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Bonus track – This tale of the Stromness witch who inspired Sir Walter Scott first appeared on my Land and Sea album.
My buddy in Hatteras Island N.C., Liz Browning Fox, presents a Celtic music show on Radio Hatteras. She had kept the original demo (which I’d lost in a hard-drive meltdown) and recently sent me a copy. I decided I liked the arrangement better, so that’s why you’re getting a chance to hear it! Enjoy

lyrics

She selt winds tae sailors, an luck charms tae whalers
An blissins tae Hudson’s Bay men
They wid come tae Bess Millie, an pey her right freely
Tae mak sure they’d see land again
Fore they’d tak sail fae Orkney, they’d struggle up Brinkie’s Brae
An the spaewife the islands aa kent
For sixpence wid sell them a breeze in a bag
An they’d aa coont hid money weel spent

Whin the revenue cutter cam up tae the islands
Tae pit doon the smugglers’ schemes
She curst Captain Phillips, an threitent his crew
Tae send them aa tae Fidler’s Green
But the Captain he stuid firm an telt her he’d burn doon
Her hoos gin she didna gie in
Sa they made an accord, an she blisst aa on board
Even offert tae sell him a wind

Eyes blue as the seas whar folk claimt she’d bin seen
Conversin wi selkies an trows
Near a hunder year owld whin she telt Walter Scott
The tale o the pirate, John Gow
No a teeth in her heid, bit still shairp as a blade
An the author wrote doon every line
Then she bylt up her tea an she spak him a spell
Sa the rest o his travels war fine

She selt winds tae sailors, an luck charms tae whalers
An aa their hopes oan her war peend
Bess Millie the spaewife o owld Stromness toun
A real seafarers’ fair-wither freend

credits

from In Praise of Crows (2021), released March 15, 2021

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Bob Leslie Glasgow, UK

Bob Leslie's music is now available on a "NAME YOUR OWN PRICE" basis!
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“I can think of no other songwriter who has mined this rich vein
with such lyrical ease and with no mean ear for melody. ”
Alan Reid, Battlefield Band ... more

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