Scottish music on a Greek bouzouki.

[kmmando]

Lost sight of these old clips in vimeo somewhere, but fun to see again after many years. Sadly, accordionist Ali Beag MacLeod is no longer alive, and very much missed in the Highlands of Scotland and beyond. A rare man indeed.

[Ranald]

Kevin,
I really enjoyed that. I was brought up with music at home as a regular part of life, so I really liked hearing you and your highland friends ceilidh-ing in the true sense of sitting around, visiting, making music, and enjoying yourselves. I really enjoyed the tunes and your style of playing them, which certainly had the sense of tradition.

Sorry to hear about Ali Beag. A relative?

Tapadh leat,
Raghnall

[kmmando]

Thanks a lot! Ali and I had ancestry in common a bit back from Sionascaig. He was a most charming man, a true Gael.
Moran taing
Kevin Macleod

[Simon DS]

Inspiring energetic bouncy playing and nice to hear these complementary instruments together.

Anyone have tune names for the first vid?

[John Kelly]

Great memories being invoked by the videos, Kevin. I still have Ali's book of tunes he signed for me that weekend I was fortunate enough to spend the Friday evening in your kitchen with a great bunch of musicians including Dagger Gordon.
Simon, the tunes are named on-screen around 20 seconds mark.

[Simon DS]

Thanks John, I didn’t watch the vid, I just played it with the volume cranked up…. yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaar!
That rhythm is the best!!!

LOCHNIVER by J McIvor
ACHNAHAIRD by PM N Gillies
AN LONDUBH by C Bannatyne (though not (?) one of these: The Blackbird)

[kmmando]

Not a bouzouki, but Scottish nevertheless ...

[kmmando]

[Ranald]

Thanks for those, Kevin. They remind me of "having a time" at John Neil's in Gabarus Lake, Cape Breton -- but with a different accent on the Scottish music. (No mandolin.) John Neil MacLean was a friend and, I think, distant cousin, who died some years ago at about 58, if I remember correctly. His mother was bedridden upstairs at his house. I never met her but often heard them speaking Gaelic together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIxB...lMacLean-Topic



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8om6...lMacLean-Topic

[John Kelly]

Both videos coming up as unavailable, Ranald. Trying to open with YT link has the same result.

[John Kelly]

Love your very natural exchanges at the start of Old Joe's Two-steps, Kevin! We play The Highlander's Revenge at our local sessions but at a slower tempo and lacking that lift you and Ali achieve.Thanks for latest postings.

[Ranald]

Both videos coming up as unavailable, Ranald. Trying to open with YT link has the same result.

By entering the following into YouTube, you might be able to link to the medleys in Post #9:

"John Neil MacLean/ The Black Sporran/Walking The Floor"

"John Neil MacLean/ J Scott Skinner Strathspey/GIllian's Reel"

The album is "Cape Breton Scottish Fiddle" by Topic Records, with two cuts by John Neil. (The field recordings and notes are by John Shaw, now of the School of Scottish Studies, whom I visited in Inverness about 25 years ago. He's a fine Cape Breton fiddler himself.

[John Kelly]

I got to listen to both by copying and pasting your titles above into YouTube, Ranald. Thanks for this. Interesting sound from the fiddle, especially in the first video. The Strathspey and reel are a great pairing.

Interestingly, when I used the url links you posted it took me to YouTube but then says the videos are unavailable. I clicked on John Neil MacLean's avatar to go to his page and it says there that the channel has no content and no playlists. It may be that he has deleted his videos from the channel?

[vonbiber]

By entering the following into YouTube, you might be able to link to the medleys in Post #9:

"John Neil MacLean/ The Black Sporran/Walking The Floor"

"John Neil MacLean/ J Scott Skinner Strathspey/GIllian's Reel"

[Ranald]

I got to listen to both by copying and pasting your titles above into YouTube, Ranald. Thanks for this. Interesting sound from the fiddle, especially in the first video. The Strathspey and reel are a great pairing.

Interestingly, when I used the url links you posted it took me to YouTube but then says the videos are unavailable. I clicked on John Neil MacLean's avatar to go to his page and it says there that the channel has no content and no playlists. It may be that he has deleted his videos from the channel?

This is all very confusing, John. I see links in Post #9 but not in Post #14 (thanks for posting, vonbiber), where I get "Video unavailable." Clearly, some people are seeing links in Post #14 but not #9. Though John Neil MacLean's name is placed where you usually see the name of the person who posted the YouTube video, the video I see was posted in 2017, well after John Neil died. Below his name, I read "Provided to YouTube by Redeye Worldwide." Anyway, I'm glad to know that people are connecting with the videos and enjoying Johnnie's playing. The pianist is his cousin, Phylllis MacLeod. Most of the Scots people in that region of Cape Breton, including all my Scottish ancestors and the MacLeans, were of Uisteanach descent, though many of the MacLeods were from Skye (though Phyllis is a MacLeod by marriage). The area had many pipers even into the twentieth century, but, somewhere along the line, fiddle became more popular (I understand that violins were both more readily available and easier to make.) The piano became the main instrument of accompaniment, but people also played parlour organs, and, by the 1930's, guitars, and I think banjos and mandolins. Cape Breton music has changed quite a bit over the years. I couldn't say how much the Outer Hebrides background is reflected in these recordings from 1976. Some I'm sure. You could also try entering "Cape Breton Scottish Music Volume 2," and see what that gets you (I found only another medley by another fiddler, but not the whole album; the medley is "Alex Maceachern's Strathspey/Fear Nan Casan Caola (The Rejected Suitor) by John Willie Campbell."). Volume 1 is mainly Gaelic singing, with a few fiddle tunes.