alba

long has it been since i've written here.

so what inspires my return? one word. scotland.

i am recently come home from the land of my ancestors. weary but inspired.

hard to believe it took me so long to get there. 

grateful for the situation that took me there. a tour with 2 bus loads of fans with my band mates dalbo and drewski and our favorite band to jam and hang with - albannach. 

an intense, jam packed week. 
grateful too for drewski's wonderful folks, william and karen, who kept the bronach caravan rolling with nary a bump in the road ...

amazed at how easy a time we had. how respectful everyone was to all the band members. i know we were all a little nervous as to how it would go. seeing people at shows is one thing. living with them for a week on the road is another. i'm happy to say it was a great group of people and i hope everyone's memories of the time are as pleasing as mine. i truly enjoyed getting to know many of our bronachers, hearing their stories and thoughts on the tour. 

this land is overflowing with fascinating history and i felt privileged to have albannach's jamesie as our tour guide and often my own personal historian. he drew me into the magic of the land even more with his words and his passion.

highlights? the far flung places like iona, the isle of the kings. jamesie had mentioned we could get any kind of weather but to pray for a still clear day. and that we had. bright blue skies. and topaz colored water surrounding. 

                                     
here lie buried the kings of old. alexander, malcolm, macbeth. it's history and importance dates back to the ancient pictish kings. a place that has always been recognized as magical and powerful. st columbus built the original iona abbey here in 536 and it remains a place of worship today. my brother hamish asked me "is it the knowledge of momentous events that have taken place there do you think, or is there something truly special to the place itself?" i would say both are true, and one enhances the other. certain places are simply powerful. there is an energy and a peace on this isle that cannot be put into words. a very different land, but often in scotland i was reminded of the peace and mystery of remote australia ...

the stunning desolation and remoteness of mull. the ferry ride from oban to mull and then to iona. the weather held until we were about to leave mull, when an impressive hail storm had us ducking for cover.

later that evening as we drove to glencoe the rain came. before us a double rainbow formed and we drove right underneath it as we came upon glencoe, a place of sorrow and great beauty. quite the contrast. site of the infamous glencoe massacre.

we even had a flurry of snow as we pulled into the inn at glencoe for our first show of the tour. 
four seasons in one day ...

the dark ruined castle that was the campbell clan stronghold, surrounded by water and a long sweeping approach of marshy ground, mountains all round. this was on the first day. it was quite impressive seeing our tribe of people strung out, winding their way up to the dark walls of the castle. jamesie had strode out ahead to make sure the approach wasn't too swampy. every step of the way my interest and passion was fueled by this man's knowledge and love for his country ... 

 

the drive along beautiful loch lomond with jamesie's running history of the infamous rob roy as i struggled to keep my eyes open after three flights and almost no sleep for two days. my horse growing up was called rob roy. he was quite the beast too ...

sunset on oban harbor. i've seen quite a few amazing photos of this evening, all of them postcard material. the drive from oban to glencoe was stunning. jamesie regaled us with some clan cameron history along the way, and again, my feelings of connection to this land grew. the only dampener on my romanticized vision was talk of the little biting 'mites' that feast upon the unprepared in the summer. cheeky little buggers ...

the imposing grandeur of stirling and edinburgh castles. the haunting beauty of the ruined abbeys. 

bannockburn, site of king robert the bruce's defeat of the english. here, on a cold and windy morning, jamesie spoke to us all for a good fifteen minutes off the top of his head about the bruce ...


the exquisite detail and mystery of roslyn chapel. jamesie and i like two school boys snapping our illicit shots when the staff weren't looking ...

the flowing beauty of the lowlands, home of scotland's most famous writer and champion of his country's history, sir walter scott ...

regrets? not taking more photos. a well deserved spanking from my wife for this. consolation knowing so many others have so many great shots. this country is overflowing with riveting history and breathtaking scenery. we saw so much yet there is so much more ...

the only time i felt a degree of unease was visiting the massive floors castle, home of the duke of roxburghe and his family. every room full of impressive treasures and antiques from down the ages, including a room full of stuffed dead birds from around the world and an eerie collection of costumed manequins. this one man commands an incredibly large estate close to the english border, including his own private three miles of the tweed river, a golf course and hotel. he employs a vast number of people, including some two hundred tenant farmers. it all felt incredibly feudal to me. the magnanimous lord of the land, what what?


final day of the tour was my birthday. apart from home with my family, i couldn't think of a better place to be. much celebration ensued, especially with william's birthday being the next day. my father's also.
albannach presented me with a traditional pewter drinking cup, called a "quaich", engraved with the words ...
BRONACH 2012
A Cameron Came Home
suffice to say i was quite touched. planning to christen it next year in the highlands with my father, another cameron long overdue for a visit ...

before the lads and i flew home we had ourselves a day and a half in the studio with albannach. six songs recorded. quite the marathon. and what an enjoyable experience. 

i found myself feeling quite proud of everyone, working so quickly. one or two takes to get everything down. no egos, just pleasure in each others' performances. 
and much hilarity. 

i find myself laughing a lot in their company, one of the reasons i keep coming back for more. the more we laugh the better we feel, do we not? it's amazing to work that hard when you've had very little sleep, fueled by the high of the journey we just took together. jamesie and i decided this project should be built around what we have been playing together live and be a mix of our two cultures, a blending of the tribes as it were. we've still plenty of work to do - some more tracks to record, mixing and comparing notes across the miles, cd artwork and planning - but the heart of the project is there and beating, awaiting release. 

all i can say is, how celtic and tribal can you get?

speaking of tribal my beard is getting quite long. i must say i felt quite at home in the highlands ...

so much history and beauty in such a small country. but it doesn't seem small. it feels vast and mighty, a land to lose yourself in. a land to return to ...

angus