Iain J Smith - Ode To Whisky

CD

(May 2019)

14 Tracks: Oid Don Uisce Beatha * Highland Whisky / The Charms Of Whisky * Drops Of Whisky * John Barleycorn * Lull Me Beyond Thee (Sir John Barleycorne) * Farewell To Whisky * Welcome Whisky Back Again * The Humours Of Whiskey * Da Spirit O' Whisky * Di-Moladh An Uisge-bheatha * Medley: An Poitin Stil / Moonshiner / Rare Old Mountain Dew / Whiskey You're A Devil / Whiskey 'fore Breakfast * O'Carolan's Receipt (for Drinking) * Tae The Hairst, The Mait And The Barley Bree * Farewell To Whisky (reprise).

A selection of some of the finest music dedicated to some of the world's finest spirits.

All tracks arranged and performed by Iain J Smith recorded in Kirkcudbright, Scotland 2017.

"This project did not start as a musical eulogy to whisky, but in fact grew out of other work on the music of Robert Burns. It had interested me that the tunes with which we are familiar as Burns songs are often not those to which Burns either referred or to which he set his lyrics. I began then with arrangements and recordings of Sir John Barleycorn (the familiar Burns' tune) and Lull Me Beyond Thee, the tune which Burns himself cites. I was very familiar with Neil Gow's Farewell to Whisky as a standard in many of the sessions I have played in over many years. In addition O'Carolan's Receipt has always been a personal favourite both to listen to and to play. From these beginnings I began to form the notion of further researching and bringing together tunes dedicated to whisky, written and played by those who had a passion for it. As I did so it became not so much a problem of what to include, as to what to omit. In arranging, playing and recording these 14 tracks, containing some 18 tunes, I tried to come to them afresh and to therefore achieve some degree of originality. However it was always my aim to produce the kind of album where the listener might sit himself down comfortably, (with or without a real peat fire), and glass in hand, filled with a favourite dram, listen, sup and enjoy- bainne na mbó ar na gamhna but the juice of the barley for me slainté mhath." Iain J Smith.