Heel For Heel, And Toe For Toe...

I love this Scottish folk tune, so toe-tappingly cheery. This is a recent recording of "Mairi's wedding" - produced under lockdown. 

I have been looking into the history, and the lyrics was originally written in Gaelic, in the 1930s to honour Mary MacNiven, The music was an old Scottish folk tune. Mary was a Scottish Folksinger, who won a gold medal at the National Mod [a music and culture festival, similar to the Welsh Eisteddfod] in 1934. Subsequently in 1936, new English lyrics were written, and it was renamed The Lewis Bridal Song/Mairi's Wedding - intriguingly, Mary did not marry until 1940 [to a sea captain] In 1959 dance steps were devised for the tune. The song has been popular for over 80 years, and the dance is frequently performed at Scottish weddings.

The reason I have been humming it to myself for the last couple of days is that I have treated myself to some new shoes. My ancient blue canvas plimsolls have got so thin "if I stood on a thruppencer I could tell you if it was 'eads or tails" as my Grandad would have said. 

My new ones [from Muji] have an arch support built in, and are exceedingly comfortable. They are water repellant, organic cotton. I am happily skipping along, heel-for-heel and toe-for-toe.

Mairi MacNiven lived to the ripe old age of 92 - all that singing and dancing clearly kept her fit!