“Gathering mussels at full tide, She broke her leg and cut her hand,
She drank and drank seawater.”
An ancient rowing song from the Scottish Highlands and Islands, translating to “Row Lightly”. While it's main use lay in keeping the pace of a rowing crew (and later for the process of ‘waulking’), it also tells a cautionary tale about a dairymaid who goes collecting mussels at high tide.
lyrics
Lyrics (Gaelic):
Iomairibh eutrom ho ro,
Huraibh o na hoireanan,
Iomairibh eutrom ho ro,
Chaidh a' bhanarach dhan tràigh,
Dèanamh rud nach dèanadh càch,
Bhuain a' mhaoraich ri muir làn,
Bhrist i cas is gheàrr i làmh,
Dheoghail 's gun dheoghail i sàl,
Lyrics (English):
Row lightly ho ro,
Huraibh o na hoireanan,
Row lightly ho ro,
The dairymaid went to the beach,
She did something others wouldn't ,
Gathering mussels at full tide,
She broke her leg and cut her hand,
She drank and drank seawater.
credits
from Bard and Skald,
released August 1, 2021
Original Composition - An Tuagh (2021)
Gaelynn Lea won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest, and it's easy to see why. Haunting, beautiful country songs, laced up with weeping fiddle lines. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 3, 2016
Krautrock meets ambient in the full-length from Youth Team, a lone producer twiddling knobs in one of Scotland's most remote locales. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 5, 2021