HAMISH HENDERSON - NEW BOOK

This volume brings together more than twenty contributions ranging from fond memory to critical inquiry anent the late Hamish Henderson, Scotland’s leading folklorist of the twentieth century, remarkable poet and songwriter, and political activist.

Edited by Eberhard 'Paddy' Bort, the book includes contributions from Keith Armstrong, Margaret Bennett, Eberhard ‘Paddy’ Bort, Ray Burnett, David Daiches, Lesley Duncan, Archie Fisher, George Gunn, William Hershaw, John Lucas, Richie McCaffery, Geordie McIntyre, Dolina Maclennan, Alison McMorland, Ewan McVicar, Andrew Means, Donald Meek, Colin Nicholson, Mario Relich, Jennie Renton, Donald Smith and Sheena Wellington; and art work from Howard Glasser,Tom Hubbard, Allan McMillan, Jan Miller and Timothy Neat.

Anent Hamish Henderson is published by Grace Note Publications (May 2015) and retails at £15.

Email: books@gracenotereading.co.uk

Grace Note Publications C.I.C.

Grange of Locherlour, Ochtertyre, Crieff, Perthshire, PH7 4JS, Scotland

Contact by Phone

01764 655 979

WOODEN HEART: A NEW SONG IN THE MORNING FOR PHILIPP FRIEDRICH SILCHER (1789-1860)*

Through an arch of towering plane trees,

I reach to touch the hips

of an upright Swabian girl,

her lips

fresh with strawberries

from a breakfast bowl of kisses

sprinkled with sugar

and yesterday’s cream.

The birds of the Platanenallee

fly on the wings of melancholy,

the breeze of history

scenting their songs.

It dawns on me

that the rain

will lash against our faces

as we push our way

through the saluting wood.

The day is crumbling already

around us

with the leaves memorably

crunching under our futile tread.

Half way along the soaking avenue,

the sun like a song

sparkles in my eyes

and lights my last hours

with the beauty of skies.

And suddenly

you are there

your lump of a statue

bursting though the leaves,

a kind of terrible stone

trapping your crumbling tunes 

inside rock.

To take a frail life

and carve it into something immortal

is a folly as well as a tribute

to the hypocrisy of pompous little leaders

seeking to employ music

for their brutal ends.

So I say

and so we sing

of beautiful glances

and military funerals

of dead songbirds

in the path of bullets.

I climb in spirit

to reach the flesh of this lovely girl,

for a moment

I am happy and then it is gone

behind the clouds of war.

And this is for you Friedrich

from my fluttering heart

in a sea of shaking branches,

reaching out

for humanity

to triumph

over the horror

of the mundane, 

a gift of a song for you,

a lovely glass of wine

as the armies march again

into the blind alley

of a bleak despair:

Can't you see

I love you?

Please don't break my heart in two,

That's not hard to do,

'Cause I don't have a wooden heart.

And if you say goodbye,

Then I know that I would cry,

Maybe I would die,

'Cause I don't have a wooden heart.

There's no strings upon this love of mine,

It was always you from the start.

Treat me nice,

Treat me good,

Treat me like you really should,

'Cause I'm not made of wood,

And I don't have a wooden heart.

Muss i denn, muss i denn

Zum Staedtele hinaus,

Staedtele hinaus,

Und du, mein schat, bleibst hier?

Muss i denn, muss i denn

Zum Staedtele hinaus,

Staedtele hinaus,

Und du, mein schat, bleibst hier?

(Got to go, got to go,

Got to leave this town,

Leave this town

And you, my dear, stay here?).

There's no strings upon this love of mine,

It was always you from the start,

Sei mir gut,

Sei mir gut,

Sei mir wie du wirklich sollst,

Wie du wirklich sollst,

(Treat me nice,

Treat me good,

Treat me like you really should,

Like you really should), 

'Cause I don't have a wooden heart.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

*Swabian musician Philipp Friedrich Silcher originally composed the tune, based on a folk lyric, used in the pop song ‘Wooden Heart’. His statue is in Tuebingen by the River Neckar.

'Beautiful poem, most moving and made me think again. It should be sung.' (Gitte Schwarze).

NEW CD FROM TIM DALLING

Eve's Bonie Squad

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Official launch date: May 15th 2015.

I watched a documentary called 'The Secret Life of Waves' in which a scientist used the metaphor of a wave for human life. A wave doesn't really exist as an object, it's just energy moving through water particles. It's not an object, it's a process. So humans are just processes, forms of energy creating, building and discarding cells until we eventually crash on to the shore. I've found this metaphor really helpful as I've started to se the first faint outline of land up ahead.

So I'd like to dedicate these songs to all those waves in front and behind, from William Dalling, Nellie Maud Palmer, Eileen and Alan Baker to Tom, Rhona and Ailsa Dalling and the waves behind them.

To buy Eve's Bonie Squad for £12.50:

• Send a cheque for £12.50 payable to TR Dalling, to
  Tim Dalling,
  2, Stratford Grove West,
  Heaton,
  Newcastle upon Tyne   NE6 5BB
  UKwith your name and address, and saying you'd like a copy of Eve's Bonie Squad.
• or click the link to buy using your debit or credit card:
  We use PayPal to collect your payment, but you do not need to open a PayPal account to pay this way. Nor do we see your card details, as PayPal deal direct with your bank.

	Track listing and samples
1.	Picture of You
2.	Poison Hand
3.	Where I Want To Be
4.	Mr Michael Marra
5.	Hey Burro      - poem by Nigel Wild
6.	Song of the Lower Classes      - poem by Ernest Jones
7.	Two Lighthouses      - poem by Julia Darling
8.	Eve's Bonie Squad
9.	Shy Bairns      - poem by Dr Keith Armstrong
10.	They'll Never Come Back
11.	Indelible, Miraculous
11.	Song of the Wind      - poem by Julia Darling
11.	Enivrez-Vous (Get Drunk)      - poem by Charles Baudelaire
11.	Thalassa      - poem by Louis MacNeice
		All songs by Tim Dalling