Burns night repertoire suggestions? (songs)

Subject: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 04:36 AM

I've agreed to do a Burns supper set. I did point out to the organiser that I'm not Scottish and that I don't really do a full-on Scots accent (bar certain inflexions) but then he offered me surprisingly good money - a paid gig no less!

Anyway, it's a Burns night so obviously Robert Burns songs, and a few crowd-pleasing Scots chestnuts too. I already know and perform quite a few Burns songs and have a lot of Scottish repertoire, but it tends to the more obscure... so I'd be really keen to hear from experienced Mudcatters who've done a few Burns nights with recommendations of songs that go down well...

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 07:25 AM

Might be easier knowing what Burns songs you do first. There are of course so many and some like "My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose" which don't have a lot of specifically Scots words in them. Many of the uptempo crowd pleasers are Burns songs anyway - ie "Killiecrankie", "McPhersons" and "Ye Jacobites" etc. "The Lea-Rig" is lovely as is "Ca The Yowes" and "Ye Banks And Braes". So many.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 08:08 AM

isn't Will ye go lassie go, a Scottish song. Claimed by the Irish after an Irish group recorded it.
Or have I invented that?

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 11:49 AM

Brief history of the song and its predecessor, Mo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Mountain_Thyme#History

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 12:03 PM

You'll find some more suggestions on this older thread
thread.cfm?threadid=142750
& see more links at the top of that page, particularly the one 'Help: Burns night panic!'.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Gallus Moll
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 12:29 PM

The Braes o Balquhidder/Balquither (on which Will ye go, lassie go was based) was composed by the Paisley poet Robert Tannahill.
Robert Burns composed songs and poems. He also collected folk songs, some of which were mere fragments, and these he would repair with a light touch, just enough to make it a song again.
Burns composed and collected over 300 songs, and Serge Hovey researched the original tunes to which they were set. (Alas he died before the full collection was available as recordings - 7 cds available from Greentrax- tho the manuscripts were all completed.)
Linn released a set of 12 cds of every Burns song, put together by Fred Freeman, abd featuring a large cross section of Scottish folk singers. (Some of the tunes are not as Burns originally set them)
I like to avoid the 'usual' 20 or so songs, there are plenty of beautiful or humourous or angry or political or Jacobite or sensitive or sad or loving ones to find!

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 01:11 PM

" (A Man's a man) for a' that " is more prominent since the rendition at the
Scottish Parliament. Also, "Ae Fond Kiss" seems a must.
Unless it's a very committed Burns audience, more general Scots songs can
be beneficial.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Acorn4
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 01:22 PM

As we are now in "Burns Month" I usually watch old episodes of "Dr Findlay's Casebook" on Youtube just to get in the feel.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 01:42 PM

How can we go this far in a Burns Night discussion without mention of haggis, the "great chieftain of the puddin' race"? I like mine best with fried eggs and black pudding and tattie scones.

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye worthy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect scunner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 11:56 PM

The night will go best if the songs are what YOU like, rather than what the audience likes. You will not do well singing songs you think trivial, offensive, or out of your range.

Go to YouTube and put Robert Burns in the lower search box. There are lots of recordings of Burns' songs, esp. in one big collection. Find songs you like, then choose a variety - different tempos, different time signatures. Start with an attention-getter and end with your favorite.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 02:44 AM

I think I've heard one Burns song that struck me as funny, but I can't remember what was the name of the song. Anybody know of funny Burns songs?
Joe

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 03:42 AM

There are so many beautiful Burns songs there is honestly no need to revert to things like Wild Mountain Thyme or general Scottish songs. Another one which is nice is "Bring To Me A Pint If Wine (Silver Tassie). Joe there are a few humorous Burns songs with an example being "Kellyburn Braes" where the narrators wife goes to hell and the devil finds her too much too handle and begs the narrator to take her back again!

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 03:43 AM

Sorry type "Bring To Me A Pint Of Wine" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15htxuAyPCs

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Acorn4
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 04:02 AM

"Willie Brewed a Peck o Malt" is quite funny.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 04:23 AM

For the past few years I have recited the address to the haggis one verse at a time in a terrible fake Scottish accent while my wife does the comic English translations between them.

Robin

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 04:26 AM

Before putting too much effort into learning things find out if anything else is on the programme. E.g. someone might already be reciting the Haggis poem.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Bainbo
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 04:44 AM

As for humorous Burns’ work, I like his Epitaph For James Smith (or Epitaph for A Wag In Mauchline).

Lament him, Mauchline husbands a’,
He aften did assist ye;
For had ye staid hale weeks awa,
Your wives they ne’er had miss’d ye.

Ye Mauchline bairns, as on ye press
To school in bands thegither,
O tread ye lightly on his grass –
Perhaps he was your father!

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 06:33 AM

If it is an actual Burns Supper then of course only one person would be reciting "To A Haggis" as that is recited when the haggis is brought in. Though I took it the OP is asking about songs rather than reciting long poems. In my honest experience unless folks are actual poetry buffs then even when things like "To A Haggis" or "Tam O Shanter" are done really well by people who know them inside out the eyes of many folks glaze over by the time the first few verses have been done. It would be torture even for buffs though to sit through someone trying to get through it if the performer didn't know and perform them really well. I think the songs are a much better way to hold the audience as they are easily learned.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 06:39 AM

Black Belt we have a couple who can do "To A Haggis" in a comical way too. One playing the piano and the other signing a kind of music hall type tune. Plus they have all the comic asides to a tea. I can imagine your turn would be good to see.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 07:54 AM

Re Robin's post (also now Allan's) about fake Scottish accent / comic English translation, I am concerned about your apparent lack of understanding of the meaning of Address to a Haggis? Yes it is a lighthearted poem (as many of Burns' compositions are) rather than a philosophical treatise, however I wonder how you would feel about me taking the piss out of Milton or Shakespeare, in a 'fake English strangulated vowels accent' with hilarious translations into Glasgwegian?
Burns was well educated. literate and composed in both Scots and English. His songs, poems and letters covered love, death, war, politics, slavery. injustice, arrogance, pride, humility, nature and everything in between - some serious, some funny, some heartbreaking and some rousing.
The more I have studied Burns the more there is to know about him - and I have been steeped in his works since early childhood. Burns commands my respect, and I despair when people who have little knowledge of him don't think to take time to seek out more. Visit the Burns Room in Mitchell Library next time you are in Glasgow!

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 08:59 AM

Not intended as any racial comment, English residents generally welcome in Scotland, but a lot of Burns Supper attendees are English residents of Scotland pretending/trying to be Scottish...
wha's like us......

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 09:20 AM

I suspect that the Burns night suppers in England followed by a ceilidh (which I call at) are often attended by English folk with little Scottish blood. Good excuse for a knees-up or fund-raiser.
Though the Caledonian societies will try to bring proper Scottish bands down, and pay them far more than they pay us.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: leeneia
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 01:05 PM

Hold hard. Three things need to be cleared up.

Are you the only act?
Are you working solo, or is the audience supposed to sing along?
Will the audience be listening to you, or is this a pub deal?

I ask the last question because recently I went to the Celtic center to hear a band. When we got there, it was just a drinking fest. Instead of people sitting in chairs, listening, people were around banquet tables, and the bar was doing a booming business. People were drinking and yacking, kids were running around screaming, and the band could hardly be heard. As far as I could tell, nobody was paying attention to them at all. We left.

If the set-up is like that, just do the chestnuts. (The advice I gave upthread is for a more polite setting.)

I don't know where you live, Matt, but from my experience, if you want Americans to sing along, lower the pitch.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 03:12 PM

Just to confirm I never mentioned fake Scottish accents and wasn't referring to that. I was simply saying that the songs are generally more accessible than the long poems for most people - even when the poems are performed by people who know them inside out - but it is kind of tiresome in the extreme if someone is stumbling through the poems. Regardless of whether the performer is Scottish or anything else. I don't see any problem with folk having a bit of fun with the material either. A lot of Burns is fun anyway - and some is bawdy in the extreme.

I'd distance myself from the Guest post. I don't see any problem with incomers to Scotland enthusiastically immersing themselves in a bit of local culture. In some ways I wonder why some Scots go along to Burns Suppers. I have one friend who criticised a local DJ because she speaks in her own Border Scots dialect on her TD1 Radio Show. My friend thought it unprofessional. Yet he goes along to celebrate Burns every year when Burns wrote a good portion of his work in Scots.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Ged Fox
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 03:55 PM

I've "done" a couple of Burns' Night suppers, for English people, at a village hall club in southern England. I've tried to treat the tradition with respect. So, last year -
Piping in the haggis, with Northumbrian pipes, playing "A man's the man" and "Scots wha hae," and after the first Cut piping it back to the kitchen with "The Mill, the Mill O!"
Last year, I read the poem (shock! horror!) not burlesquing the accent at all. Simply reading what was written there engendered enough of the Scots lilt to satisfy the one who was looking for it.

After the meal we sang the corniest/best known/greatest Scottish songs, a mix of Burns(*) and others, for which song sheets were provided -

My love is like a red red rose *
The Road to the Isles
Loch Lomond
Ca’ the ewes *
Ye cannae shove your grannie off the bus
I love a lassie
Green grow the rashes *
Scotland the Brave
Mingulay
Three craws sittin' on a wa'
Westering Home
Ye banks and braes *
We’re no’ awa’ tae bide awa’

Obviously, a properly Scottish gathering would probably have wanted stronger or less stereotypical fare. My previous experience taught me that the English company did not want to stray too far from the high road.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,ottery
Date: 12 Jan 20 - 12:22 PM

I've never been to a Burns supper (not for lack of inclination, but opportunity). However, I am a fan.

If you have a good reciter, you could do Holy Willie's Prayer. A really talented person could give the poem a few modern updates - hopefully sordid enough entertain the audience and the spirit of the poet, should he be passing by!

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Jan 20 - 03:00 PM

Joe Offer,
don't forget Robert Burns's
To A Louse.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Peter Cripps
Date: 13 Jan 20 - 05:13 AM

Our residential care audiences love descriptions of Burns'love life (or lack of!)and his inordinate number of offspring! It is usually Burns Night lunches and teas!

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 11:40 AM

We normally do a mixture of tunes and songs by Robbie Burns, or at least purported to be by him, but our strangest request I recall is someone asking for Five Hundred Miles - not the lilting old folk song, but the pop song by the Proclaimers. Maybe we should have done the Show of Hands song Roots in response...

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 03:24 PM

That is a strange one Jerry. You'd think a St Andrew's Night event would be more of a night for general Scottish songs rather than a Burns Night. It is like going along to a festival of Shakespeare and instead plays by Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennet are showing. I might be a bit of a curmudgeon but I organise our club's Burns Night and it isn't too formal at all - but the stipulation is that it must be Burnsian or at least have some connection to Burns. If someone said they wanted to do 500 Miles, or Annie Laurie or whatever then I'd recommend tell them if they wanted to have a spot they'd need to learn a Burns song. The other stuff can be done at normal club nights!

We used to have guest spots on our Burns Nights (before I was involved in organising). Non paid gigs but just invited folks along from a nearby club just for an extended spot at the end of other turns. Sing for your dinner type of thing. Was great sometimes and I remember one really memorable one with Kenny Speirs and Judy Dinning. However the last time we had anyone it was a localish duo who did two Burns songs then gave us a C&W routine. Folks were much too polite to make a fuss but after that we decided to keep it in house.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 03:52 PM

I should have added that I was referring to a Burns Night Supper event, not a folk club night, and most of the punters would have been English wanting to experience what they assumed to be Scottish entertainment. Although I’m English myself, I was amused and a bit appalled at the lack of knowledge of Scottish songs, but to be fair perhaps we’d already done all the well known ones.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 04:01 PM

Yeah I got that. I was talking about our own Folk Club Burns Supper too. I just find it a bit strange that folk down south seem to view it as a general Scottish night rather than an actual Burns night. You really would be hard pressed to get through all the well known Burns songs on a Burns Supper. There honestly are so many really well know Burns songs. I think some folks maybe just don't appreciate that.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 05:50 PM

Toward the end, when soused enough to be in the mood for curses echoing off the walls of the nearest church, you might try Grim Grizzle. (Burns didn't write it, but he collected & probably improved it.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 15 Jan 20 - 04:27 AM

Sorry to go on, Allan, but my event was a hotel event and nothing to do with a folk club, where the punters would obviously be more tuned into traditional song, well versed even.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 17 Jan 20 - 11:02 AM

I put this in a new thread before noticing this one:

I've just been trying to learn A Man's A Man For a' That, and while I can follow most of the broad Scots dialect, the first verse is giving me a little bother, and maybe a Burns afficionado can give me a clue.
The first two lines are "Is there for honest poverty that hangs his head an' a' that?". To me this seems as if someone transcribing the verse had misheard "He's there for honest poverty that hangs his head an' a' that", i.e. writing "is" instead of "he's". This version seems to make actual sense while the original doesn't. "He's" goes with "his" later in the line. I'm not a sassenach trying to rewrite Burns' immortal lines, just a Welshman trying to understand!
What do you think?

Ray

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 17 Jan 20 - 11:56 AM

Yeah I got that Jerry but I still honestly believe there are more than enough really well known Burns songs to fill a Burns Supper even for folks who are not Scots or folkies. I perform next Tuesday at the Wine Club Burns Supper too. About half of the members are English born and they seem to have no problems with appreciating and enjoying the Burns songs. I realise that some might want to hear pop songs instead but that is life. Not saying it shouldn't happen just that I don't really understand it myself. If I went to a Leonard Cohen evening then I'd be a wee bit disappointed if I was told "everyone might not know all these songs so we are doing some Justin Beiber too. Unlikely I know :-)

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Ged Fox
Date: 17 Jan 20 - 07:17 PM

BanjoRay: Is there for honest poverty [a man] that hangs his head and a' that?

i.e. Is there a man who has no self-respect just because he is poor? If so, we'll rate him as a cowardly slave, for we see no shame in being poor for all that our work is of the ordinary kind. Wealth is just a hallmark on gold, manhood is the gold itself.

Or, something like that

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Jan 20 - 07:30 PM

We have a Middle Eastern band practice on Burns Night. Can anybody point me to versions of Auld Lang Syne (or maybe A Red Red Rose) in Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish or Farsi?

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 17 Jan 20 - 07:30 PM

Thanks Ged Fox.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jan 20 - 06:40 PM

Oh dear. There was just opened, a thread
about the midwinter festival in Iceland this year.
With a statement that the shark meat served
included "foot."


"Fair fa' your honest, sonsie foot ... "

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 24 Jan 20 - 06:58 PM

For Jack Campin:
This is A Red Red Rose, in Greek,
copyrighted by its author, Christakis Poumbouris.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 25 Jan 20 - 06:51 AM

Off to Burns Night number 4 tonight for more haggis and ceilidh. Not beating the 9 events we had a few years ago. Piping in the haggis this eve on smallpipes as their piper cancelled at the last minute. What amuses me these days is when we play The Skye Boat Song and everyone says Oh that's the theme from Outlander!!! Must be getting old

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Jan 20 - 07:19 AM

The Skye Boat Song dates from nearer when the Outlander books were written than it does to Burns's lifetime. So, why not.

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions? (songs)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 12:26 PM

Burns night was talked about on the Singaround and then I found this.

Enjoy!

Subject: RE: Burns night repertoire suggestions? (songs)
From: GUEST,Gallus Moll
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 03:23 PM

I think the words used in Outlander theme are ones composed to the tune of the original song by Robert Louis Stevenson? Read that somewhere recently (not in Outlander context!) - best double check tho?
As well as composing words (usually setting then to existing fiddle tunes) Burns also collected folksongs and fragments which he repaired. He was concerned that the songs would be lost, felt it important that people sang them!