Mairi's Wedding

Mairi's Wedding (also known as Marie's Wedding, the Lewis Bridal Song, or Mairi Bhan) is a Scottish folk song originally written in Gaelic by Johnny Bannerman for Mary McNiven. Written using a traditional Scottish tune, it was first played for McNiven in 1935 at the Old Highlanders Institute in Glasgow's Elmbank Street. Hugh S. Roberton translated the Gaelic version into English in 1936.

It is also a Scottish country dance, 40 bar, reel time, devised in 1959 by James B. Cosh.^[1]

Original Gaelic version

The Gaelic version begins:

"S i mo ghaol-sa Màiri Bhàn

Màiri bhòidheach sgeul mo dhàin,

Gaol mo chridh'-sa Màiri Bhàn,

S tha mi 'dol 'ga pòsadh."

The English Translation reading:

She's my darling, Fair Mary

Pretty Mary, story of my song,

Darling of my heart, Fair Mary,

And I'm going to her wedding''

Recorded versions

Mairi's Wedding has been recorded by a wide variety of musicians.

• The Alans, "The Houston Sessions"
• Alexander Brothers "Best of"
• Moira Anderson on "The Best of Scotland: Twenty Tracks of Traditional Scottish Music"
• Moira Anderson, "A Land for All Seasons"
• Bantry Bay, "Set the Sails"
• Neil Barron and His Scottish Dance Band, "The Reel Party" [1]
• Bushwhackers Band, "Dance Album"
• Van Morrison and The Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat
• The Clancy Brothers
• The Corries, "Kishmul's Galley"
• Paul Dooley "Rip the Calico"
• Teresa Doyle "If Fish Could Sing"
• The Ecclestons "The Home Fires"
• EDF (Patrick Ewen, Gérard Delahaye, Mélaine Favennec), "Kan tri" (this song is performed in French and is untitled "La noce à Marie")
• Fiddler's Green, "Drive Me Mad!"
• The Foggy Few "Pint of No Return" [2] - a Norwegian folk-rock band
• Estonian folk group Folkmill, on "Topelt Rosin," 1998.
• Clive Gregson used the same tune for a song called "Mairi's Divorce" on his album "People and Places"
• The High Kings, "The High Kings"
• Noel Hill, "The Irish Concertina Two"
• Christy Hodder "Celtic Energy" [3]
• The King's Singers, "Annie Laurie: Folk Songs of the British Isles"
• The King's Singers, "Mairi's Wedding"
• David Kinnaird, "Mairi's Wedding"
• John Martyn, "Sunday's Child, part of the message"
• Kenneth McKellar on "Wild Conserves"
• Orthodox Celts, "Green Roses"
• The Rankin Family taking it to number one in Canada. From the album The Rankin Family, 1989.
• Rapalje, "Rakish Paddies"
• Anne Roos, on "Haste to the Wedding" [4], an album of Celtic harp wedding music
• Alan Stivell, "Brian Boru"
• Andy Stewart "Donald, Where's Your Troosers?"
• Richard Thompson, as an instrumental to "Nobody's Wedding" on Henry the Human Fly
• Trasna Ceilidh Band, "Trasna Ceilidh Band"
• Waking Maggie, "Hit the Bricks"
• The Wiggles, "Hoop Dee Doo"
• Robert Wilson, "The Voice of Scotland"
• The Rumjacks, "Sound As A Pound"

Use in Movies

Jim Corr wrote two additional verses for the movie 'Passed Away'. They are the only ones heard clearly in the movie. The song also appears in the deleted scenes of the 3-disc special edition DVD of Peter Jackson's 2005 version of "King Kong." It is heard while Naomi Watts and Jamie Bell are dancing on the deck of the tramp steamer 'Venture' as it steams toward Skull Island. The song is not heard in the movie itself, however, so it is not clear whether its presence on the DVD is the result of Kong score composer James Newton Howard, who replaced Howard Shore, Shore himself, or the producer of the DVD.

External links

• Cantaria
• Standing Stones
• Mudcat Cafe message board threads
• Video with Johh Shand playing and dancing

References

1. ^ http://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/4102/