Diamonds in the Night CD

Andy Shanks and Tim Russell: Diamonds in the Night

Andy Shanks (vocals, guitar)
Jim Russell (guitar, whistles, melodeon, concertina)
John Burgess (tenor sax)
Lindsay Cooper (double bass)
Brian MacAlpine, David Scott (piano, organ, additional percussion)
Wilf Taylor (percussion)
Wendy Wetherby (cello)
The Torridon String Quartet

A debut album by two Scottish singer-songwriters combining unique music with powerful lyrics.

"... a wonderful collection of thirteen original songs, on which they're supported by the original Tubular Bells double bassist, Lindsay Cooper, saxophonist John Burgess and Capercaillie's Wilf Taylor, among others   ... the strength of the song-writing alone would be enough to ensure the album's place in the musical history books."
—Taplas

	1	Balgonie Bairn After thirty years in the deepest pits in Fife, John was no longer required to work the coal face.  Instead he would walk away from the lights of Ballingry on the clear nights of Autumn to pursue his hobby of astronomy; a wider horizon for the darkness.
	2	Thirty Year Man
	3	Ash Pirates Robert Louis Stevenson and S. R. Crocket, two of Scotland's best novelists, would meet and walk together by the old Kirk of Glencourse.  There among the strange carvings of skulls and crossbones they would plot their novels of pirates, treasure and border reivers.  Later in the ashy embers of the fire they would see the glint of Silver's eye, the spark of flintlocks and the strange grey man of the borders.  Read the books, watch the fire, listen for the jingle of bridle reins in the dark and keep all your doors locked.
	4	Rags and Days
	5	Street Dances (Burt/Russell)
	6	Money Guns and the Green Forest The old story; 7 per cent of the population own 84 per cent of the land.  One day we'll get our own back.
	7	St. Andrew in the Window Written while walking by Auchtertool Kirk on Easter Monday morning.
	8	Compass Heart Captain George Moodie was one of Fife's many famous sea captains.  The 'Cutty Sark' was overseen by him at every stage of her construction in Dumbarton.  They came together on Monday 23rd November 1869 at her launch:  their aim - the 'Blue Ribbon' prize for the fastest clipper on the China tea run.  He rests in Methil Kirkyard now and she in Greenwich dry dock in London
	9	The Road Here
mp3	10	Diamonds in the Night It's always difficult for the young to listen to the old despite the wisdom to be learned from their stories, songs and poetry.  Written after an Edinburgh gig with Norman MacCaig.
	11	Midnight City Buses
	12	Mogadishu Written for a charity concert.  It is sad that we still sing it and it is still true.
	13	The Fiddler The night before HMS Hood left Rosyth to tackle the Bismarck there was a bit of a session at the dockyard.  One of the fiddlers woke in the morning to find the Hood gone.  He never saw those men again as the ship was sunk with few survivors.  He can't lift the fiddle now without seeing the faces of the seamen he once played for dancing before him.
	14	The Wake The final theme.
		All songs by Shanks/Russell except where noted. Produced by David Scott and Bill Wells.

$15.00