Happy Burns Night!

One of the best songs from Robert Burns!

Trad Tuesday: Ca' the Yowes by Robert Burns (sung by Dougie MacLean)

Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes
BY Robert Burns
Chorus

Ca' the yowes to the knowes,
Ca' them where the heather grows
Ca' them where the burnie rows,
My bonie dearie.

Hark! the mavis' evening sang
Sounding Cluden's woods amang,
Then a-fauldin let us gang,
My bonie dearie.

We'll gae down by Cluden side,
Thro' the hazels spreading wide,
O'er the waves that sweetly glide
To the moon sae clearly.

Yonder Cluden's silent towers,
Where at moonshine midnight hours,
O'er the dewy-bending flowers,
Fairies dance sae cheery.

Ghaist nor bogle shalt thou fear;
Thou 'rt to love and Heaven sae dear,
Nocht of ill may come thee near,
My bonie dearie.

Fair and lovely as thou art,
Thou hast stown my very heart;
I can die—but canna part,
My bonie dearie.

Trad Tuesday - Ae Fond Kiss sung by Eddi Reader

Since Burns Night was yesterday, today I'll feature one of my favorite songs written by him. Eddi Reader is a noted Scottish singer who often features works by Burns.

Trad Tuesday - My Heart's in the Highlands sung by the Barra MacNeils

My Heart's in the Highlands is a song by Robert Burns from 1789 and sung to the tune Failte na Miosg.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,

The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;

Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,

The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

(Chorus:)

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,

My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;

Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,

My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow,

Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;

Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

The Barra MacNeils are a Canadian group from Nova Scotia consisting of several siblings. The Isle of Barra is the clan home for the MacNeils.

Trad Tuesday - Green Grow the Rushes performed by Dougie MacLean

The lyrics for this song come from Robert Burns. It celebrates the love of a man for women. He is a man who believes the “wisest man the war’l e’er saw” was also a person who “dearly loved the lasses, O.” Riches are not important if you have the love of a good woman.

Dougie MacLean is a Scottish singer/song-writer, perhaps the best-known performer of his generation. I've been lucky enough to see him perform several times here in the US and one of the wishes of my life is to attend Perthshire Amber, the music festival he organizes every fall.

Trad Tuesday - Is There for Honest Poverty by Old Blind Dogs

Today I've picked a Scottish song written by Robert "Rabbie" Burns in 1795. The verse is famous for its expression of egalitarian ideas of society which may be seen as expressing the ideas of liberalism that arose in the 18th century. Its also known as A Man's A Man for All That.

It has been sung by a number of artists but I like the uptempo version by Old Blind Dogs, the great Scottish folk group.