The McCalmans   •     No Strings Attached

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  • No Strings Attached
    • 1971 - RCA International INTS 1340 LP (UK)
  • Side One
    1. The Women Are A' Gone Wud
    2. The Weaving Song
    3. A Carrion Crow
    4. A Kangaroo
    5. Rise and Follow Charlie
    6. The Chief's return From War
  • Side Two
    1. Windmills (Alan Bell)
    2. The Tailor
    3. Busk, Busk Far Fairer She
    4. The Execution of Montrose
    5. Veronica (Hoydel, Vreeswijk, McCalman)
  • The McCalmans
    • Derek Moffat: vocals, guitar
    • Ian McCalman: vocals, guitar
    • Hamish Bayne: vocals, mandolin, whistle, concertina, organ
  • Musicians
    • Rick Nickerson: bass guitar
  • Credits
    • Producer: Pete Kerr
    • Recorded Edinburgh. August, 1971
    • Cover Picture: Ian McCalman
    • All Trad. Arr. The McCalmans, unless otherwise noted

Sleeve Notes

Most of the extreme superlatives are found on the backs of album covers. I don't want to fall into the superlatives trap, but I'd like to suggest that this, our fourth and best L.P., is on the right side of mediocre.

  • The Group:
    • Derek Moffat (middle cover and right stereo) sings and plays guitar a bit.
    • Ian McCalman (left cover and left stereo) sings and plays guitar a bit.
    • Hamish Bayne (right cover and centre stereo) plays mandolin, whistle, concertina and organ…and sings a bit.
  • Material:
    • It's 90% Scottish Traditional, gleaned from unsuspectingm libraries and "second-hand" bookshops.
    • Thanks are due to Sarah Grey for supplying the words to "A Kangaroo" which is the Ontario version of "A Carrion Crow".
    • Thanks too to Alan Bell of "The Blackpool Taverners" for allowing us to attempt his song, "Windmills".
  • Session Men:
    • As this is an "all our own work" album, we have only one extra musician to thank.
    • This one "extra" came in the incredible shape of Rick Nickerson of "Rankin File", who played a sympathetic bass guitar on most of the songs.
    • Just try to spot his deliberate mistake on the song that has more than three chords!
  • Survivors:
    • The list of survivors includes: —
      1. Pete Kerr, by whom we were produced. — He must be a very proud man?!
      2. Robert Sibbald, the knobs man. — Well knobbed, Rob.
      3. Me.

That just about concludes the notes, so to borrow loosely from the best "superlative" sleeve notes, — light up a cigarette, roll back the carpet, turn the lights down low, open a bottle of wine, rest your feet on the ceiling, take your teeth out…and fall asleep. But have the common sense to keep the volume high, because your neighbours may like us better than you do.

Ian McCalman.