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Mairi's Wedding
Johnny Bannerman, 1935, Scotland

One verse and chorus: .mp3 (150 K) Full song:   .mp3 (458K) "Mairi's Wedding" is performed by Wild Mountain Thyme on their album There Can Be Only One.  Please refer to Cantaria's Copyright information

Written by Johnny Bannerman for Mary McNiven by her friend Johnny Bannerman in Gaelic and first played to her at the Old Highlanders Institute in Glasgow for the Mod of 1935. (The song was translated into English by Hugh S. Roberton, a year after the Gaelic original was written.)

Article on the original Gaelic composed for Mary McNiven, in 1935: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/6338/mairbhan.html

Chorus:
Step it gaily, on we go
Heel for heel and toe for toe,
Arm in arm and row on row
All for Mairi's wedding.

Over hillways up and down
Myrtle green and bracken brown,
Past the sheiling through the town
All for sake of Mairi.

Red her cheeks as rowans are,
Bright her eye as any star,
Fairest o' them a' by far,
Is our darling Mairi.

Plenty herring, plenty meal
Plenty peat to fill her creel,
Plenty bonny bairns as weel
That's the toast for Mairi.

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