BBC Radio Ulster: A Kist o Chunes 19.05.07, RPT 23.05.07

This week Jackie Morrison opens up a kist full of tunes from here and Scotland. In a programme packed full of historical references, Jackie plays not one, but two songs by Burns, the first the tale o a gye tovey lass that was hard for Duncan Gray to woo; the other a special recording for 'Kist' of 'There was a Lad..', something of the bard's autobiography in song. Long before Francis McPeake sang 'Will ye go, lassie, go?', Robert Tannahill was writing in similar fashion of 'The Braes o Balquhidder', and Jackie plays this song from a new CD of Tannahill's work. W F Marshall's tribute to Ulster pioneers making America is featured; the plight of 'white slaves' in Virginia is recalled, as is that of the poor Ulster weavers, put to music in a poem by Thomas Given of Cullybackey.       

'A Kist o Chunes' with Jackie Morrison is on BBC Radio Ulster on Saturday May 19th at 7pm, and there's another chance to hear the programme at 7.30pm on Wednesday May 23rd, or you can listen on-line for seven days using Radio Ulster's 'Listen Again' facility.