Chords for A St Andrew's Party with Phil & Aly

[N] _ _ [G#] Ladies and gentlemen, [D#] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
please welcome_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D#] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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[Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Lovely [F#] to see you here again, _ [A]
celebrating St Andrew's Night.
We love [G] that walk-on music. _
We've both [A] actually had that tune recorded and installed _ [G#] in the kitchen
so that when we open the fridge the lights go on, _ [B] that plays.
_ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [G#] _ A lot of people throughout [F#] time, _ [A] classical [F#] composers,
who have used folk music as the [F] basis for their [G#] compositions.
[D] So it's not a new [G] thing, putting folk music [F] and orchestral [F#] music together.
_ [A] But the atmosphere [G] that we like to _ [F#]
create at the show
is [G] one where we keep the [F#] informality of an Ali Bain and Phil Cunningham show.
We keep that informality with [F] the formality of an orchestral [C] performance.
And everybody loosens [F#] up a little bit, including the audience.
[A] And [F] we like to play tunes with strong [G] melodies
and we're very lucky to have access to good orchestrators. _
John Logan, the conductor, he does some of the [F#] orchestration.
I have a guy, John [G] Ashton Thomas, down in London, that's my friend.
He does great orchestrations.
And people who are sympathetic to the music,
so they hear _ _ the essence of the piece.
And it can be a jig or a reel, it doesn't [G#] matter.
They find what the soul [A] of that piece is
and [G] they _ send that to the orchestra [C] on paper.
[Bm] And then we shut our [G] eyes and we go and hope for the best.
[A] It's a [G] big, _ unwieldy thing.
[D] _ Sometimes it's [G] very hard to [C] control.
_ [G] Well, it's [B] John Logan's job [G] trying to hold on to the reins [A] of it.
But _ over [F#m] time we've all gotten [G] used to [F] each other
and the way [G] that we know what the orchestras are able to [Gm] do
and they know what we are able to do.
I quite [G] like watching the orchestras' faces sometimes
when we just change things without having any dots in front of us.
It's just, can you just play that?
And somebody goes, [Am]
yes.
And we make it up on the go.
[A] There's that kind of structure.
But when the [G] orchestras are so structured,
_ you can float a little [Em] bit inside it.
I think it's [A] exciting for the audience [G] to [Am] see that.
_ _ It's really an opportunity [C] for us, the [Am] traditional musicians, _
[G] to [C] work with an orchestra.
[G] _ And [Em] this is something that's happened over the [C] years _ [G] on occasions,
especially on St Andrew's Night and [Am] nights like that,
Father's Night and so on.
[Em] _ And [C] _ _ although [G] the _ _ _ musics are very different,
[Bm] they're also very similar.
And [G] _ _ _ _ [A] it's just great fun because [C] our music lends [G] itself to orchestras.
Traditional Scottish music, _ of course the songs [Am] do
and that's been done for many [G] years,
but instrumental music is slightly different.
[Bm] Orchestras play it slightly different.
[C] So it's a kind of a [D] fun _ _ [Am] compromise between us both
that we hope [Em] people will enjoy.
What St Andrew's Day does [D] for me though,
I think we've moved on quite a lot. _
And whenever [Am] the word Scottish music,
we had [G] this sort of thing of, _ dare I say [C] it,
a singing shop, [G] Red Tent and mountains, _ [C] roaming and gloaming
and [Bm] all that sort of stuff.
[C] But it's gone [G] so far in a contemporary [A] _
way [D] now
that this St Andrew's concert that you're about [G] to hear,
I think puts [D] just about [G] everything that Scotland's got to be [A] proud of.
You have a National [G] Symphony Orchestra of fantastic musicians,
you have the best folk [A] musicians
and they're coming together to create this [D] new music,
which [A] a lot of the time it's not just something that's been,
_ [Bm] I don't want to name [F#m] too many pieces,
but something like a Scotland the [G] Brave or something of that [A] idiom
and it's just an orchestral accompaniment that [F#m] somebody's singing.
[D] It's a bit _ more than that.
You'll notice [A] we've got the folk musicians [Bm] that are out at the front
[D] and _ _ _ they're starting to [A] do things now that are not necessarily just playing a top line.
_ They're doing things like putting harmonies in and doing,
so you can imagine this fusion [D] that's coming together [A] is absolutely wonderful.
But this St Andrew's Day, _ we do have the rules and jigs,
we have the bits at the end where the audience [E] are clapping,
[G] we've got all lines [A] signed, we've got that [D] flavour as well.
But really _ [A] there is a bit more of a serious nature
that the [D] folk _ idiom in [A] Scotland is very [D] serious.
_ [A] Although it's a different thing that mainly works out
in _ little folk [Bm] clubs [E] _
and [F#m] pubs and sessions and stuff like [D] that,
now it really [A] is on the _ [E] map.
We've got Celtic [F#m] Connections here, for example,
and [Bm] the amount of fusion that's actually going on is [D] fantastic.
And I just think that the St Andrew's [G#] really is a platform
that [A] portrays the best of what Scotland's got to have, got to give.
_ _ _ [N] _ _ [B] _ _ _
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