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Highland Blues

from Turn Up For The Books by Robbie McIntosh

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about

This song has been hanging around for a while as well and of all of the tracks it's the
most abstracted idea. All it's saying is whatever kind of music you play, when you pick up your instrument and play to yourself, as a sort of solace or whatever, you're sort of playing the blues.
If you're playing the bagpipes, the violin, the flute, the guitar or whatever, just to yourself, then you're playing the blues.
Blues is obviously a genre of music which is based around guitars and pianos and comes from the Deep South of America and later on from Chicago,
but the blues to me is more of a way of comforting yourself with a musical instrument, whatever kind of musical instrument it is or just your voice!
So I made this slightly abstracted story of this Scottish geezer who is conscripted into an army to fight for a king who he hates and is put in prison for stealing horses, but he can always imagine going back to his beloved Highlands and playing his blues……and his bonnie lass of course who waits for him.
It sounds like a completely bonkers idea when I say it like that, but that's kind of what it is.
The first line of the first verse was inspired by something my sister told me after she got married. She went to Inverness for her honeymoon and was told that the McIntoshs were well known in Inverness as horse thieves. So that's why I wrote the line "A horse thief was I". It was a pretty serious offence in olden times, punishable by death.

Playing wise, it's one that I built up at home, I did it to a rough drum part with my National guitar, over-dubbed the bass, put a guide vocal on. I then it took it to Frazer's piano teacher at the time, David Symes, who plays in a Salvation Army band, and I wrote a tenor horn part for it that works over verse and chorus.
Of course, being a brass band instrument a tenor horn doesn't really fit in with the Highland theme at all, but I didn't really care if that mattered or not. The horn line I actually nicked from Mahler's first symphony which is about Spring and rebirth. Whether or not that has any bearing on the subject matter, I don't know either and similarly don't care! Then I took it to Steve's studio and Paul Beavis overdubbed the drums on it, Frazer played a little bit of flute on it and I did actually play a tuba on it but it's right at the end and low down in the mix. Finally I got Hannah to do some backing vocals with me and added a guitar solo at the end before the breakdown.
At the end, in the breakdown, I'm quoting the same musical theme that the next song,"Keep It To Myself" is based around. That's completely deliberate and it's just me trying to be a bit clever, I suppose. Actually one song kind of grew out of the other.
That riff had been knocking about as part of the Highland Blues idea. It can sound Celtic but also 'bluesy' so I turned it into Keep It To Myself, which is more of a blues song.

lyrics

Highland blues, highland blues
Highland blues hidden in a song (Rpt.)

A horse thief were I
For that I must die
In cold gaol I lie with my highland blues
My highland blues

On mountainside
The cold wind does chide
For home I ride and my highland blues
My highland blues

Highland blues, highland blues
Oh highland blues hidden in a song

For king I fight
A man I despise
His hatred and lies and my highland blues
My highland, highland blues

Sweet bonnie gal
Wait for me shall

credits

from Turn Up For The Books, released September 7, 2013
RM: Guitars, Bass, Vocals, Programming
Paul Beavis: Drums
Hannah McIntosh; Backing Vocals
David Symes: Tenor Horn
Frazer McIntosh: Flute

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about

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Robbie McIntosh Weymouth, UK

Robbie McIntosh is well known as a sideman/session player (Paul McCartney, The Pretenders, Talk Talk, Norah Jones, Tears For Fears, to name but a few)
As a solo performer and singer, he has released 8 albums:
Seaworld,
Fortuneswell,
Turn Up For The Books,
Widescreen, Emotional Bends
3 albums of instrumentals:
Unsung, Hush Hour and Christmas Carols.
Also the Let’s Put It All Together EP. ... more

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