Jean Redpath/Serge Hovey- The Songs Of Robert Burns Vol 2

Today is Burn’s Supper or Burn’s Night, smack in the middle of this week’s Records of Scotland theme.  Burn’s Night is in tribute to Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns.  I did a post explaining Burn’s Night last year and I used Vol 1 of this record series.  So when I saw this record, I though it would be perfect for this year’s celebrations.  I bought this during Memorial Day at Half Price so with discount, it came out to $4.80, just under my range.

Link to last year’s Burn’s Night post which is more informative.

This was the second of what was to be a long series of records by Jean Redpath and Serge Hovey, honoring the work of Burns.  However, his death in 1989 from Lou Gehrig’s Disease limited the planned 22 volumes down to 7.  At the time of this record, Hovey was being assisted by Drake Mabry.  Still Hovey managed to research and arrange 324 of Burn’s works.

This album features some good numbers and has a bit of a back story in the notes.  I had to think a bit about what I wanted to sample as there were several good choices.  Oddly enough, when I was recording songs from this album, Braveheart was playing on TV.  When it came to the scene where the noblemen betray William Wallace, “A Parcel Of Rogues for A Nation” was playing.  It made for a real powerful scene.  I have posted this song before on thsi blog, but I really liked this album’s version.  I also posted “Auld Lang Syne” which maybe is Burn’s most famous number outside of Scotland.

Finally, I posted “Sae Flaxen Were Her Ringlets”, a pretty song based on an earler Irish song, “Oonagh’s Waterfall”.  I believe Burns intention was to take a beautiful yet bawdy song and put lyrics to it that could be sung in front of women.  Since the title of the Irish song referred to the act or urination, Burns wrote a new set of lyrics that could be enjoyed by all.  And since pee was very much in the news when I wrote this post, I could not resist posting it.

Anyway, good album.  Satisfactory.

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