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O​’​er Drumochter, feat. Patsy Reid (music)

from an t​-​Each​-​Iarainn [The Iron Horse] by Hamish Napier

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about

I recorded this the first time round on The Railway using a tin whistle an unusual key - making it inaccessible to anyone wanting to learn, but it was always meant to be a folk session tune. It was written on the wooden flute, for the wooden flute. I felt it was one of the strongest tunes on the Railway album, so I’ve re-recorded it in the much more normal and accessible key of D. I hope folk might take it up now, and perhaps it could have a legacy beyond my work in trad sessions in the pubs of Scotland and Ireland. Who knows? I suppose that’s the dream of most folk music composers - to compose a tune that becomes part of the classic repertoire, that perhaps even outlives you! It’s the best chance a folkie has at immortality!

‘Up the hill’ is what Highland Railwaymen call the climb up to the highest mainline summit of British railways. Says Jimmy, "you’re coming up from Blair Atholl to Drumochter Summit, 1484 feet. Many's the day, if you had a bad Black 5 no' steaming right, you’d struggle up to the top, 17 miles of a dead slog, without a break, and sit at the very top of the hill blowing up to try to get the steam up and get some water in the boiler before heading down the hill. We used to say 'ah well, at least we're the highest railwaymen in Britain!'" Jimmy was often the fireman for driver Willie Wilkie, a very comical lad who’d jokingly mimic the rhythms of the engine’s connecting rods as their dear old Barney engine struggled up the hill. He’d shout, “OCH I CANNA! OCH I CANNA!” Then as they reached the top and dropped over the other side he’d chant, “I KNEW I COULD! I KNEW I COULD! I KNEW I COULD!” The second tune here is for heading O’er Drumochter!

credits

from an t​-​Each​-​Iarainn [The Iron Horse], released December 14, 2023
Hamish Napier - piano, whistle flutes and percussion
Patsy Reid - fiddle and strings
James Lindsay - electric bass

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Hamish Napier Grantown On Spey, UK

Hamish is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from the Scottish Highlands.

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