Happy new year! So far, in the early weeks of 2025, I‘ve:
- Played a live solo acoustic set, at the Wairarapa Songwriters’ Group night at Carterton Club on 11 January.
The Troubled Times
- held our first two first recording sessions for the year:
- on 20th of January, an instrument-swapped session with Dave on guitar and Antony on bass this time:
- and on 26 January – music video by Antony Milton below, for a forthcoming album:
Adieu to Tweedside.
- Recorded a new version for Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856). It includes acoustic bass and classical guitar. It’s set to the traditional Scottish tune ‘Skye Boat Song’, and starts with almost a doo-wop feel – before taking a darker turn, as the theme of bereavement is revealed:
Lyrics
ADIEU , adieu , to bonnie Tweed , Adieu , her banks so green ; Adieu , adieu , each sylvan grove , Where often I have been . Adieu , adieu , each hoary height ; Farewell , each whin – clad brae ; Adieu , her bonnie blooming howes , That ever smile so gay .
Oft have I roam’d upon her banks , When gentle zephyrs blew , While o’er her pure and crystal breast The twittering swallows few . With blooming Mary by my side , I had no cause to fear ; My heart was light , my griefs were few , When Mary thus was near .
But now , alas ! those joys have pass’d , And Mary now is gone To rest , among departed friends , Beneath the moss – clad stone ; And I am left to sigh and pine In this drear world of care , And cannot even view the spot Where rests my sleeping fair .
Oh , farewell , all ye earthly joys , Ye ne’er were deign’d for me , A chequer’d mind oppress’d with woes Can ill with mirth agree . But give me near some rippling rill My weary life to end , And give me Nature’s book to read , And I’ll be Nature’s friend
John Collie, 1856
fiffdimension 