From “Nine Blasted Notes“, the dance remix of “End of the Road” (featuring Paula Lynn Walker). The hornpipe is my tune, “The Anne Spalding Hornpipe” – score here.

End of the Road

Ev’ry road thro’ life is a long, long road,
Fill’d with joys and sorrows too,
As you journey on how your heart will yearn,
for the things most dear to you.
With wealth and love ’tis so
but onward we must go-

Chorus
Keep right on to the end of the road, keep right on to the end,
Tho’ the way be long, let your heart be strong, keep right on round the bend.
Tho’ you’re tired and weary still journey on, till you come to your happy abode,
Where all you love you’ve been dreaming of will be there at the end of the road.

With a big stout heart to a long steep hill,
We may get there with a smile,
With a good kind thought and an end in view,
We may cut short many a mile.
So let courage ev’ry day,
Be your guiding star alway-

Anyway, get out those fancy pumps and dance!

M.

Here’s me playing my solo spot at the May 21, Toronto Police Pipe Band show at the el Mocambo club in Toronto.

The tunes are:

The very old Irish air “Samhradh, samhradh” (Summertime), and some jigs starting with “Dr Angus MacDonald’s Off to Skye”. I wrote this tune as a send-off to Dr A. as he and Emily and family left Cape Breton after a long stay and returned to Scotland – Skye, in fact. You can find it in my third book of music. I think this tune is a good solo competition tune. It’s been pretty friendly to me, anyway.

Donald MacLeod’s “Maid in the Glen”, a great tune from his “Book 3″, follows. My two-parter, “The North Shore Sisters”, from my fourth book and written for Ryan and Shannon MacDonald (from North Shore, Cape Breton) around about the time they played in Peel Regional Police Pipe Band when I was Pipe Major. George Grant’s superbly musical, “Marjorie Lowe” is next. You can find this tune in Seumas MacNeill’s first book of music. I play Reay Mackay’s neat little variation (or “tasty”, as Reay might say) on the repeat of the last part.

“The Bottler” closes out the set as Ian K MacDonald joins in for his bit. I made this tune the year I guested with the Lothian and Borders Police Pipe Band. It was named for a yet-to-be-named member who had the unfortunate habit of blootering-up almost every competition.

MG solo at el Mocambo

So there you go.

Happy Canada Day!

M.

Blah blah blah.

M.