No 1 in Acoustic and No 43 in mp3.com worldwide overall charts with 'She Left Her Diary on the Bar' - September 2002.
My home pages have recently been revised.
I have a new instruments sales website aimed at the travelling player. It's called Troubadour.uk and our brand name is easy to work out! We now have new stocks in of travel cittern-guitars, mandolins, mandolas and Celtic bouzoukis, all very low in price - between $157 and $220 shipped to the USA.
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| I watched the ice come down the river by moonlight, breaking up, grouping, starting again on its journey. A short piece in an unusual tuning. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick September 2003 |
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| This is a ballad on the life and death of John Armstrong, 'Black Jock', the laird of Gilnockie and notorious thief and reiver, hanged by James V of Scotland in 1530 on the field of Carlinrig high above Hawick town. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick May 2003 |
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| Impressions of return to a western island, a small boat and waters lapping a mooring shrouded by mist. Guitar instrumental. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick January 2003 |
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| The language is a little old-fashioned, but this is new song. It seems right that way. Have a listen if you love someone. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick April 2003 |
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| A song which appears in most British traditions and is sometimes considered to be Scottish. One of my favourite ballads. |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall -  buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad. arr David Kilpatrick |
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| A little sort-of-ragtime piece, capod at 5, on a Troubadour Blondel cittern-guitar fitted with a Pickup the World pickup. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick April 2003 |
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| A little song in a Latin rythm with a Canarian timple (a five-string viheula-shaped ukelele) providing local colour! |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick February 2003 |
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| A Scottish fingerstyle guitar instrumental echoing the rythm of a well-known song, but in a minor key and much altered noo. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick February 2003 |
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| A Scottish lady runs off with her footman instead of marrying the Earl of Home. He turns out to be a Northumbrian landowner - but not before worrying her. Actually, he's a Geordie secondhand coach-and-four dealer... |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad. Arr David Kilpatrick © November 2000 |
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| Here's one for all of us leaving our traces on Internet - wherever we may be. Listen carefully. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick August 2002 |
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| It is the last day of the Year 2000; outside the Scottish Border hills are deep in snow. I watch the snow falling as I write this piece, and I hope you enjoy it - at any time of year. |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick December 2000 |
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| This is a simple, driving, singable song - maybe it's about your partner, your mother, your father, your children; maybe it's about your faith, no matter who you believe in. It's another of those songs I never tried to write, it wrote itself. |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 2002 |
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| "Weep for the innocent, sing for the hero,
pray that your children never have to do the same... For you stand by a place which they once called Ground Zero, all because one God could have more than one name..."e |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick September 2001 |
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| The first verse of this song was written a year before the death of Princess Diana. The rest was written afterwards. |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick November 2000 |
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| A flowing, continuous acoustic guitar instrumental with the distinctive sound of 'electric nylon' |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick July 2000 |
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| You can sing this yourself to the tune of 'Waltzing Matilda'! I've altered the tune a little, with a gentler harmony and a diversion into minor. This is a song for anyone whose roots lie a long way from home, or whose children and their families are on the other side of the world. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick May 2002 |
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| Edinburgh (Scotland!) is a wonderful city in summer and if you've been there, the chances are you have ended your night out as the sun rose again. As much a cameo of the festival city, as a love song... |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick May 2002 |
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| My most popular track on mp3.com. If you like this, you'll probably like 'Ropes of Sand' too! A fingerstyle composition on acoustic-electric nylon jazz guitar with a Celtic undertone: clouds move across a western sky in the last evening of summer. Sometimes the sky lightens briefly, and for a moment, the setting sun strikes out from the between the clouds, before the light fades again. |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 2000 |
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| This song just strikes a chord with audiences everywhere - even if the year needs changing. 'Someone went ahead of me, and turned the signposts round...' - the story of my life!o |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick September 2001 |
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| Robert Burns's classic song recorded with mellow nylon string guitar and vocals. |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: By Robert Burns, arr. David Kilpatrick |
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| From lines written by Ailsa when she was 16, in a poem called 'Lost Girl'; a story she wrote, and I turned into a song. |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David & Ailsa Kilpatrick November 2000 |
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| My most popular tune on mp3.com for February 2001! A waltz - or a little quicker - on nylon string jazz guitar. A familiar tumbling cadence, like the waterfall it's named for. |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick July 2000 |
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| A traditional English folk song performed in thrash dramatic fashion with the help of a heavy strung guitar tuned down to AEADF#B! |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad. Arr David Kilpatrick Sept 2000 |
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| A modern imitation of an 18th century complaint, with cittern accompaniment. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick August 2002 |
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| Here's a song for all singers, songwriters and guitar pickers! Just a nice story; and where in the world do you think this could be set? |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick November 2000 |
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| The farmers of Scotland wondered, in the grip of winter and the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001, if they were the last generation on the land... a lament for the last farmer, whenever and wherever he (or she) may be. NO 1 IN EDINBURGH MP3 CHART MARCH 9 - and added as a BONUS TRACK to 'The Emerant Lea' CD! (Not included on liner notes).n |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick March 2001 |
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| A smooth multi-tracked ballad with a flowing acoustic guitar hook and nostalgic lyrics - a walk in the woods, love in a green shade, and the light of gaslamps. |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick February 2001 |
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| Often reserved for the female voice though clearly a 'male viewpoint narration', my version of this Irish tale of marital desertion is primitive rather than beautiful. With unusual drone guitar, mountain dulcimer and bodhran accompaniment. |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad att. Percy French, arr. David Kilpatrick Aug 2000 |
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| This is a guitar instrumental in CGDEAD tuning, played fingerstyle. |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: MP3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 1997 |
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| An atmospheric Border Scots ballad in the auld tradition, echoing in its words many familiar songs yet never copying them. Though with some dialect, the story is easily followed: how 'the Piper of Loos' saved the 7th Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers in October 1915. |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: MP3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick October 1999 |
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| This is the Border Scots song tune Dainty Davie, played on nylon string double coursed Spanish laud (flat backed lute) tuned GDgce'g'. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick 2002 |
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| As a flute or fiddle tune, a lovely air: as a song, a short and powerful evocative image. A free rendering with modern guitar accompaniment. |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad. Arr. David Kilpatrick © Oct 2000 |
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| A useful wee song for every pub band, weekend axe warrior or impromptu folk combo-nation. We do what we do do, what we do we do... sing along! |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick August 2000 |
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| This is the 'oldest Scottish folk song' - from exactly the area where I live and work, the Scottish Borders. My arrangement is derived from Archie Fisher, Jansch and others but has a different exact melody and accompaniment. |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad Arr. David Kilpatrick © 1996 |
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| Seonaid Wolf sent me a single verse written to fit O'Carolan's harp air Sheebeg and Sheemor (which can be spelled in many ways). She asked me to 'look after' the words for her and let others hear them. Seonaid also sent a JPEG of transcribed melody and words, which you can find in my PHOTOS section and download.. |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick/Seonaid Wolf 2001 |
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| I was 30 years late finding Nick Drake's work, thanks to a kid who passed me some tapes. This is my song for and about Nick, borrowing a touch or two from his ideas but using my own regular drop D tuning. |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Hand-Picked Songs and Tunes - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick April 2001 |
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| A song for the veterans of all wars and any wars - not a lament, nor a protest, but a comment on the passing of time and the nature of men at war. Strong chorus and rythm. |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: MP3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 1996 |
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| The Skye Boat Song meets blues meets jazz and wanders off into the ocean beyond - relaxed nylon string Celtic guitar instrumental. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick December 2001 |
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| The story of an Irish fiddler's deception by his apprentice. Also called Jack Orion, my version mixes two of the tunes variations and a touch of something alien... |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad Arr. David Kilpatrick © Oct 2000 |
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| A gentle nylon-string acoustic guitar accompaniment to a lament for the passing of time and of old friends. "Thank God there still is some real music out there in this VengaBoy-world" - Roger HŠggstršm |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: MP3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 2000 |
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| Also known as 'The College Boy' or 'Young but A'Growing', my version is mainly from Cecil Sharp with amendments gleaned from Stanley Robertson. |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad. Arr. David Kilpatrick © Sept 2000 |
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| A slow Scottish jig written for the guitar, using harmonics, named for the deep pool in the Tweed where the bells of ruined Kelso Abbey are supposed to lie, ringing as the dark water flows over them - to be heard when danger is near... |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick July 2000 |
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| British folk instruments and singing - but there's a hint of a steel band rythm in the song, and it's all about coral shores... |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 1998 |
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| A ballad in traditional style of emigrant yearning for the auld country, written by Dave Boothroyd who asked me to make a recording |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
Credits: © Dave Boothroyd 1997 |
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| A silvery, delicate Scottish instrumental played on the tiny Tacoma Papoose alto guitar. |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick January 2001 |
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| Scottish air from Robert Bremner's 1758 'Instructions' for the Guitar, played on a c1765 Simpson of London wire-strung guittar. |
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick May 2001 |
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| A new lyric in a very, very old tradition. British, US and Aussie listeners will be quite at home with this one... (humorous song, not serious, but certainly not daft either, and strictly for those with dirty minds, of course). |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: Icon Publications
Credits: © David Kilpatrick July 2000 |
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| A Border ballad of modern times. They were always into thieving and violence round these parts, and little changes... |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 1999 |
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| This is an instrumental written in 18th Scottish 'guittar' tuning of GBDGBD, inspired by the work of Rob MacKillop, who rediscovered the Scottish wire-strung guittar repertoire of the 1750s. It is called 'Complaynte' because Rob immediately said it sounded neither Scottish, nor 18th century! |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: MP3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick January 2000 |
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| A NE Scots ballad of forced marriage and the death of lovers - one of the classics. Almost eight minutes! |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: Oe'r the Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad. Arr. David Kilpatrick © Sept 2000 |
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| A little Irish and a little English baroque influence, played on a Martin Backpacker guitar. |
CD: New Recordings 2001 #1
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick April 2001 |
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| Listen and let the song paint the picture: this is just a short single verse, a moment in time, an image. |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: ©David Kilpatrick 1999 |
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| Where most of my songs are traditional, this is modern - almost grunge. There are no wasted words, just plain me and a guitar. |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: MP3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick July 23 2000 |
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| Arrangement of a Scottish guittar duet originally published in the mid-18th century by Bremner, played on a single short-scale (alto tuned) Tacoma Papoose guitar. |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Bremner arr. J. Campin/D. Kilpatrick |
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| This is a NE Scottish ballad about the murder of William Gordon of Brackley by his wife's relative Inverey, slightly shortened and sung with small changes to make the story comprehensible to modern ears. The accompaniment is on mountain dulcimer. |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: O'er the Castle Wall
Label: MP3.com
Credits: Trad. arr David Kilpatrick July 2000 |
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| Think of all the things we've been able to do in this incredible age of the world, all the places we have been, everything we have seen together. If w'd both been born 2000 years ago this would have been a dream... |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: MP3.com
Credits: ©David Kilpatrick 1997 |
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| This is a simple 4-minute guitar instrumental based on the main air to the traditional Scottish song 'Plooman' Laddies', with only a slight reference to the chorus line, and some variations. Steel-string Lowden 0-10 guitar. |
MP3.com CD: The Emerant Lea - buy it!
CD: The Emerant Lea
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Traditional Arr & © David Kilpatrick August 2000 |
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| What does the man in the mirror - or the woman in the mirror - see, looking back at you? Is it the past, is it the future, or is it those shifting sands in between? |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: MP3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick August 2000 |
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| One of those true stories which turns itself into a song; not very well known, but a great tune and some strong images. |
MP3.com CD: O'er the Castle Wall - buy it!
CD: O'er The Castle Wall
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Trad. Arr. David Kilpatrick Sept 2000 |
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| A simple conflation of Scottish Border march themes played on an 'English guitar', circa 1770 (a cittern family instrument) |
CD: New Recordings 2001
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick March 2001 |
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| A few lines on paper. Nothing more. More eerie than faery. |
MP3.com CD: Border Tracks - buy it!
CD: Border Tracks
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick November 2000 |
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| The baglama is a tiny Greek bouzouki family instrument about the size of a large spoon. It sounds like a soprano machine gun and it's great for renaissance-celtic modal jamming. This is a little piece to help persuade other musicians to try it! |
CD: New Recordings 2001
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick April 2001 |
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| Nope, it ain't traditional: I wrote this one. But one day you'll hear someone sing it and you'll think it's been around 150 years! |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick August 2001 |
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| I wrote this song on March 14th 1996 and issued it anonymously. Five years after the event, I have recorded it here. To cover P4P earnings from this song, I've donated £25 ($40) to the Dunblane Ribbon Appeal. |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick 1996/2001 |
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| A little musical saying-sorry for anyone who forget to send that card, and would like to send this song belatedly instead... |
MP3.com CD: By Any Other Name - buy it!
CD: By Any Other Name
Label: mp3.com
Credits: © David Kilpatrick February 2001 |
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| A little ditty written for the members of the Internet rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic newsgroup last year. Well, that's what folk music is, really. Stuff which relates to society. Newsgroups are society! Placed here for the benefit of those foolish enough to wish to download it. |
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Credits: © David Kilpatrick 1999 |
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