JYM004 Album Notes

I’ve been writing tunes since 1988, composing for bands, theatre shows and for fun. The more I wrote the more I had a pipe dream of making albums of self penned material and recording them with musician friends I’ve made over the years. Thanks to the assistance of Creative Scotland, the love, support and encouragement of Ruth Morris and the efforts of all the wonderful musicians involved this, at last, is the first of what will become a series of Journeyman recordings.

Thanks to everyone who’s supported and encouraged me over the years, including and in no particular order: the Marwick family, Bellevue Rendezvous, Iron Horse, Cantrip, Burach, Up In The Air, Ceilidh Minogue, The Amazing Spootiskerry Ceilidh Band, The Tree Trunks, Philip Howard, Matthew Zajac, Virginia Radcliffe, Andy White, Simon Thoumire, Peter and Fiona Stott, Kirsty Grace, BirnamCD and, of course, Kym Hardie for putting up with it all summer.

TUNE FOR PETER, JOEL TURK’S, LOWREY’S, LEO MCCANN’S and ROY MARCHBANK’S are all dedicated to friends, and Roy was there the night all the VODKA was drunk as well.

Some of the tunes are from experiences in specific places- LE COUREGANT (a beach in Brittany, we played this tune in a cafe session and it went down very well), SAMARKAND (on the Silk Road in Uzbekistan), MARSTEIN (this Norwegian navigation light a welcome sight to our boat after battling across the North Sea), LAMMERMUIR (windswept and empty that day), LEFT AT WEREWOLF (in Solingen there is a square called Werewolf where we had to turn left)
BETWEEN AN STAC AND ROISBHEIN (a day at my sister’s house in the shadow of these ancient mountains), THE PYRENEAN JIG (a week spent near Nistos with Joel and Sarah), THE VALLEY OF STAIRS (my own name for a steep sided valley near Benfeita in Portugal, staying with our friends Donald and Kath), TULLIBARDINE BRAES (warm and sunny that day), FINDO GASK (never been but it’s an intriguing name) , BACK IN FORTH (being from Edinburgh I always get a lift to my spirits when I return), THE FLY HALF (a pub near Murrayfield, and a handy title for a jig with an extra half bar), THE GRANTON BACKSTEPS (not a dance but a place to sit and smoke at the back door), THE BREADALBANE REEL (a region in the southern Highlands)
THE FOOT OF BEN NEWE (where this album was recorded), CARRONVALE (venue for the Falkirk Fiddle Workshop up until I dedicated this tune to it whereupon they got moved elsewhere), ST CHRISTOPHE (partied out in a hotel in Lorient), ALONG THE COAST OF NORWAY (sailing up that coast for the first time and gazing upon a new country).

Nature inspired DESERT REEL, DUSK, OCTOBER, HORSE AND RIDER (two stars in close proximity in the Great Bear) and THE HANDSOME WAVE (being a big wave that swept across our open boat crossing the sound of Iona; as I gasped for air I heard Ronan shout “That was a very handsome wave”).

Bespoke tunes in various circumstances include FIREDANCE 1&2 (for Nicola McCartney’s play Heritage at the Traverse), SALAMANDER (for Iain F Macleod’s play Alexander Salamander, The Tale of A Teenage Pyromaniac at the Traverse), QUEEN MAEVE (written as a raffle prize in Tunisia), THE PERTHSHIRE RACES (to accompany footage of horse racing).

Many of them are imagined or whimsy- THE JACK OF CLUBS (a playing card), THE PLATE SMASHER (someone said it sounds like a Greek wedding reel), THE MINOTAUR (a bull headed dweller in labyrinths), THE SCENTED GROVE (an imagined Arcadian woodland scene; perfume, dancing, satyrs etc), THE UNDERDOGS (they need all the encouragement and recognition they can get),

CARMEN ESPERANZA (Spanish for Tune of Hope), IL CONTO (Italian for The Bill), ROBERTO ES TU TIO (Spanish for Bob’s Your Uncle), VICTORIAN VALUES (after a trip to New Lanark and learning about their dream of factory communities), BALKAN RED (written with tea and encouragement from the rest of Iron Horse, inspired by a trip to Slovenia and imagining further afield), THE CONCERT HALL (empty, the audience has gone, only ghosts and memories remain), OUT OF THE EAST (a lot of culture and history has emerged from the Orient)

Direct experiences and stories led to MADAME JEANETTE’S (a very hot chilli from Surinam named after a governor’s wife), MORAG’S NO 2 (a hefty baulk of tweed for waulking taken to a cultural festival in Portugal and named Morag as in “Whose turn is it to take Morag back tonight?”), GREY SMOKE FROM THE MOUNTAINS (dedicated to Siwy Dym, a fantastic Polish band with a goat)

DAVIDSON THE LUTHIER (my parents got me a fiddle when I was 16, this tune is dedicated to the man who made it), REVES DE ST CHARTIER (dreamy memories of music and dancing at the St Chartier festival), THE LOOSE CANNON (an ex-manager. Never sure what he was going to do next but it probably wasn’t going to involve getting a gig), THE OMAN HIGHLAND GAMES (I played at this event in Muscat with Burach. I still can’t believe that the band put in a team, nor how well we did. Officially I’m still to finish the tomato in a spoon race), PALLBEARERS (carrying the coffin of someone you love), THE JAR OF OLIVES (an apology and a thank you to Linda, who let us stay and I ate all the olives).

JIG FOR JAMES is for James Murray and dedicated with grandpaternal affection by Andrew Webster.

KENNY MACEWAN’S, THE OAKWOOD and THE LONG ROAD are all dedicated to the memory of my brother Ewan, who was taken too soon.