Music on My Mind

Karen Matheson, "Ailein Duinn". I'm fairly sure I've put this one up before, but it is my favorite version of one of my favorite songs.

The song itself, "Dark Alan", goes back to the eighteenth century. Like a lot of Scottish folk songs from that period, it is about the sea. Alan was a sailor and was lost in a storm, and the song is from the perspective of his bride, who has lost her will to live. "Ailein Duinn, ò hì shiubhlainn leat" in the chorus means something like, "Dark Alan, oh, I will walk/travel with you"; but the word 'siubhail' can also have the figurative meaning of dying.