The Yellow bittern

[helen]

I have been listening to Alistairs music all week and am struck on his version of "The Yellow Bittern" it is gorgeous. Can anyone help me with his version of playing it. and the Lyrics he uses thankyou

[johnhamill]

O An Bunan Buidhie that never broke out
In a drinking bout might as well have seen
His bones lying strewn on a naked stone
Where he lived alone like a hermit monk
O An Bunan Buidhie, I pity your lot
Though they say that a sot like myself is cursed
I was sober a while, but I will drink and be wise
For fear I may die in the end of thirst
It's not for the common bird that I mourn
The blackbird, the corncrake or the crane
But the Bunan Buidhie, that is shy and apart
And drinks from the marsh where the lone bog drains
If I had known you were near your death
While my breath held out I'd have run to you
'Til a splash in the Lake of the Son of the Bird
Your soul would have stirred back to life anew
My darling told me to drink no more
Or my life would be over in a little while
But it is the taste of the whisky that gives me health and strength
And will lengthen my road by many a mile
You see how the bird of the long smooth neck
He might catch his death from the thirst at last
So come song of my soul, and drink your glass
For you'll get no more sup when this life is past

On a wintering island I constant times recall
A bittern who calls from a wineless place
And tells me that hither he cannot come
Till the summer is here and the sunny day
When he crosses the stream there and wings over the sea
Then the thought comes to me he may fail in his flight
Now the milk and the ale they are drunk every drop
And a dram it won’t stop our thirst this night.

Alistair played this song with his guitar tuned DADEAB.

[helen]

Thank you Johnhamill for the lyrics, I had a feeling that the tuning you wrote on the bottom would be it. Alistair was a very very good songwriter as I am finding out. I remember him when he performed at the Auckland Festival, must have been about 3 or 4 years ago. I will never forget it.