Nice little DADGAD tune for you fingerstylers.

blobb

Neil Gow's "Farewell to Whisky".

From what I can find out, this tune was written in mid - late 1700's when the Scottish barley crop failed and Whisky prohibition came into force. Although the score requests it to be played as a 'Slow March', it is understood that the original intention was for it to be played 'very slow and pathetic' which, if you've seen Whisky Galore! makes perfect sense.

Anyway, lovely tune. Don't know this guy but he makes it clear enough to see where his fingers go. He is tuned DADGAD, I tune slightly differently so I don't play the exact same fingering. Capo on 4th fret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bz_pG7fSwY

blobb

.. and here's my favourite version of it:

https://youtu.be/aTeh7QAC418?t=1306

(21:46 if the link doesn't go straight to the track)

Stuckfast

Just to be an utter pedant for a minute, it's Niel Gow, not Neil Gow.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

blobb

Neil Gow (1907–1919) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire who won the classic 2000 Guineas in 1910.

I had to check my spelling.

Anyway, did you like the tune?

Stuckfast

Yes a lot of those Niel and Nathaniel Gow tunes are gorgeous. Not a big fan of the massively reverbed solo guitar version but the Ossian one is really nice. Never heard of them before but I shall definitely be investigating more of their music -- what else is good?

victorludorum

Check out Rob MacKillop if you like that sort of stuff.

blobb

Ossian - all 6 albums are masterpieces.

Tony Cuffe

Billy Ross

William Jackson

Jock Tamson's Bairns

Alba

Tony McManus

or spend an evening browsing the youtube treasure trove of Douglas Hadden.

blobb

Here's a nice fingerstyle version of 'JohnMacdonalds / The Sandpit' from Ossian - Borders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZNIj3Yh17g

drofluf

@blobb thanks for sharing that. I’ve  just started to learn guitar and had mastered a simple, melody only, version of Farewell to Whisky and was looking for a more complex arrangement. I’m working through the lesson from Jerry’s Guitar Bar now.

@victorludorum Rob MacKillop is actually credited for that arrangement on the lesson.  

drofluf

Well, it's a challenge, but after 2 weeks or so a charitable listener can now, in places, discern fragments of melody.

blobb

Good man. Keep filling the achievement box.