A Tune for Rowan

I wrote this tune in memory of Miss Rowan Matheson some 21 years ago, when I was in my early twenties. She was not long in this world before being called to the endless light of Heaven. I'd been giving her dad accordion lessons back in the day, so I knew the family. I gave the manuscript to her parents. It seemed right.

I never recorded it until recently. I'd just bought a Tascam Model 12 - a physical device with knobs and faders and a multitrack section. I know most people record on a computer now. I still like a real recorder. Everyone knows a serious recording person needs faders.

I recorded the lead accordion on my late father's vintage Ranco Supervox from the 1950s, in a simple waltz style, then added a shaker. Now, cool hipster singer-guitarists will naturally give a shaker a big yes (don't let them near a cajón - they go crazy for cajón), but Scottish accordionists generally don't. As I like to do my own thing, I'm okay with a shaker. And I'll tell you another thing I'm okay with - the Suzuki keyboard-flute. It's so good for that otherworldly Celtic sound.

My wife, Mrs Walker, added the good-old American sound with her bass line on a Fender Jazz Bass. Then we winged the tracks off to Kyle in Virginia for piano. True story: I had never heard any of Kyle's music when I asked him to play. I just figured everyone in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia must be a fine musician. It seemed right. Turns out I was vindicated.

The harmony accordion part went to Jerry PH in Montreal. Here's the thing - I'd been arranging the parts for a long time and just couldn't get that harmony accordion line to work. I'd given up. Then one afternoon I picked up my pen and just knew what to write. The part turned out so well. Of course Jerry is a very fine box player. I never had a second of doubt.

Jerry mixed and mastered the whole thing. It was good.

I sent it off to Celtic Music Radio in Glasgow, who broadcast it quickly. The presenter spoke kind words. We were all thrilled. It was a bit crazy hearing our own tune come out of the radio.

The tune reminded me of the old folk tales of the Highlands - Tír na nÓg, the Land of Eternal Youth. That otherworldly place where no one grows old, falls sick, or dies. Oisín went there on the back of Niamh's white horse and stayed three hundred years that felt like three. When he finally came back and his foot touched Irish soil, he aged a thousand years in a heartbeat.

Funny that little Suzuki really added the Tír na nÓg vibe - that high, whistling breeze that carries you somewhere you can almost see but never quite reach.

Here's 'Miss Rowan Matheson' on Bandcamp by The Sound of Stewart Walker & Friends.