Sons and Daughters "The Repulsion Box" 2005****

Have you ever heard a band for the first time and thought they must have been made with you in mind? Well, I kinda had that impression when I first heard Sons and Daughters. I'm a big fan of the post punk Americana of Gun Club and The Violent Femmes, and of early Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, but I also love bands featuring female lead vocals by dynamic frontwomen. Somehow an amalgam of all this materialized in Glasgow Scotland circa 2001. It was started by two members of Arab Strap (Adele Bethel on lead vocals/guitar/piano, and David Gow on drums/percussion) who were later joined by Ailidh Lennon (bass/mandolin/piano) and Scott Paterson (vocals/guitar). The Repulsion Box (2005) was nominally their 1st LP, released two years after their debut mini album Love the Cup. Not that Box is a "normal" length CD: 10 songs bristling with nervous energy, it's all over in half an hour. "Medicine" is introduced with pounding drums and scratchy guitars and features a manic lead vocal by Adele. "Red Receiver" starts off similarly to Violent Femmes' "Kiss Off", and doesn't disappoint: once again a very energetic piece, with Adele's unbridled shouting combined perfectly with Paterson's more controlled baritone and backing vocals reminiscent of The Bad Seeds. A bit of mandoline adds folk flavor, while there's also a slow bit where the music stops while the two singers continue with the sole accompaniment of handclaps. "Hunt" begins with a burst of noise and continues in the same vein, reminding me of Birthday Party. The most "difficult" track on the record gives way to the most "commercial": lead single "Dance Me In" - and it's telling that they're not too dissimilar, after all. "Taste The Last Girl" is the second single, even though not, in my opinion, among the highlights. "Rama Lama", on the other hand, certainly is. Here Scott takes most of the lead - really most of the songs in this album are duets between the two singers, while often Adele takes on lead with Scott backing her up. "Rama Lama" shows a strong spaghetti western influence, with quieter sections driven by low bass and percussion followed by outbursts dominated by Adele's shrieks. Not to demean any of the other members, who are all excellent at what they do, but it's her ability to sing, shout, holler and scream like there's no tomorrow that drives this band above all else. In this she reminds me of another personal favorite, coincidentally also from Glasgow, Sue Tompkins. Sons and Daughters made two more albums before their final dissolution in 2012; all are good but this is really my favorite. Highly recommended!

***** for Medicine, Red Receiver, Dance Me In, Rama Lama

**** for Hunt, Choked, Taste the Last Girl, Monsters

*** from Royally Used, Gone

Life Without Buildings "Any Other City" 2001*****

This one took me a while to get. When it first came out, a couple of songs were often playing on Athens rock radio stations, and I had made a mental note to get the CD as soon as it dropped in price. That is what I did then: always having a long buying list and being short of money, I'd wait a year or so by which time albums either fell into the "nice price" category or started appearing in 2nd hand stores. That approach worked - just not always. While I kept appreciating the music more with every listen and became convinced I really must add it to my collection, this album became rarer and rarer until it disappeared from shops completely. It finally became the record that's been sitting in my wishlist (well, the wishlist in my head - not an actual amazon/discogs one) longer than any other. Until it got re-released by a U.S. indie as a record store day special. It then took a fair amount of time to bring myself to buy it on import: In the past, I have had bad experiences with purchases from the U.S.: high postage, unreliable delivery dates, and -worst of all- unexpected customs problems. In the end, though, it all worked fine and I found myself the owner of a shiny, brand new, black vinyl copy.
I just love dropping the needle and watch it spin until "PS Exclusive" comes busting in, first these propulsive staccato riffs, and then one of the most original female rock vocalists of the decade: Sue Tompkins may spit the words in a manner reminiscent of The Fall's Mark E. Smith, but she puts way more passion and conviction in her vocals - here she keeps monomaniacally repeating the phrase "The Right Stuff" (some reviewer counted her - she says it 44 times) as if she wants to hammer it in your head. And, as much as I love the neo-post-punk sound of the band, it's how you feel about the over-the-top shouty vocals that will define whether you'll like this record. For example, here's what what NME's John Mulvey wrote about her: "only mad people and immediate family could warm to Tompkins. Hers is the sound of a performance artist having a self-conscious breakdown, all freestyle poetics and an incalculably avant-garde approach to singing in tune". He hated it. I love it, yet we can agree on a lot: no, she's not singing in tune, she's arguably not singing at all. While he dismisses her as a "performance artist" (as opposed to "singer"), that's hardly offensive. Sure, technically she's not up there with, say, the contestants in The Voice, but that's because she literally is a performance artist: A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, she is currently doing paintings as well as installations and performances mostly focusing on language and expression through the written/spoken word. This LP is her only foray into the world of pop music. Thankfully, there's also nothing pretentious about it.
It holds remarkable well as indie rock music: the complex rhythms and jangly guitars are never derivative but are nevertheless familiar: fans of Patti Smith, The Talking Heads, X-ray Spex, Breeders, Pavement or Sonic Youth will recognize a kindred spirit. At the same time they have this interesting arty thing going on with the lyrics, which seem to be either stream-of-consciousness or word collages, and with the singing/shouting/scatting of repetitive mantras which is uncontrollable, childlike, emotional, and exciting. The faster, punkier, songs are the ones that stick out at first listening: "PS Exclusive", "Let's Get Out", "Young Offenders", "14 Days". Arguably the best is "New Town", employing that slow-fast-slow trick perfected by The Pixies and sold in millions by Nirvana. It's the one that gained the most radio play back in the time. On the closer "Sorrow" they prove they can successfully adapt their style into Mazzy Star-like ballads. Most of the rest sound quite similar, and continuous listening (as I do while writing this review) tends to emphasize the formula repetition. I guess the band is an one-trick-pony: we'll never know if or how they could evolve, since they never made another album. Despite getting (mostly) good reviews and being touted as the next-big-thing in a double bill with The Strokes (at the latter band's UK debut) the idea of professional music careers didn't seem to appeal to them, so they dissolved the band and returned to the art world. This way they remained utterly unfamiliar and evasive and their sound retained its freshness and remained undiluted by repetition. The album fell out of print very quickly, deservedly gaining cult status - when MOJO Magazine presented this album on their page-long Buried Treasure feature, I immediately thought "hell yeah! this is the very definition of the term". This limited Record Store Day reissue has made it available again, but it won't be out there for long, so if you like what you here don't make the same mistake I did, and grab it while you can!

***** for PS Exclusive, Let's Get Out, Young Offenders, 14 Days, New Town

**** for Juno, Envoys, Sorrow

*** for The Leanover, Philip

The Waterboys "Dream Harder" 1993***

I recently saw The Waterboys at Paard van Troje in Den Haag. The band's new moto (or at least the subtitle of their new album) apparently is "an entertainment in sound", and aptly so as they once more put out a great show. Mike Scott of course at center stage, alternating between electric guitar and acoustic 12-string, singing and engaging in just enough between-song banter to make a connection with the audience but not too much as to appear self-centered or vain. He's not just a great songwriter, but also a great band leader and entertainer. Steve Wickham on violin is, of course, his trusted sidekick (no, let's be fair, he's more than that - a minor partner perhaps?) while the band seems to have found an equally important member in organist Brother Paul Brown: his Hammond is vital to the band's new R&B direction, and he's a natural showman to boot! The two lovely backing vocalists were also a nice touch, enhancing the band's performance with their voices and stage presence. Now, Scott may be currently living in Dublin, and half of his band may be Irish, but sound-wise his last 3 albums (since Modern Blues) derive inspiration from the American music tradition, just like Dream Harder did.

Scott has had quite a few stylistic changes over the last 35 years: from the new wave of his debut to the so-called Big Music of A Pagan Place, Celtic folk of Fisherman's Blues and Room To Roam to the more mainstream American rock sound of this album. And, although stylistic changes rarely go well with fans, this album was especially disparaged by critics and fans alike. It certainly marks a turning point for the band - or, to be literal, for Mike Scott, since he was the only original Waterboy left at that point. He had left the rest of the band back in Ireland to move to New York, where he recorded this album with the help of session musicians. Gone are the fiddles and mandolins, in comes screeching electric guitar. To be honest, Scott turns out to be really good at it - as if he really was visited by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix just like he sings about here, and it bestowed some of its powers to him. If the music is often more grounded than usual, the same isn't true for the lyrics which are more than ever pre-occupied by the mystical. Case in point "The Return of Pan", a sort of sequel to 1985's "The Pan Within". It successfully combines his newlyfound hard rock tendencies with paganistic elements evident in the tribal drumming and clarinet solo: the latter, played by the (obviously Greek) George Stathos, wouldn't sound out of place in a village festival of modern-day Arcadia. Before that, the album opens with "The New Life", a rollicking alternative rocker in tune with the grunge sounds that were so in vogue in the 90's. Next up, we have the "Glastonbury Song", an upbeat tune with exuberant lyrics about "finding God" (presumeably not the God of any established religion, though). "Preparing to Fly" and "Corn Circles" are country-ish folk rock with more mystical lyrics, while "Suffer" is a welcome return to earth: with its funky rhythm and lyrics about relationships, it sounds like a precursor to his current style. "Spiritual City" features sitar and a guest vocal by British singer/comic Billy Connolly. I like the goofy chorus and 60's psychedelic aura lent by the sitar, but honestly I've had enough with the Western nonsense notion of India as a "spiritual" place when it's a real country with everyday people mostly suffering from huge inequality and poverty. "Winter Winter" is a half-minute acoustic snippet, while "The Return of Jimi Hendrix" is the weirdest track here, if not the weirdest in all of The Waterboys' discography. It's a delirious spoken word piece with psychedelic ambient guitar, all about Hendrix's ghost visiting the writer and taking him on a tour of its New York haunts. Well, at least it seems to have given him a few tips on the use of guitar fuzz, sustain and distortion. There are tributes to Scott's literary idols, to C.S. Lewis (the quasi-mystical Christian writer of "Narnia") on the short atmospheric "Wonders of Lewis", and to Irish poet W.B.Yeats whose "Love and Death" poem he turned into a nice ballad. Closer "Good News" is a mid-tempo song with a sax solo that somehow reminds me of Chris Rea. Its (and the whole album's) good vibes did not convince everyone though and, despite good sales, Scott decided to temporarily put The Waterboy's name to rest. The name of the band was resurrected in 2000, with violinist Wickham from their 80's lineup rejoining a couple of years later. I've seen them perform in various incarnations quite a few times post-2000 and they've always been great, while what I've heard from their recent albums is also consistently good. So what if they never made another This Is The Sea or Fisherman's Blues? Few bands can sustain that kind of quality for long. Seen from a 25-year distance, Dream Harder is not the disappointment it initially seemed to be, rather just another station in a beautiful journey through music.

**** for The New Life, Glastonbury Song, Preparing to Fly, The Return of Pan, Suffer

*** for Corn Circles, Winter Winter, Love and Death, The Return of Jimi Hendrix, Spiritual City, Wonders of Lewis, Good News

The Corries "Live At The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh" 1971***

When I visit a foreign city I always return with a few records indicative of the local scene, mostly rock. This wasn't the case with Edinburgh and Scotland, because there's nothing particularly Scottish about, say, The Waterboys, Deacon Blue or Belle & Sebastian. Maybe you can say that about The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, because of the singer's accent. In any case, I already had all that and more, so I settled for a CD of modernized bagpipe music (The Red Hot Chili Pipers - not Peppers, get it?) and I also picked up a random LP by The Corries who I knew to be the Scottish equivalent of The Dubliners. I chose it just because it had the word Edinburgh on the title, but I guess you can't go wrong with a traditional band like that. I say band although they're just a duo, Roy Williamson and Ronnie Browne - I guess if you can call The White Stripes a band, then any duo can legitimately claim the same title. The music is mostly acoustic ballads, with voices and guitars occasionally embellished by harmonica, whistle, mandolin and other instruments. The album begins with a rousing rebel tune played on 2 bodhráns (Celtic hand drums). "Wha Wadna Fecht For Charlie" is a Jacobite martial song, urging the clans to support the claim of Charles Stuart (known in Scotland as Bonnie Prince Charlie) to the English and Scottish thrones. The Jacobite uprising was eventually crushed 300 years ago, but not forgotten it seems. Not by The Corries nor by the current pro-independence Scottish parliament. The English prefer to forget about it, but the conflict is immortalized in the British national anthem which was written around that time and whose second verse goes "...May he sedition hush/and like a torrent rush/Rebellious Scots to crush/God save King". "Liberty" is a beautiful rebel ballad, while another sturdy 18th Century anthem "Ye Jacobites By Name" displays a pacifist sentiment. Don't get the impression that it's a serious academic or political thing though. There's also joking, hilarity and humorous folk ditties like "Side By Side" and "Abigail". Many songs were already familiar to me from The Dubliners, and are presented here in not-too-dissimilar versions: "The Old Triangle", "Tramps And Hawkers" and "Maids When You're Young". The two bands were of the same time, there's no point trying to figure out who sang what first, after all it's traditional material. The sea shanty "Lowlands Away" is presaged by a lively jig on tin whistle. There are also some atmospheric ballads like "Dream Angus" (a lullaby) and "The Great Silkie", about a mythical mermaid-like creature of Scottish lore. "Lyceum Blues" is a humorous Brit blues cliché-mocking song with bluesy harmonica. The record ends on a high note with the jokey "Maids When You're Young" and another traditional Jacobite song "Bonny Dundee" - the crowd joins in clapping and singing along, and everyone seems to be having a good time. The album is a good representation of the band's live act, jokes and all, and the performances are good, but I guess a studio collection might have made for a better introduction. It is available on CD as a two-for-one together with "Sound the Pibroch"(1972), but there also seem to be enough original vinyl copies around for those who are interested...

**** for Wha Wadna Fecht For Charlie, Liberty, Ye Jacobites By Name, Lowlands Away, Bonny Dundee

*** for Tramps And Hawkers, The Great Silkie, Lyceum Blues, The Old Triangle, Dream Angus, Maids When You're Young

** for Side By Side, Abigail

The Record Shop Tour of Edinburgh

I spent recently a few days in Edinburgh, and have only good things to say about it. Gorgeous city, beautiful Gothic buildings emanating history and an ambiance of mystery - it's not surprising that so many novelists of the mysterious and fantastic come from here: From classics like Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle to modern bestsellers Ian Rankin and J.K. Rowling - the latter may not come from Edinburgh but wrote the first Harry Potter novel while living there and incorporated many features of the city in her writings. The books' phenomenal success saw them in turn become an Edinburgh feature, as evident by the abundance of Harry Potter souvenirs on sale everywhere in the city. The local pubs were great, and so was the food: we ate, among other delicacies, haggis (with neeps and tatties), sausages and mash, mac and cheese, and pies filled with venison/stake & ale stew/fish/anything else you can imagine (including of course haggis, neeps and tatties). Still regret not getting to the bottom of mum's comfort food menu, but I intend to try on a later visit. Of course, like good tourists we took a couple of guided tours: the city history tour and the ghost tour. Maybe because the size of the city permits it, there is a plethora of walking tours to choose from: the underground tour, the literary tour, city of the dead tour, the Outlander tour etc. One thing's still missing though: it's the Edinburgh Record Stores tour, so let me be your guide: Seeing as the record shops are scattered throughout the city and not all within a 10 minute radius from the touristic Royal Mile, you may want to split your walk and combine it with visiting other sites. I split it in three parts, roughly 2 hours average, depending of course on how long you'll spend browsing.

DAY ONE: Right on The Royal Mile (the road to Holyrood Palace) on 110 Canongate Str, you'll find Unknown Pleasures - subtitled "rare records and cd's" but not as exclusive as the title implies. It's a medium-to-small-sized shop with a nevertheless good selection of LP's (mostly £7-20, more for the actually rare ones), 7' singles, T-shirts and CD's (£4-8). Near the university, and to the south, there's Backbeat Records (31 E Crosscauseway, just off Nicolson Street). It's packed to the top with boxes, which makes browsing impossible. Apparently the owner is much admired for his ability to produce any record you ask for out of the chaos of his store, which is exactly what I don't want when I'm record hunting. I like to be surprised by discovering unexpected gems while browsing, as well as finding a nice bargain: after 30 years of record collecting, I've learned that you can find anything for the right price, and I don't mean the one listed on Record Collector's Rare Record Price Guide, the book which the Backbeat owner uses. He told me that if I wanted bargains I'd have to "search the charity shops", which I did: within a few meters from his shop, I found a Barnardo's (45 Clerk Street) Oxfam, (116 Nicolson Str) and British Heart Foundation (102 Nicolson Str). Not much in the way of vinyl, but a random selection of cheap CD's for £1-3 - including many 4* or 5* albums from the 90's and 00's. I bought a few from that specific Bernardo's (UK's biggest charity for children). We have charity shops in Holland (they're called kringloopwinkels) but in Edinburgh there's literally one in every corner - not to mention that almost every establishment we visited (from hotels to cafes) seemed to promote another charity. If I ever get to heaven, I expect to find it choke-full of Scottish philanthropists. Further down Clerk Street (on number 69) you can find Record Shak. It has a run-down appearance, packed with LP's that seem to be lying there for decades (folk, rock, jazz, indie, a bit of everything really, mostly £7-15). Good stuff though, including some CD's and even cassettes.

DAY TWO: On the second day I started once again from my base in the Royal Mile and hit the closest shops: Underground Solu’shn on Cockburn Str is a really nice one. Its focus is in electronic music which isn't my cup of tea, but it also has some interesting rock and indie LP's.  Most CD's and LP's were priced £10-20. A few steps to the West (12 Bank Str.) you can find Coda Music. The shop has two rooms, of which the front one is dedicated to new vinyl (all kinds: rock, indie, blues etc, £15-25) and general CD's (many on offer £4-5) and the back one is full of folk CD's (mostly £7-12). Everything is here: Scottish folk obviously, but also Irish, European, Country, and World music. From there, one passes Princes Street Gardens (A.K.A. the former Nor Loch, liquid grave to the city's witches) to cross to the new city. On 3-15 Rose Street, right behind Princes Str, there's Edinburgh's Fopp. Fopp is a record store chain of the HMV family, I had earlier visited the one in London and knew what to expect: this large shop has a big variety on new LPs (£15-25) and CDs (many on sale for £5, the rest generally also rather logically priced). Also many offers on DVD's and books (music, fiction and non-fiction, small variety but good titles priced 2-for-£5).

Moving outwards from the city center, on 21 St Stephen Str, you'll find Vox Box. A small-ish shop with a good vibe and a mix of new (£18-25) and used (£5-15) records. Rock, Indie, Punk etc. The back room allegedly hosts non-crappy cheap vinyl (around £1,5) but it was closed when I visited. A bit further down on 64 Raeburn Pl. there's another Oxfam shop, this time one dedicated to books and music. LP's fall into three categories: cheap (not necessarily crap, but zero collecting value) £1-2, general £2-7 and collectibles £8-30. CD's £2-7. The median price of LP's and CD's was £4. Generally cheaper than other record stores, but don't expect to find great bargains. At least your money will be helping a good cause. On my way back to the center, I stopped at Assai Records (1 Grindlay Str), right under the feet of the castle. After all the crammed shops I visited, I liked how spacious and modern it looked. Only new vinyl (£15-20, indie, rock etc). A few bargains too, I left with a Bevis Frond LP (an older Record Store Day special reissue) for £3,99. Mind you, the second day's walk was almost twice as long as the previous, so you may want to split it more evenly.

DAY THREE: On the third day I visited a few shops on the road between the city center and the city's harbor Leith. It's a bit far from the center, but I'd certainly recommend visiting Vinyl Villains on 5 Elm Row. Nice decoration outside and cozy inside, big selection and affordable prices. Indicatively: LPs new £13-20, 2nd hand on average £4-8, a few offers £1-2. CD's mostly £3-5, max. £9. T-shirts, cassettes and 7' singles also on sale. Further up on that road, there's Elvis Shakespeare (gotta love the name!) dedicated to used books and music. At first it doesn't seem to have so many records, but that's just because they're neatly filed per genre in sliding cupboards. There are some £1 LP's and (indie) CDs. Average prices are £3-5 for CD's, £4-5 for vinyl, excluding collectibles. Last stop that day, the port of Leith. Some nice cafes and the Ocean Terminal shopping mall, which is connected to one of Edinburgh's more popular attractions, the Royal Boat Britannia. If you make it this far, it'd be a shame not to visit HMV. It may have the ambiance of a supermarket, being a remnant of the huge corporate record shops era, but it does have a big variety on CD's (£4-12, many offers for £5), DVD's and new vinyl (£15-25). If you're looking for something specific, especially on CD, chances are it'll be here.

  
Generally the UK gives me the impression of suffering from some kind of vinyl price inflation. I can't see why 2nd hand UK pressings should be more expensive in London or Edinburgh than at my local record store in Delft. The supply in UK should be larger, unless it was hit during the last decade by some kind of vinyl-eating virus which destroyed the country's reserves. Even in charity shops that give away other stuff (including CD's) dirt cheap, vinyl is relatively overpriced. Variety-wise, also, visitors from big European or American cities should not expect to find in Edinburgh more than at home - unless of course you're looking for bagpipe music. But in my experience searching always pays off, so I'd certainly suggest to take some time and visit at least a couple of these shops. You're bound to come away, as I did, with some cool souvenirs from your visit.
DISCLAIMER: The Record Shop Walking Tour Of Edinburgh Ltd. is not liable for foot blisters or empty wallets. Feel free to ameliorate or adjust the program according to your own needs on the basis of the information given. The prices are indicative and the information and photographs current as of April 22, 2018. 

Dick Gaughan "Handful Of Earth" 1981****

I first came across mention of this album in the pages of the Mojo Ultimate Music Companion, a well-researched reference book mixing classic pop and rock albums with lesser known masterpieces. I later found out that it has won many accolades, but the decisive reason for my buying it was that it contains the definitive version of "World Turned Upside Down" a folk song modelled by Leon Rosselson on traditional English ballads. I first heard the Barracudas' version and I was blown away by the revolutionary lyrics and marching-band music. Not what I expected from a band usually singing about the joys of surfing and girls with mini-skirts. I've since heard many more versions (Gaughan, Oyster Band, Billy Bragg, Chubbawamba). The song immortalises the story of The Diggers, a small band of Utopian communists from 1649. Deriving their own message from The New Testament, they proclaimed that God created all human beings as equals (even women!), therefore the distinction between masters and servants was deeply un-Christian. They did not recognise private property, as they believed that land was bestowed to all humankind collectively to grow, protect (they were also proto-environmentalists) and share its fruits equally. So they set about commonly cultivating unused wasteland, living in communes and organising common meals open to all. This example found, predictably, little favour with the English ruling classes who managed to suppress and disperse them rather easily - being staunch pacifists committed to non-violence, they did not even fight back. But their ideas lived on, partially revived by Chartists and Anarchists in the 19th century, eloquently and emotionally immortalised in this truly inspirational song: "We work, we eat together/We need no swords/We will not bow to masters/Or pay rent to the lords/We are free men/Though we are poor/You Diggers all stand up for glory/Stand up now" (complete lyric here). Read more about the diggers' history here and here or, better yet, try the ultimate book on the subject, Christopher Hill's "The World Turned Upside Down" - same title as the song!

Dick Gaughan's "Handful of Earth" isn't an album you can easily find in your local record store or listen to the radio often. Yet it's won many distinctions in its time: Melody Maker's 1981 Album Of The Year, Folk & Root magazine's Folk Album Of The Decade etc. To be honest, it's not the kind of folk album that catches my attention, either. I'm partial to the richly orchestrated medieval prog/folk of The Strawbs and Pentangle and to the soothing female voices of Sandy Denny or The Unthanks. Gaughan sings his traditional ballads in a voice soft but masculine, with a strong Scottish accent. From the albums in my collection, the closest I can think of is Martin Carthy. His main instrument is the acoustic guitar. He's a dexterous player but doesn't get carried away soloing (except maybe in the instrumental "Scojun Waltz/Randers Hopsa"). He's discretely backed for a few songs by a small band (fiddle, bass, keyboard and whistle) but it's generally just vocal and acoustic guitar. "Handful of Earth" lyrically mixes the personal with the political, though the latter has the upper hand - a reaction to the recent election of Margaret Thatcher in government. Gaughan's ideology is a mix of old-school socialism and Scottish nationalism - though I should probably say Celtic instead of Scottish since, being a Gael with roots both in The Highlands and Ireland, he makes little distinction between Irish and Scottish Celts. Case in point is "Erin-Go-Bragh" ("Ireland forever" in Gaelic) the lively Celtic folk-rocker that opens the album. It's a 19th Century ballad about a Gael immigrant worker harassed by the British police. "World Turned Upside Down' is similarly a rousing and defiant rebel song about a band of 17th century Utopian communists and "Craigie Hill" is a nostalgic song about migration. According to the singer "it is concerned solely with the reasons for the forced migration and the heartbreak of leaving. It used to be common to hold wakes for those leaving as, to those left behind, it was exactly as if they had died". "Lough Erne" (A.k.a.The Rambling Irishman) is another Irish immigration song, but a more optimistic one. "Now Westlin’ Winds" is a poem by Scottish romantic poet Robert Burns set to an acoustic folk backing and "The Snows They Melt the Soonest" a soft and emotive lovesong. "Workers’ Song" is a singalong protest song with skillful acoustic guitar work, while the album closes with two wonderful ballads: "Song for Ireland" and "Both Sides the Tweed". The latter is a Scottish independence song hailing from 1707 a few words of which were altered by Gaughan who also added a new melody and some beautiful piano backing and blues guitar licks. It has since been widely covered and taken its place as a piece of Scottish cultural heritage.

***** for World Turned Upside Down, Both Sides the Tweed

**** for Erin-Go-Bragh, Now Westlin’ Winds, The Snows They Melt the Soonest, Song for Ireland, Workers’ Song

*** for Craigie Hill, Lough Erne/First Kiss at Parting, Scojun Waltz/Randers Hopsa