Canada Hill

When I was writing songs and tunes for my album ‘Land Of Heroes’, I wanted to have something with a Scottish flavour and I thought to try and write an instrumental in the style of a Scottish air. I am half Scottish and most of my relatives still live there, up on the west coast where the Highlands begin and I still visit every year. To get into the mood, I imagined the view from the mountain above my grandmother’s house, looking out over the Clyde estuary to some of the islands of the inner Hebrides: to the Cumbraes, Aisa Craig, Arran and Bute; it is a beautiful view when the weather is clear, (which is not often).

On Bute there is a small hill called Canada Hill and I remember my auntie telling me that when, in the 1800’s Scottish people were emigrating, they would sail out of Glasgow and Greenock and past these islands on their way to the great sea roads to North America. Their relatives would take the ferry to Bute and climb this little hill as it was the last place to wave goodbye to the family they would probably never see again.

Here is a live video of the tune from my latest UK tour.