Comin’ thro the rye (Robert Burns)
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If you’ve come across this web site by accident, please stay for a bit. If you’ve never heard the songs of Robert Burns, take time to have a wee listen. If you think the poems and songs of Burns are old and not relevant anymore, read the little quote from Burns’ ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ below.
You won’t be disappointed...
‘As the band Borealis we specialise in creating and performing our own arrangements and interpretations of the songs of Robert Burns.
We have no Scottish ‘traditional’ music skills whatsoever...NONE! (we don’t know our fiddles from our clàrsachs!) so we can’t transport you back in an ‘authentic’ sense to how the Burns songs would be performed originally and, to be honest, we don’t really want to.
Instead, we draw upon our own music backgrounds and move the songs into the 21st century to present them in an idiom that we, as a band are familiar with. Hence a mixture of jazz, classical, folk and blues.
However, we make every effort to ensure that none of the subtlety of the universal insight and meaning found in the songs and traditional melodies of Burns’ songs is lost.
We think the songs ‘travel well’ ...as all the best songs do.’
Borealis don’t play Burns in the ‘traditional’ sense (whatever that is!) and in doing so are able to sit the songs of Burns into a completely mixed repertoire of popular song across ‘genres’ as it were. Proof of the universality of the best song writers.
One of the problems for newcomers to the writing of Robert Burns is the language barrier and sometimes an understanding of the Scots language is key to understanding some of the subtleties in his song/poems. But you’ll find many web sites which will help you with this. There are a couple of guides to Burns songs on this site which may be helpful. Here’s a good place to start...
This song is best heard in context as it’s more a musical parody on the song’s own
‘Scottishness’. A light-hearted look at the song about the ‘Bard’ by the ‘Bard’:
musically the arrangement cycles through the many ‘faces’ of Robert Burns with hints
of a ceilidh , vaudeville, a slightly raunchy blues
(and even a wee bit about his thoughts of going to Jamaica!) Download from iTunes to hear the whole song.
The band members live in and around the village of Mauchline in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Robert Burns lived in Mauchline for part of his life.
‘We hope the music of Borealis can
provide even just a passing moment
of joy, contentment, amusement or contemplation ...’ Borealis
The Burns connection
The Burns connection
‘But pleasures are like poppies spread:
You seize the flow'r, it's bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white-then melts for ever;
Or like
the Borealis, race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's
lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm.’
Or like the Borealis, race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm.’
Extract from ‘Tam o’ Shanter
by Robert Burns
