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04 Dec 08 - 06:42 AM (#2507509) Subject: Brian McNeill@Edin Folk Club,Wed 10/12 From: Johnny J "BRIAN McNEILL's professional career spans more than three decades and he is now acknowledged as one of Scotland's great musical forces; as a songwriter, composer, producer and musical director, as well as a performer. He was born in 1950 in Falkirk and began his musical training in his early teens with violin lessons, but soon forsook that for the electric guitar. There followed a comprehensive musical education and mildly misspent youth - until his student years brought him to Celtic music. As a direct consequence, in 1969 he formed the Battlefield Band, which became one of Scotland's best known ensembles. Brian plays fiddle, octave fiddle, guitar, mandocello, bouzouki, viola, mandolin, cittern, concertina, bass and hurdy gurdy. The importance of his songwriting, mostly about Scotland's past and future, has long been recognised. Songs including The Yew Tree, The Lads O' The Fair, The Snows of France and Holland, Strong Women Rule Us All With Their Tears, Any Mick'll Do and No Gods and Precious Few Heroes have established him as one of Scotland's leading songwriters. Brian has two published novels, the first of which, The Busker came out in 1989 and the sequel, To Answer The Peacock, published a decade later. In 1990 Brian left Battlefield Band to concentrate more on writing and solo projects. Since then he has also toured with Dick Gaughan, Clan Alba, Kavana, McNeill, Lynch and Lupari, Martin Hayes, Natalie MacMaster and his old friend, the late Iain MacKintosh. " Scotland's most meaningful contemporary songwriter' The Scotsman http://www.brianmcneill.co.uk/ Venue: Pleasance Cabaret Bar - 8:00pm Admission: £7.00 (£6.00 concession) |
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04 Dec 08 - 08:42 AM (#2507565) Subject: RE: Brian McNeill@Edin Folk Club,Wed 10/12 From: JedMarum I wish I could be there. Please give Brian my best. Here's a Youtube video of one my favorite Brian McNeill songs, Sunday on the Jar. |
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05 Dec 08 - 05:06 AM (#2508415) Subject: RE: Brian McNeill@Edin Folk Club,Wed 10/12 From: sian, west wales Brian has just spent a long weekend with us on our first residential event in Harlech, North Wales. There were 55 musicians in attendance and Brian was just the best guest tutor we could have wanted. And his concert on the Saturday night was superb! (I must also add that wife Jacqui was also a godsend - came as A.N.Other and worked her socks off for us. Love her to bits!) Go. Enjoy! sian |
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05 Dec 08 - 07:14 AM (#2508497) Subject: RE: Brian McNeill@Edin Folk Club,Wed 10/12 From: Johnny J ,, |
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06 Dec 08 - 05:37 AM (#2509234) Subject: RE: Brian McNeill@Edin Folk Club,Wed 10/12 From: Johnny J Let's hope the weather improves too. it's been an early winter up here. :-( |
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08 Dec 08 - 11:27 AM (#2509972) Subject: RE: Brian McNeill@Edin Folk Club,Wed 10/12 From: Johnny J NO GODS AND PRECIOUS FEW HEROES I was listening to the news the other day I heard a fat politician who had the nerve to say He was proud to be Scottish, by the way With the glories of our past to remember "Here's tae us, wha's like us", listen to the cry No surrender to the truth and here's the reason why The power and the glory's just another bloody lie They use to keep us all in line For there's no gods and there's precious few heroes But there's plenty on the dole in the land o the leal And it's time now to sweep the future clear Of the lies of a past that we know was never real Farewell to the heather in the glen They cleared us off once and they'd do it all again For they still prefer sheep to thinking men Ah, but men who think like sheep are even better There's nothing much to choose between the old laird and the new They still don't give a damn for the likes of me and you Just mind you pay your rent to the factor when it's due And mind your bloody manners when you pay! And tell me will we never hear the end Of puir bluidy Charlie at Culloden yet again? Though he ran like a rabbit down the glen Leavin better folk than him to be butchered Or are you sittin in your Council house, dreamin o your clan? Waiting for the Jacobites to come and free the land? Try going down the broo with your claymore in your hand And count all the Princes in the queue! So don't talk to me of Scotland the Brave For if we don't fight soon there'll be nothing left to save Or would you rather stand and watch them dig your grave While you wait for the Tartan Messiah? He'll lead us to the Promised Land with laughter in his eye We'll all live on the oil and the whisky by and by Free heavy beer! Pie suppers in the sky! - Will we never have the sense to learn? That there's no gods and there's precious few heroes But there's plenty on the dole in the land o the leal And I'm damned sure that there's plenty live in fear Of the day we stand together with our shoulders at the wheel |
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08 Dec 08 - 12:06 PM (#2510009) Subject: RE: Brian McNeill@Edin Folk Club,Wed 10/12 From: JedMarum Here's one of my favorites. When Brain and I played this last summer at a festival I introduced the song saying that "What moves a young man to action, may move a more "experienced" man to reflection." Brian winced and laughed, "I still have feeling, ya know!" Belles O' Ontario (c) Brian McNeill, 2004 As I lay a sleeping and the dawn light came creeping And the Lake Huron wind came a whispering by Sayin' the Belles O' Ontario were women to be wary -oh With their honey gold locks and their fine rovin' eye For their divas and dancers, connoisseurs of chancers as brazen as they're bragh and as bonny as they're bold and they'll turn a man's flirtation to debate and disputation keep a fiddler laddie handy to look deep into their souls CHO: and I'd walk 100 miles and I walk 100 more to see the belles of Ontario a walking by the shore They marshall their enjoyment with a general's deployment With the charms nature gave them to entice and ensnare And they calculate by fractions every power of attraction Drive the lads to full distraction by the tossing of their hair They're cool and they're collected and they like themselves reflected In keekin' glass or passing laddie's eye for all to see And they take their due with pleasure at their cool collected leisure And to make yon butter melt would take a braver man then me CHO So come all you rabble rousers, ya buxom bawdy housers Give yourself a ray of conceit to be a lady's man If you're inclined to ramble, put your manhood to the gamble Take the road up to Godrich with your heart in your hand Just be ready for the ructions when you're tested to destruction By a creature you know that's worth twice her weight in sin For she might consent to kiss ya, or to smile and then dismiss ya And leave you to the mercy of the Lake Huron wind CHO |