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To The Weaver's Gin Ye Go
The Westlin Weavers
Our first CD is a fast-paced blend of traditional and contemporary Scots, Irish and English favorites. Traditional tunes include Scots songs collected by Robert Burns -- including the title track -- as well as songs of Irish immigration and an English ballad from the Vaughn Williams collection. Modern favorites include selections from The Corries, Gordon Menzies and Fosters & Allen. Something for everyone!
$15 + 3.95 shipping/handling.
Please provide your shipping information and mail check or money order to:
The Westlin Weavers
3525 Del Mar Heights Road #351
San Diego, CA 92130
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1. MacPherson's Lament (4:54)
2. The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie-O (3:36)
3. The Hills of Connamara (3:08)
4. I'll Tell Me Ma (2:52)
5. Schiehallion (3:49)
6. The Blacksmith (2:49)
7. The Braes of Killicrankie (3:45)
8. Paddy Works on the Railway (3:01)
9. Drink Up The Cider (3:03)
10. Bannockburn (3:34)
11. Wantoness (2:07)
12. Goodbye Mick (2:58)
13. Flower of Scotland (3:14)
14. To The Weaver’s Gin Ye Go (3:35)
Jeanne McDougall: guitar (1-14), vocals (1-5, 7-10, 12-14), dulcimer (3, 5, 9, 12-13)
Marc Townsend: vocals (1-5, 7-10, 12-14), bodhran (1-2, 5, 7, 10), djembe (3, 6, 8)
Patric Petrie: fiddle (1-5, 7-10, 12-14), vocals (6, 11)
Alex McDougall: vocals (1-5, 7-10, 12-14)
Special thanks to:
Steve Peavey: mandolin (1-5, 7-10, 12-14)
Pete Harrison: bass (1-5, 7-10, 12-14)
What's in a name?
Westlin is an adjective often used by Robert Burns to describe people and places of the West, such as his beloved Ayrshire.
As musicians who live and perform in another Western region - California - we took the name for our own, too. Tune weaving is our trade, and if the analogy brings to mind earlier folkies, well, we're glad to be in such rarified company! We owe them a great debt, and much gratitude.
You'll meet the original Westlin Weaver in the title track of this, our first CD. We hope you enjoy listening to the tunes as much as we enjoy singing them, and we're proud to wrap them up in the tartan of the great hero Wallace, who meant so much to Scotland, Burns, and musical lore.
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Many thanks to: spouses and sprats Alex, Eric, Holly, Joe, Josh & Meg, for being there no matter what - o - Pete and Melissa at PH Pro Music, for just letting it happen - o - Scott, Mia and family, who were there from the beginning - o - Janette, Rob and the North County Scots, for their undying support - o - Cherie, Dani, Mac and everyone at the House of Scotland, for their love and encouragement - o - and Jock McGovern, for nurturing our love of Rabbie Burns.
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MacPherson's Lament tells the tale of the Highland highwayman Jamie MacPherson. Condemned to die, MacPherson reportedly played his fiddle up to the moment of execution and famously broke it over his knee rather than allow anyone to play it after his death. The story was well known to another fiddler, Robert Burns, who chose to include it among his collected songs of Old Scotland. We close the track with "Mairi's Wedding," a decidedly happier traditional Scots tune!
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The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie-O is a product of the Battle of Fyvie fought in 1644 between a thousand Royalists commanded by the Marquis of Montrose and a Parliamentary army of 3,500. The Royalists won the day, but the Marquis was eventually executed. Captain Ned of this song fared no better, but at least he died for the chambermaid of Fyvie-o.
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The Hills of Connemara is the original hillbilly moonshiner song, rising from the wild and barren Connemara region northwest of Galway. Its remote valleys and bogs provided the perfect hide out from the excisemen!
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I'll Tell Me Ma is a traditional tune heard in every Belfast pub -- not to mention many others the world over. Our amazing lead vocalist Marc bravely tells the rollicking tale of an Ulster lass who the boys just won't leave alone.
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Schiehallion is a Gordon Menzies ballad of Scottish pride and nationalism. This "sacred mountain"of Perthshire is also known as the "Fairy Hill of the Caledonians," and even has a place in the history of science as the birthplace of the contour line, drawn in the mid-18th century by a survey team attempting to ascertain the earth's mass. Efforts continue to purchase and preserve the mountain from development - learn more at www.jmt.org
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The Blacksmith is a traditional English ballad collected by Vaughn Williams early in the last century. This spellbinding treatment by our wee Irish fiddler Patric will fill your eyes with tears of sorrow and joy.
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The Braes o' Killicrankie, another song collected by Burns, recalls the famed 1689 battle. Jacobite forces led by "Bonnie" Viscount Dundee included the young Rob Roy. Outnumbered nearly two to one, the Jacobites defeated the government troops of General Hugh MacKay and lived to sing about it.
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Paddy Works on the Railway follows the immigrant Irish who left old Erin in the mid-19th century to build the great railways of the world.
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Drink Up The Cider is a Fosters & Allen favorite that - with slightly different words! - is a team song of the Bristol City Robins. Snakebite, anyone?
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Bannockburn, another Gordon Menzies classic, chronicles two ferocious days of fighting in which the men who once stood with Wallace helped Robert the Bruce to drive Edward of England and his Sassanachs from their shores.
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Wantoness, also known as "Kindness," is based on a Burns lyric. Patric gives a hauntingly beautiful rendition of love sought, and love lost.
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Goodbye Mick is another song of Irish immigration about the boys who "quit the land where whiskey grew to wear the Yankee button."
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Flower of Scotland is part of the rich musical legacy of Corries singer/ songwriter Roy Williamson. Though we lost Roy in 1990, his spirit lives on in an amazing anthem that has grown to express the feelings of a nation.
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To The Weaver’s Gin Ye Go tells the cautionary tale of the Westlin Weaver - mothers, take the wool to the weaver's yourself! Burns wickedly "weaves" the workaday terms of the weaver’s trade into a double-entendre tour de force.
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All tunes traditional, except where otherwise noted. Enjoy!
Jeanne McDougall
June 2003