AMY LEACH AND ALASDAIR PAUL – They’ll Aye Remain (own label ALAPCD02)

Amy and Alasdair describe They’ll Aye Remain as a collection of songs they love to sing which is probably the best reason for singing. Like Amy and Alasdair, the songs are Scottish and a cursory glance at the track list might suggest that they are not the most well-known. But more of that later.

The opener, ‘Stone And Lime Wall’ is a new one on me and is infrequently sung nowadays. It is, as Amy and Alasdair point, the most unromantic love song although it does include the familiar image “We’ll change the green and yellow for the violet so blue”. It begins with acoustic guitar and Amy’s voice before Alasdair joins in on vocals and Bevan Morris reinforces the accompaniment on double bass. ‘Mirk, Mirk’ is Burns version of the long ballad ‘Fair Annie Of Lochroyan’ although Burns omits much of the detail of the tragic tale. Amy sings over Alasdair’s guitar.

‘Mary Mild’ turns out to be the song that Joan Baez sung as ‘Mary Hamilton’, lyrically at least, but concentrating on Mary’s forthcoming execution in “Embra” town. Again, the arrangement is simply voice and guitar. ‘Herd Laddie’ is a song in praise of shepherds, a familiar theme in traditional song with music by Johnny Handle and Alasdair gets to sing again. ‘To A Meeting’ is a love song that supplied verses and images to many more titles when the Scottish diaspora took it to the USA. Producer Rachel Newton adds vocals.

‘Rue And Thyme’ is another familiar song heavily disguised. Down here in the south we know it as ‘Sprig Of Thyme’ and this version is built on Amy’s initially minimal piano. While we’re away from Scotland, ‘The Carter’ comes from Oxfordshire and Alasdair takes the lead vocal.

‘Tansey’, again with added vocals by Newton, is a children’s song described by its collector as “a game for girls”. It’s a relative of ‘Weila Waile’ as far as I can tell but without the subtlety the Dubliners brought to it. The powerful unaccompanied harmonies of ‘Babby Allan’ were inspired by a version performed by the wonderful Lizzie Higgins while ‘Young Emslie’ comes from the same source. Replace Emslie with Edward or Edwin and you’ll know exactly what song they are singing. Between these two comes ‘Something For Dave’, a melancholy guitar instrumental written by Alasdair. Finally, ‘Be Kind Tae Yer Nainsel’ based around an almost stumbling piano figure, is a much truncated version of ‘Land Of The Leal’ – a thoroughly miserable way to close the album.

They’ll Aye Remain is the sort of album I was afraid that no-one was making any more and I am so glad to be proved wrong. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Dai Jeffries

Artists’ website: https://www.facebook.com/amyandalasdair/

‘Herd Laddie’ – official video:

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