I met Iain and Em during a trip last november to the mists of Inverness. I stayed for a while at my good friend’s Alan Kells. In that time of the year the sun barely showed up for a few hours of shy dusky light, so I was quickly caught up in the swirl of the shiny musical night life.
Days started around 2pm and rarely ended before 3 or 4 am. Three or four pubs in Inverness have some music played live every single night, some of them even have two acts per night : sessions, open-mic nights, songwriters, bands… After a few days on this regime, you can feel the mists of Inverness.
I met Iain at the daily session in Hootenany’s where he played fiddle, guitar and sang as well. Em was hitchiking from Dublin with a cello on her back and stormed into a quiet session in McGordon’s pub and our eyes clicked together as we became instant friends.
Both of them were crazy enough to meet me in McGordon’s before noon to play some music together. We spent the whole day working on different stuff, and suddenly Iain started to sing this and we immediately decided that we would be recording it. So here it is.
This song resonates strangely with the troubled times we’re living these days.