Charlotte's Stories
Songs for a Scottish Sabbath

My mother was a Scot, descended from the Highland McIntosh, but born a Thomas and equally proud of that part of her that brought into her heritage "the Welsh folk" from Llanelli, Haverfordwest, and Pembroke. My grandmother shut out as much English as possible from our lives, even reminding us that the Thomas's came from the Welsh, and not the English, part of Wales.

Even though my mother lived in the United States for about 20 years until her death in Arizona in October, 2002, she always remained a Dundee lass. Her accent and her pride in her Top of the Hill birthplace and life in her Dundee birthplace were a constant reminder of her identity as a stranger in a foreign land. My family and I are taking her home in a few weeks to rest her remains among our family - her brother, her grandfather, and a baby cousin - in the family lair in Dundee's Eastern Cemetery, a place she took me as a child and young girl on many Sunday afternoons to remember and honour our dead.

This music is for my mother, and for me, and for my children, and for you to enjoy, perhaps on some Scottish Sabbath, and to remember that the King of Love is truly our Shepherd and that the Scottish soul is blessed indeed when union is complete with our ain folk.

Mackintosh's Lament: pibroch air (Donald MacDonald, fiddle) Music, Glasgow & Mackintosh)
Cornet Carrillon (R. Binge) Amazing Grace, Royal Scots Dragood Guards
Amazing Grace (Arr: S. Fairbairn)
Scotland The Brave (Arr: Herbert)
Garb of Old Gaul (Reid, Arr: Hartman)/Men of Harlech (Arr: Herbert)
The Back of enachie (Arr:Herbert)/Bonnie Dundee (Arr:Herbert)
Going Home (Arr: Herbert)
Abide With Me (Arr:Herbert
The King of Love My Shepherd Is (A Tribute to Diana)
Pachelbel: Canon in D,
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace (The Boatrights, Be Thou My Vision: A Celtic Praise)
Be Thou My Vision, ibid Come Ye to Zion
Celtic Melodies
The King of Love, 23rd Psalm
Duane Street/Hancock (Enoch Train, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief)
Scotland The Brave (Praise to the Man)
Hudson (The Morning Breaks)
The 72nd Highlanders Farewell to Aberdeen (Rhona McKay, Harp) Music, (Glasgow & MacKintosh)
Amazing Grace (Pipe Band of the Royal Tank Regiment)
The Sweetest Song I Know (William MacEwan)
Bonnie Strathyre (Sir John Blackwood McEwen 1868-19480)
Chorus: O Caledonia! Stern and Wild.

Music and Memories
This is a collection of music for my mother, and for me to memorialize her life and our Highland McIntosh family by. Each one of the pieces selected takes me back to a moment and a memory of growing up in my Grandmother’s house at the Top of the Hill in Dundee, Scotland.

Mackintosh’s Lament is a pibroch air, played on the fiddle that begins the collection recognizing the pride in our clan family that my grandmother, born a McIntosh, learned from her grandmother, born a Benvie, who adopted it from "our people in Stanley" when she married into a family whose members were not too far removed from the days Culloden Moor, where the clan fought and died.

Cornet Carillon has been a favourite peal of joy of mine since I first heard it as a young woman, not long after I married into my American family of German Blehs, Heinemans, Ruens and Ellerbrocks.

Amazing Grace, the ultimate pipe anthem reminding us of the Scots belief in and respect for God the creator and Christ the Saviour.

Scotland the Brave, of course as an anthem to our Country, but when I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a memory of the martyr prophet, Joseph Smith.

Garb of Old Gaul/Men of Harlech remind me of my mother’s pride in being born Scottish and the daughter of her brave Welsh father, David James Thomas, who went down with his shipmates in the Submarine G8 a few days before the end of World War I.

The Back of Benachie is one of the old Scottish songs that my Granny encouraged me to learn and to sing with joy; Bonnie Dundee is for my mother’s pride in her home town.

Going Home is a favourite funeral hymn of the Arizona Indians, whom my mother loved to learn about and visit as part of my work here in Arizona.

Abide With Me is the hymn my mother told me that Edith Cavell a nurse of World War I requested the Germans to allow her to sing before they shot her for helping soldiers escape from the enemy in the Great War; my mother thus introduced me to my first role model, a hero, a woman for me to follow.

The King of Love My Shepherd Is is my childhood favourite version of the 23^rd Psalm which I learned when my mother and grandmother sent me to Sunday School at the Bonnethill Kirk, just across the street from us, and gave me the assurance that our father is in Heaven and he surrounds us with his love.

Pachelbel Canon became a favourite of mine, giving me peace as I adjusted to the death of my husband at the too early age of 34.

Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, a work of St Francis, the gentle Christian who loved all living creatures, reminds me of my mother’s love for animals and babies and is the theme of the life I’m trying, but not always succeeding, in leading.

Be Thou My Vision, another old Scottish hymn through which I thank my mother and grandmother for grounding me Church of Scotland Sunday School experiences to prepare me for accepting the restored gospel.

Come Ye to Zion, the place in the heart we all want to go.

Celtic Melodies, a collection of quiet memories

The King of Love, another version to love.

Hancock, the early traditional tune for the song A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, an anthem to Jesus’ ministry, and at this time a favourite hymn of my daughter, Adriana

Scotland the Brave, for Joseph

Hudson, the traditional tune for an old original hymn of the restoration proclaiming the restoration of the gospel and communication between God and man.

The 72^nd Highlanders Farewell to Aberdeen, a jaunty tune that reminds me of happy days on "days here and there" with my mother and my Granny learning about the land of my birth.

Amazing Grace, another version to remind us of the sacrifice of the Saviour.

The Sweetest Song I Know, a song I discovered only recently but eloquently singing of God’s love.

Bonnie Strathyre, another memory of day trips – this one brought about as a gift from my Granny who, upon hearing me singing the Burns song I had newly learned, asked me if I would like to go to Strathyre, and then immediately made the sacrifices it took to give my heart and brain light and joy.

O Caledonia, Stern and Wild is my image of Scotland – the rough waters and dangers of the North Sea and Atlantic Coasts but with protective harbours among the crags and rocks which, when found, protect and shelter us.

I’m so grateful for the patience and kindness of my children who, bless them, listen to me and my stories. They may not be aware yet, and someday they might, that they are participating in the greatest, to me, of all Scottish traditions – the historian, the keeper of the tales and the legends, and the one who passes on values and traditions along with the old ways with the words, "I have a story…". My stories are facts about growing up in Scotland wrapped around interpretations of childhood tempered by the understandings of my adulthood, strengthened by the hopes and dreams and ambitions of who I could become and what I could achieve because, despite all their mistakes and parenting errors, I knew my mother loved me without any bounds and I knew my grandmother believed in me and expected me to live my life with pride in myself and courage to face all of life’s hardships and overcome every one of its challenges. I hope these are gifts I, too, may bestow upon my children and that they, in their turn, may bestow upon me understanding of how much I love me and forgive me my parental trespasses upon them.