The first single from my band, Bailey’s Mistake, is now out on all the streaming services. We’re really proud of this recording and we have many more to come over the next few months. Have a listen on Spotify or YouTube and let me know what you think.
You can also listen on Amazon and Apple music, too.
APPLE MUSIC
https://music.apple.com/us/album/bonny-highland-laddie/1786454496?i=1786454497
This rousing sea shanty is based on the same traditional root folk song which Robert Burns used for his poem “Bonie Laddie, Highland Laddie,” published in James Johnson’s book “Scots Musical Museum” in 1792. Burns is still known as Scotland’s National poet and his version included lines about demons preparing sticks for roasting the Duke of Cumberland over the fires of Hell. The Duke led the British army to victory over Scottish Jacobite forces at the battle of Culloden in 1745.
There are a million different versions of the song out there, along with a very popular regimental bagpipe marching tune of the same name used by many military units in Europe and North America.
The way we sing it in Bailey’s Mistake, with a big chorus, is how sailors might have sung while it turning a capstan and hauling the anchor. We read somewhere that it was popular on early 19th-century, Dundee, Scotland-based whale ships bound for the Arctic Sea.
We’ve included some traditional lines, along with some new ones I made up, trying to keep them all set in New England and Eastern Canada, our home turf.
The video footage in the video is from a weekend we spent recording at the Excelsior Grange No. 5 in Poland, Maine. It’s the oldest operational Grange in the state.
