Track List
Spring Tide on the Tump

Banks of the Scamander
This is an original tune composed using the classical method of “theme and variation”.  The original theme I used was the Celtic air The South Wind.  Banks of the Scamander puts the melody into Aeolian mode and employs a harmonic minor scale.  The piece has a vaguely Turkish quality to it.  So, its title comes from the ancient name for the river known today as the Meander.  This river “meanders” from the highlands of central Turkey to the Mediterranean coast.  In ancient times the river was called the Scamander.  The plain of the Scamander was the site for Homer’s telling of the story of the Trojan War.

Lakes of Pontchartrain
The lyrics of the song tell the story of unrequited love in southern Louisiana in the area of Lake Pontchartrain.  The melody comes from Ireland and has been used to support many different lyrics over hundreds of years.

From the Top of the Hill
This is a very old and undocumented Irish air.  This version is more up tempo than usual and makes use of many different instrumental voices including hammer dulcimer, whistle and mandolin

Final March of Mary Queen of Scots
Walt Michael introduced this tune to the USA.  He collected it on one of his many performing tours of Scotland.  The original text reports that it was commissioned to be the music played while Mary Stewart walked to her beheading.  The orchestration was for bagpipe and muffled drum.  However, none of the seven eye witness accounts mention anything about music at the execution.  So, it seems doubtful that this commissioned work was performed for its intended purpose.  Whether or not Mary Stewart ever hear the tune, it is remains a fine, sad, strong and noble melody. This version is played on hammer dulcimer, whistle and harmonizing 12-string guitars.

Farewell To Spain
This melody has become one of my all time favorite Irish airs.  Unfortunately, few players know it so it is rarely heard.  This version relies heavily upon harmonizing low D whistles.

Lament for a Drawbridge
This is an original tune.  The old drawbridge that spans Chincoteague Channel has been replaced by a modern span in a new location.  The 80 year old swing bridge will be demolished toward the end of 2010.  I thought its service should be remembered in a melody.  Listen for the rolling sound of the traffic, the swinging of the bridge, the alarm bell and the sadness in losing an old friend

Lochaber No More
This melody is widely loved in Scotland and England.  Pipers in the British Army play it and many sets of lyrics have been written for it.  

Spartina
This original calypso piece was written to showcase the hammered mbria.  All around and on Chincoteague you’ll find two important grasses:  spartina altenflora and spartina patens.  These grasses are the essence of the tidal marshes that define my home Island.  We never use the scientific names, but call them either cord grass or salt hay.  This piece is meant to evoke the diurnal tidal cycle.

Farewell to Uist
Uist is part of the Hebrides Islands off the western coast of Scotland.  Actually there is a North Uist and a South Uist.  More than three hundred Island dot the western coast of Scotland.  Uist is special and much loved.  

Spring Tide on the Tump
This title makes great sense to those who live on an Island on the Delmarva coast.  A spring tide occurs when the full moon or new moon and the sun align in such a way that causes tides to be much higher than usual.   A tump is a small dry place covered with vegetation located within a marsh or swamp.  There are lots of tumps around Chincoteague and some folks who where born here call the entire Island a tump.  I wrote Spring Tide on the Tump as an audio tribute to the beauty I see here every day.

Auchanchie Gordon
This song was collected by James Francis Child in the mid-19th century.  It is Child Ballad #239.  The story tells of the force marriage of the young and beautiful Jeannie to the wealth Lord Saltoun.  But Jennie loved the commoner Auchanchie Gordon and dies of a broken heart.  This instrumental version features hammer dulcimer and low-D whistle.

Lament for Archibald MacDonald of Keppoch/Out on the Ocean
Archibald was the much respected clan chief of the MacDonald family who fell in battle.  Out on the Ocean is a jig offered in respect to the MacDonald clan who immigrated to North America some years after Archibald’s death.

Prospect
Many will recognize the melody as The Seaman’s Hymn.  In fact the melody is first documented as a hymn titled Prospect.  The melody probably pre-dates the 1705 date on the hymn.  This short version is performed as a trio of low-D whistles.