Deirdre Campbell-Shaw

Deirdre Campbell-Shaw grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland.At the age of four it was her dream to go on the stage and make music. After leaving school she studied music, languages and marketing in Aberdeen and Edinburgh and won scholarships to study singing with Neil Mackie(Royal College of Music) and to spend periods of study in Germany, Russia and Italy. After graduating from university, she moved to Germany. Deirdrie worked in education and industry for a few years before discovering the celtic harp. She then decided it was time to fulfil her childhood dream of making music professionally. Now she travels around Europe performing music from Celtic countries. She sings and plays the clarsach(celtic harp) and encourages people to live their dreams.

"Ae Fond Kiss" is Deirdre's third CD after "Deirdre Campbell-Shaw sings Robert Burns" (1997 - songs accompanied by the piano and violin) and "My Heart's in the Highlands" (2003 - harp and song)

The Songs

01.  Ae Fond Kiss - trad/lyrics: Robert Burns (1759-1796)
This is a famous song by Scotland's national poet which I had never sung until a year or so before making this CD. My then boyfriend Rolf, now my husband, and I went to see a Scottish film with the same name at our local cinema in Germany. Rolf fell in love with the song and asked me to arrange it. Burns wrote this for Clarinda, an Edinburgh lady with whom he was in love. She was married and they had only a platonic relationship, apparently. The song tells of one fond kiss before separating forever.

02.  Cockles and Mussels - Melody & Lyrics :James Yorkston, a Scotsman (1884)
This is a well-known song about an Irish fishmonger, Molly Malone, who sold cockles and mussels on the streets of Dublin. "She died of a fever but no-one could save her" but they say her ghost still cries "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh". There is a statue in the centre of Dublin to commemorate her.

03.  Eriskay Love Lilt -trad
This traditional melody from the island of Eriskay in the Hebrides is usually sung but I arranged it for the harp for my wedding, where a friend, Christel Ballman played it.

04.  Oh My Love -  Deirdrie Campbell-Shaw
In  1987 I went on a German language course in the GDR,(East Germany). This was a couple of years before the Berlin Wall came down.I wrote this song expressing the hoplessness of my love towards an Italian I had just met. A future together would have been impossible. One of the language course supervisors in Leipzig was Dietmar Kreissl, who turned out to be a very good guitarist. We ended up performing this song together with another musician, Ulrike, during the language course. In the course of time I completely forgot about this song until a reunion with Dietmar in Dresden in 2004. Dietmar sent me a copy by e-mail and soon after I asked him to accompany me on the guitar for this CD. Thanks so much Dietmar!   

05. The Lark in the Clear Air - trad Irish/ Lyrics :Sir Samuel Fergusson 1850
This was a melody I heard as a child but never sung. I arranged it for a performance at the Charlemange Prizegiving (Karlspreis) in Achen, Germany. This prize is awarded annually to someone who has made a contribution to European integration. In 2004 it was awarded to Pat Cox, the then President of the European Parliament. He is Irish and I was asked to perform. The song is about a young man who is in love and plans to tell the young lady the next day how much he loves her. He thinks she is fond of him too but he's not quite sure.

06.  O Whistle and I'll Come tae ye my Lad - trad Scot/Lyrics Robert Burns.
A lassie (Scots for girl) has fallen in love with a laddie(Scots for boy). Unfortunately her parents don't approve of him. The girl tells him that he can visit her when the back gate is open. That is a sign that her parents are not at home. He should give her a wink when he sees her at church or at the market-but nobody should notice! And he certainly shouldn't go out with other lassies, even if it's not serious. He might start liking one of them more than he likes her!

07.  Deirdre's Farewell to Scotland - trad Scottish Gaelic
Someone told me about this song many years ago but I didn't come across it again until I was ar Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Hebridean island of Skye to learn some Gaelic. Someone sang this one evening and I wrote down the words and the melody.
The song's Gaelic title is Deirdre a'Fagail na h-Albann.

08.  When I did See You - Deirdre Campbell-Shaw
This is another of the love songs I wrote after falling in love. The man concerned was married and although there was a meeting of souls we knew it would be wrong to start a relationship. He suggested I write a song to express my feelings and this is the result. We only saw each other once again very briefly after the course where we had met. He has never heard this song.

09.  Morfa'r Frenhines (The Queen's Marsh) -trad. Welsh

10.  The Lea Rig - trad scottish/Lyrics:Robert Burns
In this song, a young man says to his beloved, or deary, that he will walk a long way to meet her on the Lea rig(a strip of grass in a ploughed field) even if it is late at night, the weather is bad and he is really tired.

11. Oh, You Are the One - Deirdre Campbell-Shaw
As has hapened a few times in my life, I wrote this song after being disappointed in love. This song is unusual in that I wrote the melody and the text a few months apart. The melody came to me after falling in love with a Scotsman and I considered returning to Scotland after 10 years in Germany. However, the guy turned out to be a bit eccentric. I was rather confused about this strange encounter and couldn't quite fathom what the problem was. I decided to finish things after a few months and only then did the text come into my mind. It expresses my confusion about the whole thing.

12.  Caislean an Oir Melody - Junior Crehan (1908-98)
A lively little Irish tune which took my fancy!

13.  Ye Banks and Braes - trad Scottish/Lyrics : Robert Burns
Robert Burns(1759-1796), Scotland's national poet, wrote this poem and set it to a traditional melody, The Caledonian Hunt's Delight. The words are often sung to another melody but I prefer this one. A young lass has been taken advantage of by a young lad and he has left her in the lurch. She asks the flowers how they can bloom so beautifully and the birds how they can sing so happily while she is so unhappy and alone.

14.  Suilean Dubh - Scottish Gaelic.
This is the first Gaelic song I ever learned. I was 17 at the time and a native Gaelic speaker who worked at the school I went to helped me with the pronunciation. The title, Suilean Dubh, means dark eyes. A young lass says she won't go out to the ceilidh (an evening of music and dance) as she is waiting for her beloved with the lovely dark eyes to return.

15.  Casey's Hornpipe - trad Irish, arr Christoph Pampuch
A traditional Irish melody arranged for the harp by my first harp teacher in Germany, Christoph Pampuch.

16.  Crodh Laoigh nam Bodach - trad Scottish Gaelic.
In 2003 I played this beautiful Gaelic song for a competition, singing with self accompaniment on the clarsach (Gaelic for harp) at the Royal National Mod in Oban, Scotland. The Mod is an annual festival of Gaelic culture which takes place in a different Scottish town every year. I won the competition and have since sung this song at many concerts, including guest appearances I was invited to perform at with members of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005 in Worms, Worth am Main and the Munich Philharmonic Hall.

17.  Jock O' Hazledean - trad Scottish ballad/ Lyrics: Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
In this song a young lady falls in love with a man from a lower social class, Jack O' Hazledean. It would be socially unacceptable for them to marry. A local lord suggests she marry his son, who is also a lord and a fine fighter in battle. The wedding is organised and the priest, bridegroom, knights and ladies are waiting in the church. However, the young lady is nowhere to be found. She is away over the border with Jack O'Hazledean!

18.  Down by the Salley Gardens - trad Irish/Lyrics: WB Yeats
This was the song I sang at my very first singing lesson with the late Patrick Criswell at school in Edinburgh. I've loved the song ever since and so arranged it for the harp. A young man was told by a young woman he shouldn't take love so seriously. He didn't take her advice and now he is " full of tears".

19.  Chi mi na Mor-bheanna - trad Gealic/ Lyrics: John Cameron
I heard this song at a ceilidh (an evening of music and dance) while doing a Gaelic course on the Island of Skye, in the Hebridies. It was sung by one of the language groups who had learned it in class. I recognised the melody but didn't know what it was called. I asked the teacher if he would teach me the song. The teacher, Ross Crichton, gladly taught me it. He said he looked forward to hearing my arrangement of the song for the harp sometime. Ross and I kept in touch and a couple of years later, after being ordained, Ross officiated at my wedding! He even sang a Gaelic blessing during the ceremony.

20.  Butterfly - trad Irish arr. Christoph Pampuch.

21.  Star of the County Down - Trad Irish
This is another Irish song I learned for my performance at the Charlemagne Prize in 2004 (See " The Lark in the Clear Air") . A young man falls in love with a beautifulcolleen, or young lady, he sees in the County Down. He finds out who she is and thinks up ways of getting her attention. He won't plough his field again until she is his bride!

22.  The Spirit of Islay - Deirdrie Campbell- Shaw
A few years ago while singing at a whisky tasting in Hanover, Germany, I met Jim McEwan from Bruichaddich distillery on the Hebridean Island of Islay. Jim invited me to come to Islay to sing and stay at the distillery for a few days. This I did and while there, discovered that my uncle had been a student minister with the Church of Scotland on Islay in the early 1950's. This, along with the beautiful countryside, inspired me to write a song about the island.

All harp arrangements are by Deirdrie Campbell - Shaw unless otherwise stated