Wild Mountain Thyme

The roots of our music come from everywhere, fusing lyrics and melodies into a multi faceted fabric that reflects the culture of ourselves, separately and together.  Some of the beautiful strains of music that remain with us come from the grand places like England, Scotland and Wales, where folk songs and stringed instruments tell the stories of people that remain eternal like Wild Mountain Thyme.

Like many other folk songs, Wild Mountain Thyme has many versions, considering the fact that elements of the melody and the words of the song date back to the poet Robert Tannahill, whose The Braes of Balquhither resembles closely Francis McPeake’s version done in 1957.   Actually those who have researched the history of this song speak of the paraphrasing of the song that occurred in order to make more modern this very old classic folk song.

Many poets and songwriters have borrowed and changed songs over the years, putting their original stamp on them, in order to add the classics to a whole new stream of music.  The Beatles, for example, used classical music to compose many of their songs.  So it is with Wild Mountain Thyme, a shared song for many, but with upgrades as the song passes through generations.

As each person makes new, or original in a personal way, songs they love, here is a version done with a tuneful ukulele, that has the lighter, softer sound for music like this and the background rhythm, quietly but gently prepared, sets the stage for the story of beauty that unfolds in the song, that is here.