Tales of Home [4]

Never underestimate the power of a drunken mind! (well up to the point where I fall over that is   )

But seriously well done so chuffed for you. I hope its everything you wish it will be and that when you become famous you will write a world renowned violin piece called 'Forumshire'    ( read as 'you bloody well better do or risk the wrath of my crabbit!')

haha aw ^^ thanks man, it means i lot, i am pretty chuffed myself and super stoked on this  gotten to know some of the other people who're going as well, we have a facebook group, i just hope people aren't super a lot better than me  whenever i see someone who hasn't done music in school aka. like me chose physics and math and chemistry, i am so happy

Cut off again! The main land route in and out of the peninsula the Rest and Be Thankful is closed again, after yet another landslide (Ive lost count of how many this year)-



So if I need to make a quick escape I will have to catch a ferry (assuming they are not off too) or swim!   

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Cut off again! The main land route in and out of the peninsula the Rest and Be Thankful is closed again, after yet another landslide (Ive lost count of how many this year)-



So if I need to make a quick escape I will have to catch a ferry (assuming they are not off too) or swim!   

Just to be clear, is Rest and Be Thankful the name of the road? The valley? Or am I completely misreading this?   

All of the above!

To clarify, it was originally a Drove road (routes for driving cattle from the Highlands down to the Lowland Markets) and its a mountain pass.
When it was still a drove road there used to be an inn at the topmost part of the road, which was called 'The Rest and Be Thankful', for the every obvious reason you would be.

The inn no longer exists but it leant its name to the pass, and through common usage to the road itself and then eventually to the entire route through.

That's a nice bit of local history! Do you know off the top of your head about what years or centuries the inn was active?

The inn as far as I know was about the 1600's.
In 1753 the military made a new road and they placed a stone at the highest point inscribed with the words 'Rest and Be Thankful'.
The original stone got so weathered it was eventually relpaced with a commemorative one.

Recently, with all the landslides blocking the modern road the old military road has come back into service as the relief route.

If youve got an eye for it you can still spot the old drove roads as the grass still grows in greener on them than anywhere else (all that fertiliser!) and they have a distinctive weaving pattern on hill and mountain sides (as the cattle couldnt go down too steep a gradient)

I love how the land remembers!  

Yeah, there is whole science in spotting ancient sights from the air based just on that premise.

Just as a further historic addition, the drovers, many of whom were among the Clearances and many of whom got shipped off to the New world particularly America, eventually became the all American cowboy. As when they got there they did what they already knew how to do- drive cattle.

Pettytyrant101 wrote: As when they got there they did what they already knew how to do- drive cattle...

...drink, and raise hell!  

Well yeah that too- probably why barn music sounds an awful lot like a Ceilidh!    

well done Norc!    fantastic news   

Great news Norc ! Well done, here's to an exciting future !  

thank you guys ^^

Good job Norclet!!

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Just as a further historic addition, the drovers, many of whom were among the Clearances and many of whom got shipped off to the New world particularly America, eventually became the all American cowboy. As when they got there they did what they already knew how to do- drive cattle.

The American cowboy tradition is actually Spanish in origin (via Mexico), though there were significant Scottish and Irish influences later on when immigration from those countries increased.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaquero

I didnt say they created cowboys, I said they became all American cowboys.
Although I think the cultural influence was quite strong in music at least, as country and western favours all the same instruments Celtic music does and very similar musical patterns.

Country more than Western, but you're right. There's a lot of Scots up in Appalachia.

When the US navy was here they used to hold the occasional Barn Dance, they would mix traditional Scottish tunes with traditional American country tunes and dances- and if you didnt know it would be hard to tell which was which.

I dont know a huge amount about country and western music so I dont know what the difference between the country bit and the western bit is.

I'm not an expert, but assume that Country/Western as a genre was invented by the Radio in the 1920's and 30's, and continued to evolve. Particularly the Grand Ole Opry. For Western think singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rodgers. For Country, think anything that's connected with the Carter Family. Johnny Cash is the X where the two meet.

Which one has the fiddles and the accordions, lots of toe tapping tunes and makes people shout "yeeee-ahh!"? Because thats the one sounds very familiar to Scottish ears.

Go to Youtube and look for Carter Family. They had a thousand songs collected from up in the mountains, and many of them going back a hundred years or more to the dispossessed of Scotland, Ireland and England. That's the barndance stuff.

Accordions, I think they came in more from Mexico into Texas. There were a lot of German farmers settled in Northern Mexico, and they brought a million Polkas with them.

American Country music seems more Irish to me than anything else.

Its al Celtic music, not much difference between them.