The Skye Boat Song (John McDermott - Canadian Tenor)

Video from John McDermott's live DVD "A Time to Remember" (2002). This ballad is a folk song about the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which ended the Jacobite Uprising and in effect, ended the Scottish clan system and outlawed the wearing o' the kilt. Do a Google or Wiki search for "Culloden". The Jacobites were trying to restore the Stewart family ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") to the English throne, but were severely beaten by the English and their muskets and cannon. The studio (not live) version of this song is also on the CD of the same title (also released in 2002). Both versions omit the first and last verses of the song:

"Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air.
Baffled, our foes, stand by the shore-
Follow they will not dare."

"Burned are their homes, exile and death,
Scatter the loyal men.
Yet e'er the sword, cool in the sheath-
Charlie will come again."

To view this video in a high quality mode (for those with computers capable of displaying it), just click on the blue text "watch in high quality" that appears beneath the "views" counter. The video quality is dramatically better! I hope you will agree.

"JOHN CHARLES McDERMOTT is a Canadian tenor best known for his rendition of "Danny Boy." Born the ninth of twelve children to Irish parents in Glasgow Scotland in 1955, John and his family moved to Canada in 1965. Growing up in a musical family, his only formal musical training was at St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto, Ontario in 1971 and 1972."