I learned this Strathspey from a recording of late Johnny Cunningham, but he was a fiddler with friends and lots of legato instruments, so I tried to do my best with picking. I discarded the idea of dancing over swords early in the design process (no splatter movie here), but I found I can march to the music. I used the most Scottish-looking place on the Dutch island of Ameland for some of the footage, sorry for not having the real thing at hand (John will understand, I guess). I have to give credits to Simon, because I now understand more about the adventures of outdoor filming - it was very windy at 8°C, I had to take off my thick sweater for upright playing, the camera stand fell over on me once (that was before I found out what the little hook under the middle was for), and the empty stand bag tried to run away with the wind... thesession.org has this tune under a somewhat incorrect name.
Great playing as usual, Bertram. Watching your video I got the impression that a man playing his resonator tenor guitar remembered his outdoor adventure on a windy day.
That's true, it does have a flashback feel to it! And now we know more about the adventures as well. It's a good tune and impressive playing and filming under the circumstances. Was the shot of the feet filmed with the help of a long stick?
Interesting video production, Bertram. Aye, hard to find a Scottish-themed location in that very flat expanse. I am intrigued to find out how you filmed your boots - was it done by Regina? How did you keep the camera so steady while moving? Did you have a steady-cam or a gimbal? By the way, the music was very listenable too and that resonator has quite a sound.
Thanks Gents - to reveal the Secrets of the Boots: - these boots are in fact the most Scottish piece of hardware here; I bought them in an outdoor store in Inverness some years ago, and they have carried me through a good deal of true Scottish scenery, from Orkney to Loch Lomond. These boots are made for walking - I held the camera stand by its feet and thus let the camera hang down just above the ground. Steady enough in the raw footage. - I had to artificially steady some of the material afterwards, though - gusts of wind shook the stand during the OM shooting, you can still see some of it despite postprocessing. You just have to make do with what you've got (unless you want to hire a film crew with a large camera car on rails), and that might be called a good ole Scottish skill, too. Oh, and about "that flashback feel": the RTG video was filmed before we went to Ameland, so it's more of a premonition...
The fingerpicked dobro-tenor does a good job laying down a solid bckground for the octave mandolin. Nice playing, Bertram!
Lovely, rich, bass/lower register tones created from the instruments combined.
Thanks Christian and John W.
Very cool Bertrum! So imaginitive...
A fine tune and even finer video and production. Love that resonator tenor. What a sound.
Thanks Frank and Don. "imaginitive" is an interesting word, seems to fit my imagineered videos...
An interesting note to the tune, Bertram. The title, "Waulking O The Fauld" has nothing to do with walking but is the old Scots word from Scots Gaelic for the process of working the soaking-wet folds (faulds) of the newly-woven tweed cloth which was done by the weavers and their families. The lengths of saturated tweed they were manipulating were very heavy and the process was a big team effort; the people (generally the women) sat around a big table with the cloth piled up on it and they rhythmically worked the cloth as a team, ensuring that it was evenly saturated. The process tightened the warp and weft of the cloth and made it much more resilient to wear and tear, and also made it more weatherproof. As they worked they sang to keep the rhythm going and make the cloth easier to handle; people of all ages would be involved in this and there are still several groups around who perform those traditional songs in Gaelic. The rhythm of the particular tune you play was adapted over the years and I believe the late Johnny Cunningham further adapted it from Strathspey to slow air. Listening to your version here, Bertram, I can well see it fitting into the waulkers' working pattern.
I did know that, John - the boots are made for walking, not for waulking, so their appearance creates an unintended pun here. Those waulking songs are a favourite class of songs of mine, and in fact Regina ist currently practising one (will take a while, stay tuned!). Meanwhile, there is a wonderful lockdown collaboration I found, featuring loads of waulking rhythm.
Thanks for that great link to the puirt a beul (mouth music) performance, Bertram. The ladies in the video are all among the top Gaelic singers in Scotland at present and do so much to keep the culture alive. I can just imagine Regina performing some of those songs. Will stay tuned, as you suggest!
Thanks, Bertram. That was an amazing video. And thanks for the lesson on the tune title, John. Wonderful stuff that adds to meaning of the tune.
There is a sweet little 'waulking tune' on the soundtrack of 'Outlander' with the women singing to keep the rhythm. It's on YT - I can't remember the name but try - waulking and outlander. I thought John and I could make something of it but it really is too short.
I still wonder how waulking was traditionally really done; pictures show two versions: - sitting at a table, with the hands - sitting on the floor, with the feet The latter would make use of stronger muscles and would explain why men were not allowed at these occasions, but the former is shown in all the movies and musical reenactments.
