Category: Our Iron Broo Ceilidh Band News

You can get a full preview for the new release on YouTube along with the video I made for my auntie Margaret.  The download track has been recorded and mastered and is currently being processed by the digital gnomes in California for digital distribution to your favourite download partners.

Of course Patrons can get a free copy! Just send me a recognised email and I will reply personally with the mastered Mp3 track.

I wrote this song for my auntie Margaret who emigrated to Canada.
She left Macduff, Scotland for Canada as a young woman around 1960. Initially, it was just for a trip at the advice of her parents for a change of scene to broaden her horizons. There were not many opportunities in Macduff out-with fishing, farming or making whisky. Margaret was to stay in Toronto for a while with a Scottish aunt who had immigrated previously. Margaret’s parents (my Grandparents) thought it was a good thing for her to do but had no idea that she’d decide to settle there and spend the rest of her life in Toronto. She still makes as many trips back as she can to visit her Scottish family. Both sides of our family try to stay in touch and visit as we can but the distance, time and expense in travelling make it difficult for all. This song is kind of melancholy, but the bright side is Margaret’s new life in Toronto paid off. Few people in Scotland manage to enjoy the standard of life that can be enjoyed in Canada. As much as we all miss her and the rest of the new Canadian family, we know that Margaret made the best choice if she even had one.

Lyrics: Macduff Maggie
©Charlie Abel 2020

In a little wee toon by the sea
I imagine a red ringlet girl start to leave,
Mummy sends her good cheers
with her eyes full of tears
though her trip
would turn out to be years.

Her two eyes of blue
they would smile at you
like the light o’er the sea
on a fine summer’s day
She’s our Macduff Maggie,
She’s Margaret my auntie,
Our lassie far over the sea.

Destiny pulled her
Across a great Ocean
our lassie left over the sea.
Goodbye to her past
As the memories run fast
of her own folks
and the things she had seen.

Her two eyes of blue
they would smile at you
like the light o’er the sea
on a fine summer’s day
She’s our Macduff Maggie,
She’s Margaret my auntie,
Our lassie far over the sea.

Her Daddy all tattered and torn
after years
he had spent on the sea,
through the war.
He looks down through his glass,
for his bonnie wee lass
but his Maggie has grown up and flown.

Oor lassie fared well
in that far distant land
met in with the love of her life
They have kids of their own
and a really sweet home
and now she’s a grandmother too.

Her two eyes of blue
they would smile at you
like the light o’er the sea
on a fine summer’s day
She’s our Macduff Maggie,
She’s Margaret my auntie,
Our lassie far over the sea.

Yet her dreams cast her over the sea
to that land,
full of voices and smiles of the past
she’s a tear in her eye
for the time now passed by
her heart sinks,
which trip may be the last.

Her two eyes of blue
they would smile at you
like the light o’er the sea
on a fine summer’s day
She’s our Macduff Maggie,
She’s Margaret my auntie,
Our lassie far over the sea.

New song about to be released, hear it here first for free.

To be released on Christmas day 2020.

Details to follow…

I’m in Italy today but managed to create a video here with the limited equipment Ii took with me. I drove all the way from Aberdeen to Lecce with the family. Over 2000 miles with a few stops along the way.   The new video technique I used in this video I refer to as the Ready Brek effect :-). If you’re of a certain age you may remember the UK Ready Brek adverts.  It was a favourite breakfast of mine at the time, but I am more an eggs man these days.  The photos I had in my iCloud library.  They are the Spey and the Linn Falls is the waterfall at the end, which runs into the Spey.  Photos were from my iPhone 7 last year on a camping trip at Speyside Gardens, Aberlour.   The music was written by the famous Scottish Violinist, James Scott Skinner, from Banchory.  Who died in 1927 and is buried in Aberdeen, at Allenvale Cemetry, just down the hill from my home. 

I’m away to the beach now in sunny Lecce.

Myself and Brendan O’Leary had a go at recording a lockdown video.  Brendan is at home and recorded his part with his webcam and sent it to me in Whatapp.   I mixed it together at home and edited the video in a simple presentable way.  We are both pretty pleased with the result for a first attempt.    

The music is a favourite of Brendan’s and I’ve always enjoyed playing it with him. The late Kenny Baker, famous Bluegrass fiddle player of Bill Monroe fame, wrote the tune.  

Everyone does get a little lonely during Lockdown surely.  Even when I am stuck at home with my family I do miss the company of like minded people. 

My old mac struggles to  process many video tasks, but i managed to torture it long enough to help me with this video editing technique.    I’m hoping i can scrape together enough to buy a new iMac to handle some better video techniques.  I’m using Final Cut Pro which only works with Mac.  It’s easy enough to use and I’m an apple man since 2006, though they are getting rather pricey these days…

You may notice I have cloned myself.   This will come in handy in future years, in case I need an organ. I will be able to harvest them from my clones. Or sell their organs on the dark web to buy an iMac.   I am surprised how big that piano player clone looks though. He has a menacing glint in his eye.  Is it the lockdown carbs taking their toll? Or is it just the wide-angle on the iPhone camera that gives the fish eye goldfish bowl look?  Yes, I think that’s it.   He does look about twice the size of the box player –  That’s me, that’s the healthy one who trains karate in the mornings every day just before meditating.    The one that wants to be beach fit by summer.  That’s a Tuesday afternoon in August if you live in Scotland. I eat lemons, garlic and oranges and an egg for breakfast on my own homemade sourdough bread.  And I’ve started wearing sandals. 

I might give this experiment another go with the Canon Camera. The iPhone is a little grainy and the audio is not great.  

I’ll record the tune in the studio for the next album, coming soon. 

The PDF sheet music is attached below and is available in the sheet music library on https://www.IronBroo.scot. 

This video was filmed with an iPhone 11 Pro Max in 4K. 

All the best, 

Charlie

This tune I wrote for Ronnie in 2015.  Ronnie is Aberdeen’s most famous karate master.  He is known around the world for his half a century of karate training and teaching.   He has an OBE form the Queen, an Order of The Rising Sun from the Japanese Emperor and an honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen, and many other recognitions. 

The tune I thought suited the Scottish warrior theme as it is in a minor key and in the style of the Scottish march with the characteristic Scottish snap.   There are 16 bars in each measure which also represent the 16 Chrysanthemums petals of the emperor.  :-). Did I make that up?  

I recorded this track on the album A Celtic Voice which was released on St.Andrews Day, 30th of November 2018 to an unsuspecting audience.  Most people still haven’t noticed 😉

I recorded the track in my home studio using a Vignoni accordion, a keyboard and an acoustic guitar.   This video I made during the lockdown and released today on YouTube.  30th April 2020.  I used the previous footage I had on my computer as I couldn’t go out and meet Ronnie.  

The karate shots were of Ronnie performing  Kata Empi, in Albyn school gym after teaching the children there one afternoon. It was just one unrehearsed take on my iPhone 7. It was never planned to be used in a music video but I felt it worked well with the overlay of the Scottish Scenery and some black and white photos I lifted from his Facebook page.  

I enjoy walking outdoors with my family, and when we do get the rare chance of a nice day I like to take my camera with me. I take lots of shots of landscapes and short videos which come in handy at future dates, especially handy now we are in lockdown.  The imagery of Ronnie doing the Kata in front of a backdrop of Dunottar Castle, Skatie Bay and Lochnagar worked well.   

I hope you like the video and the music. 

If you are a musician I’ve attached a pdf of the sheet music to this post. 

Here is my latest video during the Lockdown.  It’s an old French tune called Réveil Musette.  It was a tune I learnt from my late accordion teacher Alastair Hunter.    I tried recording with a few different camera angles and worked in the two instruments so I’m playing them both, synced together in the video.  It took a bit of time to get it right but was a worthwhile experience. I used 2 cameras and there are four shots edited from different directions. I think if I could get a wider angle it might be possible to use an editing technique where both ‘human bodies’ can be in the shot at the same time.  The issue here was the space in my studio.  To get that effect I understand I need to be in a position where the bodies don’t overlap, so I’d need a wider angle.  Something I may consider for a later video.   

It’s also incredibly warm in my studio, I’m on the first floor and with the insulation, black slate roof and even a little sun it makes my little room in Scotland feel like a really hot place. It can be uncomfortably warm in here some days.  Like a balmy Parisian nightclub:-0

This tune came to me out of nowhere last week and I have dedicated it to my mother in law, Maria Rosaria who lives in Rome.  She is celebrating her 70th Birthday. She is widely admired and respected by many friends and relatives around the world. She is a University professor and author. I’ve called the tune “The Road to Wisdom” 🙂 

I’ve uploaded the sheet music to https://ironbroo.scot/sheet-music-library/  

It’s also attached to this post.  

I’m thinking about what I should do next…

Sometimes I feel pretty indecisive. My head is full of fog and I think that if I stare into space enough the fog will clear and the ideas will come.  Sometimes they do.  The problem is also there are many ideas and I’m not sure which one to tackle first.  My desk is always a mess and I don’t like that.  A cluttered desk, a cluttered mind.    Yon Steve Jobs was right when he went minimalist and threw out all his furniture.  I can’t bring myself to do that though. I need my furniture to store all my crap. Out of sight, out of mind.    “One day I’ll need that.”  It’s something I inherited from generations of frugal Scottish men. I remember my grandpa’s both had blue nylon string, for any occasion.  (“Blue tuow ” as we’d call it.) To replace bucket handles, tie gates shut, hold up plants, nets, just about anything.  Could be an idea for a song…

Thinking on Wisdom, I always thought both my grandparents to be very wise.  I’ve always been intrigued by some of the things they said.  One, who was a fisherman and had served all the six years of WW2 in the navy and was pretty humble and well mannered.  He introduced me to fishing as a child, in Macduff harbour with hand line when I was about 4 years old. It stuck with me for a long time and later as a teenager I was speaking to him about catching mackerel and I mentioned they tasted great cooked the same day you caught them.  He began to shake his head left to right at a moderate speed with a disproving frown and gritted teeth.  “Nnyyiieee..Yi dinna eat mackerel” he said. 

I asked “why?” He wouldn’t give me a reason. Just kept repeating while shaking his head, “Yi dinna eat mackerel”. 

His word was final. No reason was needed.  Wisdom has spoken. It was a fact. Life’s lesson was over. 

I won’t go into why I think he said that in case it puts you off Mackerel. 

I still rather like Mackerel. Now and again. If it’s fresh.  They say it is one of teh healthiest fish you can eat because of the oils in the flesh.

Onyhoo, 

a’ the best,

Charlie

I wrote this tune one morning in August 2019.  I had played around with it but settled on what it was and where it was going. It stayed pretty much the same as it was the first morning.

I recorded it in 2020 and it was released in April 2020. It is only available as a download at the moment.  I’ve dedicated it to Barbara, my wife. We were married in Lecce, Italy in 2003. 

I recorded it on a real acoustic piano, ( Reid Sohn)  and a Saltarelle accordion.