cauldwind Pipes)
The Conundrum (P. R. MacLeod)/ Mrs. Stewart of Grandtully (Wm. Marshall)/ The Morning Dew/ The Blarney Pilgrim/ Langstrom’s Pony (all Trad)
Played by Martyn Bennett on a set of cauldwind pipes, the first tune The Conundrum is a classic pipe tune by P R MacLeod, the second Mrs. Stewart of Grandtully by Mw Marshall and the remaining tunes are traditional.
Recorded at Thurso High School

13. SLOW AIR 2.56 Angie Smith (Fiddle) & Violet Tulloch (piano)
Helen Robertson (A. Scott Robertson)
A tune by A Scott Robertson played by Angie Smith - a young member of the Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society.
Recorded at Ballachulish Community Hall

14. SONG 3.34 Scott Gardiner
The Humble Tattie
Click for [Full song text]
A humorous song in praise of the tattie - the potato - a staple of the Scottish die - written by Ian Middleton born in the village of Fordyce, Banffshire. Ian always had great interest in the Doric (the northeast dialect of the Scots language) and since his teens was composing lines of verse about farm life. In 1982 he wrote The Festival O Keith which was recorded by Jim Reid and The Foundry Bar Band. At the Moray Festival of Bothy Ballads at Elgin in 1984 Ian gained second place for his A Fee'd Man Looks Back and this and the Humble Tattie were recorded on an album Bothy Greats featuring the musicians and singers taking part in the event. The following year at Elgin he won with another song of farm life The Traivlin Mill. Sung by Scott Gardiner, brought up in Angus in a family where old songs and bothy ballads were a part of life.
Recorded at the Corran Hall, Oban

15. SLOW AIR 2.31 Gail Ross (Clarsach)
Ballachulish Glen (Trad)
A locally named tune played on clarsach by Gail Ross of Dingwall.
Recorded at Ballachulish Community Hall

16. WALTZ, MARCH & REEL 2.03 Bruce Lindsay (Accordion) & Violet Tulloch
Leaving Lismor (M. Hardie)/ Heights of Dargai (J. Wallace)/ The Kilt is my Delight (Trad)
A set of waltz, march and reel played by Bruce Lindsay on accordion accompanied by Violet Tulloch on piano. The first tune Leaving Lismor was composed by M Hardie. The second tune is a pipe march composed by J Wallace and the third tune is a traditional reel.
Recorded at Thurso High School

17. SONG 3.54 Nicole Robertson
A Wee Burr stuck tae ma Apron
Click for [Full song text]
Sung by Nicole Robertson. Born in Aberdeen, Nicole is daughter of the noted traditional singer and storyteller Stanley Robertson and great niece of the legendary traditional singer Jeannie Robertson. While only 14 years old she won the prestigious Women's Singing Trophy at the TMSA's Keith Festival. The song is from family tradition.
Recorded at Glasgow City Hall

18/19. FIDDLE SOLO 4.51 Aly Bain (Solo Fiddle)
Midnight on the Water (B. Thomasson)/ Bonaparte’s Retreat (Trad)
Two of Aly's favourite tunes - here played solo in the lovely accoustic of the Lonach Hall in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. The first tune, Midnight on the Water, a typical Texas Old Tyme waltz, is usually credited to Texas fiddler Luke Thomasson although it has been published that Luke's son Benny (a famous Texas-style fiddler who popularized the melody) long remembered the night he heard both his father and uncle composing the tune on the family porch (c. 1900). The second tune, Bonaparte's Retreat, may well have Irish roots but it has developed to its present form in the southern states of the USA. A classic recording of the tune was made by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress performed by Kentucky old time fiddler William H. Stepp in 1937.
Recorded at the Lonach Hall, Strathdon

20/21. SLOW AIR 2.49 Aly Bain, Angie Smith & Violet Tulloch
Music of Spey (J. S. Skinner)
This beautiful tune was composed by the famous fiddler James Scott Skinner's 'the Strathspey King' and published in his Miller O' Hirn collection of 1881 with the alternative title The Bonnie, Bonnie Banks o' Spey. The piece was inspired by one of the great salmon rivers of the North East that flows through whisky distilling country from the Grampian mountains to the Moray Firth. The tune also has lyrics by R Grant that are a declaration of love for the famous river - famous not only for the malt whisky connection but also as the heartland for the traditional Scottish music form, the strathspey.
Recorded at the Lonach Hall, Strathdon

22/23. MARCH & REELS 3.53 Aly Bain & Violet Tulloch
The Sixereen (T. Anderson)/ The Barrowburn Reel (A. Harper)/ Fairy Dance (Trad)
The first tune is by the famous Shetland fiddler Tom Anderson and refers to a local form of boat, the Sixareen, (also spelled Sixern), (Norwegian name Seksring, which means 'six-oared'). During the mid 1700s large numbers of these clinker built boats were imported from the Bergen area of Norway. Until the end of the 19th century Sixareens were regularly built in Shetland, and used extensively for the Haaf fishing. The Barrowburn Reel is by the Caithness band leader Addie Harper and the Fairy Dance is a traditional reel.
Recorded at the Lonach Hall, Strathdon

24. FINALE 4.50 Aly Bain & Young Champions
Margaret’s Waltz (P. Shuldham Shaw)/ Laird o Drumblair (J. S. Skinner)/ Deil among the Tailors (Trad)
Played by the members of the Aly Bain & Young Champions tour: the set starts with Margaret's Waltz (composed by Pat Shuldham Shaw) played by Gail Ross and Vicki Ferguson on clarsachs joined by Aly Bain on fiddle. Others then join in with Scott Skinner's Laird o Drumblair and the traditional Deil among the Tailors.

Played by: Aly Bain & Young Champions: Russell Kostulin (fiddle), Angie Smith (fiddle), Bruce Lindsay (accordion), Simon Thoumire (concertina), Scott Williams (flute) & Violet Tulloch (piano)
Recorded at Ballachulish Community Hall

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