SIMON JAMES

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Cheviot Lament

"Blood on the heather

-Fire-scarred lives

Left wondering whether

An explanation arrives.

Blood on the heather

-Three generations' toil

Turned into ashes

'Neath Cheviot soil.

Blood on the heather

- A future now bleak

As the cry of the curlew

On Cheviot Peak. "

                                                                                                                                             © Fellsongs Music 2003

In 2001 I wrote this poem and tune at the Ushaw Northumbrian Piping Course. It was about the effect of Foot and Mouth Disease on rural Northumberland. 

The piece was very well received and subsequently won the Best New Tune Competition at the Rothbury Tradtional Music Festival that year.

I had always performed it in public with the Northumbrian Piper, Andy May and so I was delighted to be asked to perform it on Andy's first CD, "The Yellow Haired Laddie" which was released in January 2003 on Fellside Records. ( You can buy a copy from them! ) 

 Here we are performing it at the concert to launch Andy's CD at the Caedmon Hall in Gateshead: 

                                                                                                                     Photo: Jo Colley

Reviews:

•  " (Andy May) has plenty of his own ideas to try: sometimes they work brilliantly, as in Cheviot Lament...."  The Living Tradition ( UK )

• "A very haunting 21st century lament"  Radio National ( Australia )

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