Wild Mountain Thyme

  1. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    It seems there is no thread for this beautiful Scottish Traditional, so I'll open up one. I know this song from the Byrds Fifth Dimension LP, but I own no 12-string Riclky and I'm a horrible harmony singer, so I tried it on mandolin and classical guitar.
  2. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    No thread for Wild Mountain Thyme yet? How did that happen?

    You play it very well. It's a lovely song.
  3. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Christian, you produce really captivating chimes with your mandolin.
  4. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Very nice CC and great tone.

    It is strange though, I’m sure I saw this song in the Other Tunes list a couple of years ago, must be that there’s another one with a similar name.
  5. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Nice one, Christian. You are certainly getting up to the dusty end of that mandolin with your recent postings.
    Simon, I too thought it had been a posting a while back, but even under its other name, Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?
    it does not appear. I think Ginny and I had maybe thought about it at one point.
  6. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Isn’t it something that our memories are sometimes better than that of a machine?!
  7. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    Thanks follks! This time, the melody climbs up to the 12th fret, and I must admit having trouble making it ring loud an clear!
  8. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Yes thanks again CC for the motivation to play further up the neck. I’ve been trying at least. At the moment I’m working on harmony by ear and repetition of all the last two years of tunes to be able to play them straight from memory -without mistakes or reading. Very not easy.
  9. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    John, your memory does not fail you. We have in fact got this song ready to go - we did it in Feb? maybe. Just haven't posted it yet.
  10. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Ginny, you have put an old man's mind at rest. Sometimes I feel I need to get out more!
  11. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Fine version, David, and lots of heather on show. Great to hear you as well as your instruments!
  12. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    Beautifully done. The singer is brave and to be applauded and laurels thrown at his feet.
  13. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    No need to be sorry for the vocals, they are fine, and nice instrumental work as usual!
  14. Brian560
    Brian560
    I like both versions and it is such a nice melody. It is both nice to hear stuff played at the dusty end as well as being motivational. I have become a big fan of Davids concertina playing.
  15. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison

    John Kelly and I worked on this Scottish classic folk song - not difficult but sort of an intro to cry in your beer Scottish songs - and sooo many pink/purple pictures - because there are no pictures of actual thyme..but tons of purple heather...the lyrics either say all around the 'blooming heather' or all around the 'purple heather'
    I played the melody on Northfield mandolin, John did JK Octave and guitar. Sheet music, notation and tabs at end of video for fun play along/screen grab.
  16. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    A beautiful recording as usual. Your collaborations are always very successful, Ginny and John.
  17. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    Great reording! Is that the Northfield mandolin that plays the melody at 0:44? Sounds mighty fine. If only, I wouldn't already have too many mandolins...
  18. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    My mandolin is throughout the whole piece but I have John's octave taking main stage at the beginning. But then it is just my Northfield for the second verse and John's guitar..and then everyone!!
    Thank you Frithjof and CC.
  19. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Beautiful! Well done Ginny and John.
    I’m always impressed by the quality of each vid you produce.
    The music’s well played and balanced, it really sounds like you’re both playing in the same music studio.

    It’s funny too, seeing the sheep in the vid reminds me of fell walking.
  20. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    This was a fun tune to record, and we played about with it for a while to get the arrangement presented in this version. Ginny finally moved my octave part to the opening, which I liked when I heard it. When we started out we were working from two slightly different scores, but they came together well once we got the tune going properly. You can imagine the fun we had working with the separate octave track, mandolin track(s) and the guitar backing track and getting them synchronised.

    Ginny did all the video work on this one and a big thanks from me for doing this.
  21. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    John means...I was playing from the universally accepted three bar entry and he was playing from the - this is how we play it in the pub - it came together eventually. I like the sound of John's octave especially to open a tune. We normally do mandolin, octave, all together. But I threw caution to the wind and put the octave first ! I went rogue. Is that what they call it??
  22. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Ginny and John's nice instrumental arrangement reminded me to record this nice song, too. For many years, it was a staple of our band (more precisely: after-work music group and occasional open mic band) Serendipity. We now can't play together regularly any more because people have moved jobs. But we do still occasionally see each other. This was a nice trip down memory lane.

  23. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    A happy man having lots of fun in the Great Outdoors. What more could a fellow want?
  24. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Surf’s up, Dude!
    It was seeing Jess’ Hawaiian ukulele that got you into your comfy, stylish, beach wear shorts, right?!

    Great rendition Dennis you’re definitely one of the more courageous members of our SAW!
  25. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Such a beautiful and happy outdoor video. Great, Dennis.
    You own this unique ability to show the fun of making music in your face while playing the tune – enviable.
  26. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    Surrounded by nature, Dennis is singing a song about plants and plays some fine mandolin!
  27. phb256
    phb256

    I like this one. Too bad I can't do it justice. About halfway through you can hear the sounds of nature driving by my house. Maybe next time I'll play in the back yard instead of on the porch.
  28. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    I liked it! It must be so hard to play melody on the mandocello, with the frets so far apart. A different world from the mandolin.
  29. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Another good performance, Paul. I notice from Paul's profile that he is primarily a bass player, Dennis, so the long stretches are maybe more normal to him than had he been a mandolin player. Notice too how he seems to reinforce his pinkie by using his third finger against it on longer stretches.
  30. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Well done Paul, steady and you have a nice tone on that instrument.
    -though I notice you’re not wearing any protective headgear like Dennis.

    A while ago I actually started doing sudden hand shift exercises so I wouldn’t have to use the pinky, though now I use the pinky more often again because it feels smoother.
  31. Malk
    Malk
    I was listening to some throat singing which I quite like and a Tuvan group did a version of this song, you get an idea from the clip below....

    https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxj_6Jpe6...-BxTsYG_VRBlka

    That made me decide to play it. I am always impressed by how very different a piece of music can be performed especially when talented folk perform. The throat sung version is very different. I found that it had been played on here before though my version is more minimalistic!

  32. Richard Carver
    Richard Carver
    Hmmm... much prefer your version to the throat singing. You get a real rhythmic pulse going and that beautiful clear melody coming through. It sounds very good.
  33. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Nice one, Malcolm. One of the big favourites still in many sessions. In our weekly pub session last Thursday one of the other regulars (a French lad who works here as a paramedic) did this one along with me as we had a group of folk in listening who wanted some "real Scottish folk songs" and they also requested Roy Williamson's classic Flower O' Scotland which we duly delivered. A good example of the Auld Alliance still to the fore!
  34. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    You pic a good tone out of your mandolin, Malcolm.
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