It's Burns night tonight. I don't celebrate it much these days, just take time out to read a bit of his work. And what a lot of it there is. Prolific doesn't cover the breadth of it - and all the more remarkable for the fact that he worked hard and died poor and young. But it takes me hame if I had a hame tae go back tae. I remember singing his songs as a boy in the classroom and it is what turned me onto words, the way words matter. This paen to Nancy who he will kiss then sever their love ' 'But to see her was to love her...' and they, '...lov'd sae kindly,' well it works for me. Happy Burns Night. There are many great versions but this one with Karen Matheson wi' Paul Brady on the Transatlantic Sessions is pretty sublime. Look out too for Jerry Douglas and Ally Bain - written in 1791, imagine. I am about to release Lingerwood - I took great care on the lyrics before committing them to the record and equally, I hope I have sung from the heart (which seems to be the way of my songwriting these days - here's tae us, wha's like us:
