the lach tay boat song... traditional

"Lach Tay Boat Song" as recorded by the Scottish band Silly Wizard on their album Kiss the Tears Away and later adapted by will oldham and re-named ohio river boat song:

When I've done the work of day, and I row my boat away
Down the waters of Loch Tay as the evening sun is sinking,
Then I look toward Ben Lawers, where the after glories glow
And I dream on two bright eyes with a merry mouth below.
She's my beauteous nighean ruadh, she's my joy and sorrow too;
Though I own she is not true, ah, but I cannot live without her.
For my heart's a boat in tow, and I'd give the world to know
If she means to let me go, as I sing hori horo.

Nighean ruadh, your lovely hair has more beauty I declare
Than all the tresses fair from Killin to Aberfeldy.
Be they lint-white, gold, or brown, be they blacker than the sloe,
They mean not as much to me as a melting flake of snow.
And her dance is like the gleam of the sunlight on the stream
And the songs the wee folk sing, they're the songs she sings at milking.
But my heart is full of woe, for last night she bade me go,
And the tears begin to flow, as I sing hori horo.

[The Gaelic words "nighean ruadh" mean "red-haired girl"; "hori horo" are used by the Scots to indicate sorrow. Ben Lawers is a hill to the north of Loch Tay; Killin and Aberfeldy are towns on the east and west ends of the lake.]

from the Digital Tradition folksong database, now residing at http://www.deltablues.com/dbsearch.html

there are 4 versions of the Loch Tay Riverboat Song available in britain and i guess the rest of the world too:

Silly Wizzard
from the lp: 'Kiss the Tears Away' Highway SHY 7025 (lp), SHC 7025 (cass) issued november 1983

Crooked Jack
from the lp: 'Tomorrow Must Wait' Lismor LCOM 5224 (cd & cassette) issued january 1994

Meg Davis
from the lp: 'The Claddagh Walk' Lismor LCOM 9030 (cd), LILP 3005 (lp), LRIC 3005 (cass) issued november 1990

Gaelforce Orchestra
from the lp: 'Scotland Forever' Lismor LILP 5179 (lp), LICS 5179 (cass) issued 1990?

a band called The Corries may have recorded it, but if so their version hasn't been re-issued and could well now be lost in the midsts of time.


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