Drinkers Drouth with Davy Steele - A Tribute

(November 2001) 19 tracks: Let Me In This Ae Night * Dream Angus * Birnie Bouzle * Heave Ya Ho * When the Kye Comes Hame * The Prickly Bush * Cam Ye Ower Frae France / The Store Cheque * Wha'll Dreg a Buckie * The Exile Song * Johnny Sangster * The Bonnie Light Horseman * When Charlie Tae the Hielands Came * Lord Marlborough * The Soutars o' Selkirk / The Deid Cat * The Sodger's Return * Private William Coffey * I'se the Bye * The Ploughman * Bound to Go.

Jack Aitken, Dave Black, Tony Dougan and Brian Dougan emerged as Drinkers Drouth in 1974, brought together by a love of harmony singing and traditional and contemporary folk music. Throughout the 1970s the band played regularly in folk clubs, appeared on radio and at leading Scottish festivals.

In 1981 their paths crossed with Davy Steele when they appeared on the same bill at a gig - Davy soon became the fifth member of Drinkers Drouth. Thus began a very fruitful five-year period in which the band broadened its horizons, made two albums and gigged extensively both at home Scotland and throughout Europe.

Apart from his very distinctive voice, Davy brought a huge sense of fun and enjoyment to the band and had a wealth of traditional material to draw on, as well as his own compositions. The band's enthusiastic following was in no small measure due to Davy's charisma.

Drinkers Drouth came to an end in 1986 but Davy realised his life-long ambition of becoming a professional musician through playing in a series of successful bands such as Ceolbeg, Clan Alba and Battlefield Band. Davy remained a well-loved close friend of the other members of Drinkers Drouth and has been greatly missed by them since his death in April 2001.

The band would like others to benefit from the wonderful support provided by the Marie Curie Cancer Care Centre in Edinburgh. All royalties from this CD, which has been compiled from the two previous Drinkers Drouth LPs When The Kye Comes Hame and Bound to Go, are dedicated to the Centre in appreciation of their work. Two of Davy's own compositions - Wha'll Dreg A Buckie and Heave Ya Ho (about his beloved native Prestonpans) - are included in the compilation.