Andy Stewart Discography

In my travels abroad to the far-flung corners of the world, I get many requests from expatriate Scots for a song from their part of “The Auld Country”. This recording will, I hope, go some distance in satisfying their demands – not only in foreign fields, but also in our native towns and countryside.”

The album gets off to a swinging start with a new rendition of the Stewart-Blue composition ‘Aberdeen‘ first introduced on the 1971 LP ‘Here’s Tae You’. Here the tune is played much faster, setting the pace for the whirlwind tour around Scotland. ‘The Girl from Glasgow Town‘ has her first outing since Andy’s ‘Best Of’ album in 1966 and is followed by the exquisite ‘Fair Maid O’ Perth‘. With a wonderful synthesizer/keyboard arrangement, inspired bass playing and a really good vocal delivery, this track is easily the best on the album and probably the single best track recorded over the three years with Emerald. Another track from the sixties gets a fresh rendition next; ‘The Gallowa’ Hills‘ followed by Andy’s most popular monologue ‘The Rumour‘. Given its myriad Scottish accents, its inclusion here is totally appropriate for an album based on a tour around Scotland. ‘The Lassie O’ Dundee‘, another Stewart-Grant original from 1961 is revisited next, followed by the penultimate track on the first side; ‘I Will Go‘. Another excellent song from the pen of actor Roddy McMillan who – adding a verse or two of his own – translated the Gaelic original also known as ‘McLeod’s Lament’. The song concerns the “Highland Clearances” of the early 19th century, when Scottish soldiers returning from fighting abroad found cruel landlords had cleared the Highlands for the profitable raising of sheep and cattle by burning down houses and casting belongings into the snow. Side one ends with a visit to Edinburgh and ‘The Heart of Midlothian‘, originally recorded on Andy’s first album in 1961.

Side two takes us off to “the capital of the Highlands” to hear ‘The Song of Inverness‘ – the first of four tracks new to Andy’s catalogue of recordings. ‘Bonnie Strathyre‘ is the next, with lyrics written in the 19th century by the artist, songwriter and philanthropist Sir Harold Boulton based on the traditional tune ‘Taymouth’. Strathyre (meaning “sheltered valley”) is a village in Perthshire near Callander, overshadowed by the mountain of Ben Vorlich. ‘Song of the Clyde‘ (popularised by Kenneth McKellar) is the third newly performed song in-a-row and is the standout track on the second side. The tongue-twisting song follows the River Clyde from Lanark down to Arran and Andy leads us in fine style. The fourth track is a brand new “Andylogue”; ‘The Kelso Collie‘, and as Andy himself says is “a real shaggy dog story” regarding a talking dog from the Scottish Borders! Next we are off to Sutherlandshire for another rendition of the old favourite ‘Granny’s Heilan Hame‘ then back down to Glasgow wearing a ‘Big Kilmarnock Bunnet‘. The Kilmarnock Corporation of Bonnet Makers began production of the famous bonnet (bunnet) in the late 1600’s and the song is a cautionary tale of the many “dangers” lurking in the biggest City in Scotland. The song was popularised in the late 50’s by Andy’s ‘White Heather Club’ crony, Joe Gordon and his Folk Four. To finish Andy performs the UK’s biggest selling song of 1977; ‘Mull of Kintyre‘. Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney had one of his biggest hits with this song recorded with his band Wings. In the midst of Britain’s “Punk” period McCartney chose to write a Scottish waltz in praise of the Mull of Kintyre, the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre Peninsula, a place where he still owns a home to this day. In what could have been a pale imitation, Andy manages to produce a respectable version, focusing on two verses alone, dropping both a third verse and the bagpipe section that featured so prominently in the Wings recording. The arrangement features the military drum-roll strongly and Andy compliments this with a staunch vocal delivery. Although the dropping of the pipes was surely down to logistics and the cost factor, it forces Andy’s recording to stand on its own merits, which is a good thing.

The arrangements are really well done on this album, with David Pringle as MD. The sound is filled out well with synthesizers, electric pianos and a really strong electric bass. This added instrumentation would not reappear on subsequent recordings and that is what really sets this album apart from the others of the time. Andy is in fine voice on this album too, seemingly having no problem with high song-ending notes. A great return-to-form and definitely the number one candidate for best “post-EMI” album.

Year of Release: 1978
Label: Emerald Gem
Catalogue Number: GES 1196

ABERDEEN (Stewart, Blue) / THE GIRL FROM GLASGOW TOWN (Stewart, Grant) / THE FAIR MAID O’ PERTH (Stewart, Pringle) / THE GALLOWA’ HILLS (Trad., arr. Stewart) / THE RUMOUR (Stewart) / THE LASSIE O’ DUNDEE (Stewart, Grant) / I WILL GO (McMillan) / HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN (Stewart, Grant) / THE SONG OF INVERNESS (MacKenzie, Henderson) / BONNIE STRATHYRE (Lawson, Boulton) / SONG OF THE CLYDE (Gourlay, Bell) / THE KELSO COLLIE (Stewart) / GRANNY’S HEILAN HAME (MacFarlane) / THE BIG KILMARNOCK BUNNET (Trad., arr. Stewart) / MULL OF KINTYRE (McCartney, Laine)

Arranger/Musical Director: David Pringle.
Recorded at Castle Sound, Edinburgh, March-April 1978.
Recording Engineer: Calum Malcolm.