Dear Kay,
This post is a total faked-up situation: I am writing this in Nashville, yet by the time this appears, I hope to be in Edinburgh, having a swell time at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival with Hubbo (who will be dazed and amazed), and with many beloved knitters including you.
In the interest of wallowing in Scottishness, I came across Sounds of Scotland: The Ultimate Scottish Music Playlist for Adventure.
You know me: I love a superlative more than anything in the world. And I do love a playlist. And “adventure” is my middle name, if you squint at Meador long enough.
So count me in, Rupert Shanks of Wilderness Scotland who cooked up this thing.
This is an all-sorts-of stuff collection, definitely the ultimate Scottish music playlist that I’ve ever heard. Thanks to Wilderness Scotland, a travel company whose site made me want to go climb a mountain, which is a sentence I don’t type very often.
Did we survive the Edinburgh Yarn Fest ceilidh on Friday night? Last year it was touch and go—all that frolicking!
Love,
Ann
Thanks for the playlist…they’re always welcome! And I hope you’re having a fabulous time.
Great playlist. I’m knitting along thinking of the beautiful sights in Scotland
A ceilidh!!! So jealous!!! 🙂
I’ve been watching a new show on Britbox called Shakespeare and Hathaway. It’s a very funny detective show. The characters are darling and it’s shot through with Shakespeare references. It’s not campy at all, just the best of British comedy. Hathaway is a shambolic former police detective. Shakespeare comes into the first episode as a bride whose groom is killed at their wedding. She hires Hathaway to find the murderer and discovers she has a gift for investigation. She ends up leaving the beauty salon she’d owned and joining him and his young out-of-work-actor assistant as a partner. The first season was utterly delightful.
Let’s just pack our bags…go to this BEAUTIFUL place…..scotland
Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I’m lucky enough to live here . I went to my first EYF today and was very disappointed not to see you in real life. Maybe next year!
Ann, love your blog and will be back! Also love the playlist, but am puzzled by the fact that they only included one song by Runrig and that is one of the few they sang that they didn’t write themselves. There is a playlist on Spotify composed of all their songs from 14 studio albums over 45 years. You may like that, too. Some songs are in Scots Gaelic, but the melodies are so haunting you won’t mind that. And do check out “Somewhere” by Runrig. There are a couple of versions, but you may enjoy the one with Julie Fowlis best. It’s accompanied by an incredible video, too. Anyway, thanks for this post. Have a great weekend!
The baby’s asleep so no music now, but I can’t wait to listen in the morning! I’ve loved Scottish music since interning at the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival the year that Scotland was a featured culture. It was two weeks of glorious live music (and deep-fried Mars Bars), and I have quite the collection of CDs that are still regulars on my playlist. Another great compilation, released at that time, is Scotland the Real: Music from Contemporary Caledonia (https://folkways.si.edu/scotland-the-real-music-from-contemporary-caledonia/celtic-world/album/smithsonian). (While Malinky is my favorite group from the album, please listen to Adam McNaughtan’s “Oor Hamlet”, which goes through the entire play in about three minutes. It’s epic.)
I commented before I saw this comment! Yes Kate! I was a volunteer there. I listened to that CD something fierce. I knew all the words to Thaney. I still have the CD in my car.
I lost the CD case and book long ago though so i’m glad to see I can still buy it.
Love this. Ive been listening to the same “scotland the real: music from contemporary Caledonia” CD for like a decade and I dont know how to curate for myself all the new music out there.