Songbook
If you click on any song you'll find lyrics, short comments, and audio clips on some.
If there's any songs you've heard me sing that aren't here, please just get in touch
Songbook
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A Man's A Man
Yet another beautiful song of Burns’, and another one that I think not only demonstrates his lyrical and poetic genius but also how advanced and influential his thinking was for his time. This is one of the many songs I first learned from that powerful record by The Laggan, The Common Man.... read more...
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Arthur McBride
The compelling story of this song seems to recur again and again in the traditional repertoires of many of the English-speaking countries – it was clearly an issue that was commonly experienced over the centuries. This particular version is from Ireland.... read more...
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As I Roved Out
This is one of a great number of moving traditional ballads in the Irish repertoire. I first learned it from Ian Hill at the Grove Folk Club, Leeds. Apparently the story tells of one particular set of consequences of the system of arranged marriages (something not uncommon in British history) that began to develop in Ireland around the time of the Great Famine, 1845-1852.... read more...
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Coorie Doon (Miner's Lullaby)
This beautiful lullaby was written by Matt McGinn. A Glasgow man, he was a prolific songwriter and one of the towering figures of the Scottish folk scene.... read more...
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I'm A Rover
This is a (relatively) popular Scottish night-visiting song that I picked up playing around various folk clubs. In Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland Ewan MacColl notes that it is ‘almost certainly’ related to The Lover’s Ghost; ‘here, however, the supernatural part of the plot has almost entirely disappeared’.... read more...
