CALEDONIA

Our friend, Willie, is back from the Jura Music Festival. He sails there from Ardfern and drops his anchor for the weekend taking his fiddle ashore for the sessions in the Jura Hotel or village hall.

He mentioned that he met Dougie MacLean who was over for the festival. Now there is a blast from the past! I have never met Dougie MacLean but admire him as being a fine musician.

This song of his, "Caledonia", is still sung a lot; it's a real classic.

Hearing that song again after so many years reminds me of a conversation I had with a young gal on the Greyhound bus in Canada about 20 years ago. I was traveling west from Calgary (having just landed from the UK) and about 4 hours later we stopped in Sicamous at the bus station. This 12 year old girl got on with her pillow and settled down for her trip to Vancouver. As I was getting off at the next stop I had a short chat: "What's your name?" "Caledonia." "Oh really! That's a lovely name for a girl" sez I. "How did you come to be given that name?" "It was the name of my grandparents' farm in Ontario" sez she. "Do you know what it means?" sez I. "No...."! So I told her it was the old name for Scotland. (Actually I see that it is Latin, i.e. the Roman name for Scotland.)

This song turns up from time to time; here it is in this TV advert - good ol' Tennant's lager - and, again, a favourite advert of mine (not sure how long ago...). Whoever made this advert really got the right "feel" ... just watch this guy leaving his office ...