Robin Laing - The Water Of Life

(May 2003) 14 tracks: A Wee Drappie O’t * Shining Clear * Jock Geddes and The Soo * Lochanside * The Devil Uisge Beatha * The Best o’ The Barley * The Wag at The Wa’ * Bruichladdich * A Cogie o’ Yill * The Queer Folk i’ The Shaws * The Barley Bree * The Ghost wi’ The Squeeky Wheel * The Gulls of Invergordon * A Wee Drap o’ Whisky.

Whisky is in the air in Scotland - all that steady evaporation of spirit from countless casks quietly aging to maturity. The angels get some of it, but it has also inspired many great songs and poems which Robin Laing has been collecting for years.

In 1997 Robin recorded an album of whisky songs (The Angels’ Share) and in 2001 he published a book of 95 songs and poems about Scotch whisky (The Whisky Muse). Working on the book made Robin realise that there were many more whisky songs still to be recorded and The Water of Life album was born.

Robin selected 14 songs and enlisted the aid of Davy Scott of The Pearlfishers to help "the process of distilling the material down into the finished product". The main aims were to let each song with its story and ‘feel’ dictate the musical treatment and to have fun in the process.

The album is dedicated by Robin to the makers of whisky and to the makers of song, the distillers and the songwriters, the alchemists and the poets. Without them Scotland would be a poorer place!

Robin Laing (guitar, vocals) with Davy Scott (guitar, bass, keyboards, piano, organ), Charlie McKerron (fiddle), Brian McAlpine (accordion, organ, piano), Jim Gash (drums) and Derek Starr (percussion).