Both Sides of the Tweed - Scottish & Northumbrian Folk

Both Sides of the Tweed

Let the love of our land's sacred rights, to the love of our people succeed
Let friendship and honour unite and flourish on both sides the Tweed

 

Folk songs, stories & melodies of Scotland & Northumberland

Ballads, airs, reels, hornpipes and touching laments. Stories within the songs relate largely to historical events and movements between the 17th century killing time & the dawn of the 20th, periods of immense economic & demographic change across all northern regions. Anthems and tales of highland & clan pride, great bravery, treachery, tragedy & loss, a potato famine, dispossession, regret and exile. Other tracks re tempered by a sense of hope & trust in a brighter future. Some songs were documented in James Child's 19th century Scottish & Child Ballads and the Roud Folk anthologies while others were composed later. Let the stringsmen strum, the singers sing and the pipers play...

 

 

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Recordings date from the 1950's to the 2000's. Scots & Northumbrian tunes performed predominantly by native singers & players. Longtime stalwarts of the Scottish folk scene like Ewan MacColl, Alex Campbell, The McCalmans, Ian & Lorna Campbell and Dick Gaughan take the lead with a series of topical songs. Celtic folk outfits The Battlefield Band, Silly Wizard, Five Hand Reel & Clan Alba keep the vibes flowing as do Steeleye Span. Piper Kathryn Tickell & friends represent Northumbria. In view of deep cultural & social Scots-Irish links and shared experiences under the colonial domination of the English & conspiritor class a few Irish songs feature later in the broadcast courtesy of Christie Moore & Planxty, old-time traditional singer Paddy Tunney, John Doyle & Irish-American group Solas.

A selection of Northumbrian music features early on, songs celebrating the river Tyne and Northumbrian life. We also have a curious pair of cross-border tales; Ewa MacColl's Geordie and a live performance of The Fair Flower of Northumberland by Dick Gaughan.  Four tracks from the 1959 LP Songs of Two Rebellions by Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger which deals with the two Jacobite Rebellions - the '15 (1715) & the '45 (1745) and aftermath. Staying with the rebellions, The McCalmans have always championed Scotland and highlighted its history. Silly Wizard lament the Highland Clearances and rock their way through some rousing traditional songs (great vocals) & melodies with tracks from the late-70's, including the awesome Land of the Leal. As would be expected, veteran activist & commentator Dick Gaughan features heavily with three solo tracks plus some other historically themed songs with his bands Five Hand Reel & Clan Alba. The lament Lassie Lie Near Me is just fantastic. Classic reels from the great Dave Swarbrick together with a cut of Lord Dewentwater's Farewell, a sad Northumbrian air concerning the arrest of the aforementioned Tynedale gentleman on post-rebellion sedition charges. Other versions here by Glenn Miller and Carsten Rosenlund & Helen Davies. Let's remember that Northumbrian clan structure also came under sustained pressure from the earliest dates as families in remote moorland areas such as the Thompsons, Charltons, Chapmans, Robsons, Shaftoes & Armstrongs were gradually brought to heel under the law, as were the local Catholic gentry. Descendants of these families are prominant locally to this day. The local traditional culture was also diluted through assimilation as the urbanisation & industrialisation of Tyneside progressed, drawing in large numbers of workers from other regions. Highlanders and reivers alike were also drawn to Scotland & England's many emergining industrial hubs or went on to find renoun and play important roles overseas with the British army & navy.

 

The highland clearances and great emigration which continued into the twentieth century are dealt with from both Scots & Irish perspectives. Various songs reflect regret and homesickness over there in far Americay. American Nanci Griffith sings The Road to Aberdeen, a tale of a descendent of emigrants returning to rediscover her ancestral roots and then Emily Smith does a cheerful ditty about a ship crossing to return home to Caledonia. Bert Jansch comes with a charming version of The Road tae Dundee from 1990. Lorna Campbell sings Johnny Faa. Faa was a historical figure, a 16th century king of the Scottish gypsies while the song is an incarnation of The Raggle Taggle Gypsy. We finish with the McCalmans performance of Both Sides of the Tweed, an optimistic call for continued cross-border unity & amity in the face of Scotland's eventual freedom & independence. 

  

 

 

Continuous mix 2hrs 35

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