Steele The Show - The Songs of Davy Steele

(February 2011) 16 tracks (1h 11mins): Scotland Yet * Lost In The Long Grass * The Last Trip Home * Butterfly * The Rose O' Summerlea * Chasing Shadows * Quietly Sing You To Sleep * Friends * Sliding * Farewell Tae The Haven * Here's A Health Tae The Sauters * The Ballad Of Jimmy Steele * Heave Ya Ho * Eyes Of A Child * Just One More Chorus * Long Hellos And Short Goodbyes.

Songs from the heart of Scotland - a remarkable and unique tribute by contemporary artists to Davy Steele, one of Scotland's best loved singer-songwriters, who was appreciated equally for his sensitivity to others and for his charismatic, ebullient nature. Davy could always be relied upon to 'get the party started'!

To mark the ten-year anniversary of Davy's death in 2011, his widow Patsy Seddon invited some of Davy's favourite singers and musicians to choose and interpret a selection of his songs, also to be performed live at Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival.

The singers include Andy M Stewart, Dick Gaughan, Ian McCalman, Jamie Steele (Davy's youngest son), Karine Polwart, Kate Rusby, Kathy Stewart, Patsy Seddon, Sally Barker and Siobhan Miller, with musicians Andy Thorburn, Mary MacMaster, Eilidh Shaw, Damien O'Kane, Donald Hay, Gary West and Mairearad Green.

Davy's songwriting as a young man explored soul music and other styles including country ballad, before moving towards traditional ballad. Other forms emerged later - protest song, work song and love song, ending up with the ultimate 'come-all-ye' of which he was a master: Just One More Chorus.

Davy always sang from the heart, and his songs were of Scotland. He was also renowned for his singing of traditional Scottish song, and often his version became the definitive one. His song 'Scotland Yet' was his call for unity between all the cultural divisions within this small country.

Born in 1948 in Summerlea, Prestonpans, on the banks of the River Forth, Davy remained a proud 'Panner' all his life. His rich life took him to many places, from tours with the 1st Tank Regiment in the Army to his lifetime dream of touring as a musician.

He was well known for his earlier work with Drinker's Drouth and Ceolbeg, and with the bands he co-founded - Clan Alba, Urbn Ri and Caledon - but it was Battlefield Band in the 1990s that allowed his talents to be fully shared with the wider world.

To celebrate his life and to bring his work into focus, Patsy Seddon has also collected together all 37 of his original songs to be published in a songbook.

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