For Bill D, who posted a link to Bob Zentz's version of 'Tak a Dram' -- YouTube says this is a traditional song, but it was actually written (in the 1970's, if I remember rightly) by Ian Sinclair.

Ian is Glaswegian by birth, but moved to Thurso in Caithness, Scotland, to work in the Dounreay reactor. A fine fiddler, he formed the folk group Mirk with his wife Margie as singer and Ray Crompton on guitar and mandolin. This is one of his most popular songs and the line "Button up and aye be cheery" makes a lot more sense in the kind of temperatures found in the north of Scotland than in the balmy surroundings where Bob Z's performance was filmed!

So, Bill D, if you have a YouTube account, would you mind posting an accreditation of Ian's authorship as it's always nice to acknowledge a creator?


BUT, to get back to the original question, my own favourite is to hear Sheila Stewart - and no-one else - sing 'The Parting Glass', and I can visualise all her lovely, expansive gestures as she draws the audience in until every voice is raised in a recognition of the fragility of relationships if they're not cherished -- "For we may, and might never, all meet here again.".