I notice that although only one of my grandparents was Scottish, I could instantly understand most Scots dialect (Burns,etc) from a young age... think it's passed down in the blood?

With me it was a mixture of Scots relatives & a regular diet of Oor Wullie & The Broons from an early age; that and being brought up in Northumbria of course, which is culturally closer to Scotland than it is to England (WAV, if you're reading, please take note of this!) but I do believe in more occult methods of transmission as you suggest.

To hear Clive singing Banks of Sicily go to http://www.myspace.com/greatheresy - it's the first track, but it's set to random, but just click on it to play. Clive was a friend of Hamish, so this is first hand stuff!