The Djukella Orchestra's brand new studio album, carefully crafted to soothe the soul and remind you it's the world, rather than you that has been going insane.
Comes in a beautiful gatefold case, with a 24 page booklet filled with musings, lyrics and some glorious photos by Yasmine Zarrouk and various others.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Fruitful Fells
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Now Westlin Winds - Robert Burns
For Yasmine Zarrouk, my father, Dick Gaughan & Alastair’s dog Sampson
I’ve loved the music and uncompromising spirit of Dick Gaughan since first hearing snippets as a teenager, and some years ago when we first met, he provided me with a deep sense of affirmation and indeed inspiration with one characteristically blunt comment. I had just played an opening set for him at Bath Folk Club and we were outside smoking in the set-break. He’d been deeply impressed that I’d sung a reggae song at a folk club and everyone had loved it. I mentioned that tuning my guitar mostly in DADGAD, I’d often have guitarists coming up to me saying that tuning in such a way is “cheating” as it makes picking tunes easier. Before I could get in my punchline, Dick chirped in saying, “I hope you tell them to fuck off!”, which ranks amongst the greatest compliments I’ve ever received”
His seminal arrangement of Robert Burns’ Now Westlin’Winds has echoed in my head for many years, but it wasn’t until very recently that I ever thought to sing it. Returning from Alastair Caplin’s wedding to all-round powerhouse, Leonie, where we’d been positively bathed in Burns; the congregation consisting largely of the cast and crew of Band of Burns who’d recently been touring to great acclaim, I was caught in a hideous rainstorm somewhere in the Cairngorms, pulled over and whilst trying to tune the radio, caught a brief weather report which told me that though the east was driech, the west coast of Scotland was looking forward to a glorious sunny spell. Having spent the year so far driving furiously from Kent to Cornwall, Scotland to Germany and back to Scotland again, I was blessed with a couple of days with no schedule, so about-turned, and headed west to the considerably longer but far more rewarding way south.
I spent a couple of days exploring a bit of Glen Nevis and Glencoe, where I found a sunny place to park and learned the song perched on the step of the van, from the antique copy of Burns’ Poetical Works Yasmine had bought me years before at a Ramsgate street fair, balanced on my knee, and ruffled most distractingly by the very same westlin winds. Since then it’s pretty much the first song I think to play when picking up my guitar. Deepest thanks to the gentlemen of the orchestra for their breathtaking subtlety.
Published in 1786, it remains one of the most perfectly seductive love songs, and an invaluable guide to the birds and bushes of the British countryside.
lyrics
Now westlin winds and slaught’ring guns
Bring Autumn's pleasant weather
The moorcock springs on whirring wings
Among the blooming heather
Now waving grain, wlde o'er the plain
Delights the weary farmer
And the moon shines bright as I rove at night
To muse upon my charmer.
The partridge loves the fruitful fells
The plover loves the mountains
The woodcock haunts the lonely dells
The soaring tern the fountains
Through lofty groves the cushat roves
The path of man to shun it
The hazel bush o'erhangs the thrush
The spreading thorn the linnet
Thus every kind their pleasure find
The savage and the tender
Some social join, and leagues combine
Some solitary wander
Avaunt, away, the cruel sway
Tyrannic man's dominion
The sportsman's joy, the murd’ring cry
The flutt’ring gory pinion
But Peggy dear, the evening's clear
Thick files the skimming swallow
The sky is blue, the field's in view
All fading green and yellow
Come let us stray our gladsome way
And view the charms of Nature
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn
And ev’ry happy creature
We'll gently walk, and sweetly talk
Till the silent moon shines clearly
I'll grasp thy waist and, fondly prest
Swear how I love thee dearly
Not vernal show’rs to budding flow’rs
Not autumn to the farmer
So dear can be as thou to me
My fair, my lovely charmer.
credits
from The Fruitful Fells,
released July 6, 2021
Jez - Voice/Guitar
Nye Parsons - Double-bass
Piotr Jordan - Violin
Recorded by Mike West at Ninth Ward Pickin Parlor
Mastered by Nick Watson at Fluid Mastering
supported by 4 fans who also own “Now Westlin Winds”
Just another Superb well delivered album by this wonderful versatile artist very well recorded produced its a must for anyone's collection. Nancys vocals are brilliant as ever..
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