Where Two Rivers Meet

Where two rivers meet - Album cover

With his new country folk album Where Two Rivers Meet, McLeod once again moves on from previous incarnations, most recently as writer and lead-singer for the critically acclaimed Mad Old Punks. McLeod’s protagonists are ghosts of the past and outsiders from the present. His and their voices are stubbornly peripheral, seeking to master universal themes. A claim to a peculiar Highland ethic informs their journeys. A Highland Geist accounts for their confused identities and the eternal wars they fight within themselves.

Having travelled back and forth to the States, McLeod’s new material draws on both native themes and the historical settings in which the Cleared Highlanders found themselves since Culloden.

Album Lyrics

Highway 73

She was running out of gas in the middle of the night
On Highway 73
So I pulled on over in my beat-up truck
She was calling out to me ….
The wolves are howling baying for my blood
The wolves can smell my fear
Can I slide on over in your beat-up truck
Can you get me outta here?

Underneath the stars there’s a prairie moon
Lighting up your eyes
Mockingbird keeps on calling and a-calling
It’s gonna be one of these nights!

My oh my!
What a wonderful life
I didn’t realise there was so much love
Under savannah skies

We’re riding on my Harley in a slow-setting sun
On Arkansas 73
When you shout above the roar “I love freedom”
You hold on tight to me
Appaloosas running wild above
Rattlers’ spitting dust
We sing above the roar of our Harley baby
That the Highway is the road to Love

Underneath the landings lying by the pines
Hummingbird screams loud
Highway keeps on calling and a-calling
Let’s round them up and head on out

Hold on to me baby
And maybe it’ll be tonight on Highway 73

 

Can You Shoe A Horse?

Over the bridge
Over the sea
You lead your trusty horse into the breeze
Poets and kings
Philosophers too
They all met their match
When they had a drink with you

You asked the question
What’s the wisdom of the North?
Hey Boys …
Can you shoe a horse?
And you ride with the wind

Last shirt on your back
You’d throw it away
If you thought it would land on
An orphan child one day

Let him ride with the wind
He’d learn that pearl of wisdom
Beyond the yellow of the gorse
Boy …
If you can’t shoe a horse
You’ll never ride with the wind

Compass swings to the North
Sun rises in the East
Then you’ll discover …
Can you shoe a horse?

 

Allatoonah Nights

There ain’t a ripple on the Lake
Where we used to swim and where we used to skate
Now there’s only fallen leaves
And memories – sweet memories
Of what you used to do to make me smile

How I love this evening Georgia light
When I dream I’m lying by your side
Sweet temptation
Turquoise sky
When I close my eyes … I see
Allatoonah Nights

Baby Baby you’re my only hope
Rolling in Leaves of Grass on honeysuckle slopes
Holding onto an hourglass and a silken rope
Crying out our eyes
For Allatoonah Nights

Fireflies are still dancing
Where the lonesome pine was standing
History and fate and love keep tearing us apart
Midnight train is slow and haunting
Whistling down the line
Crying out for you

Crying out our eyes …
For Allatoonah Nights

How I love this evening Georgia light
When I dream I’m lying by your side
Allatoonah Nights

 

Maids of Sorrow

Nobody knew where you were going when you’d packed your bags
I guessed you’d sail to Sorrowed Bay cos you were sad ‘pon sad

Out there in the morning light in the sad and Sorrowed Bay
You might catch me a dream and pray …
If I was in the Madman’s pool catching a summer run
You’d be shouting “FREEDOM” to the sun

For the rained upon skin and bones tornado summer days
Is all that we’ve got left save for tomorrow
At least there is a sky of clouds and that means harvest rain
And a river full of tears – The Maids of Sorrow

Do you recall when we were boys we said we’d flee those glens?
And we sure did but now we ache for where we played as bairns

Out here on the dusty plains there ain’t no yellow whins
And now you’re gone I can taste the snow in the coming northern winds
If I was back in Dola boy with you my lifelong friend
I would catch you a dream and send …

For the rained upon skin and bones tornado summer days
All that we’ve got left save for tomorrow
At least there is a sky of clouds and that means harvest rain
And a river full of tears – The Maids of Sorrow

Sip-Alone Girl

My sip-alone girl
In your sit-alone world
Come: let me hold you tight
Everything’s gonna be alright
If you can see the stars
Then maybe God will heal your scars
My sip-alone girl

Your sip-alone girl
With my tragedy curls
When are the tears gonna stop burning?
I’d rather stop the world turning
Than feel this broken heart
And watch you fall apart
On principle
Yeh – I’m the sip-alone girl

I asked you for Herodotus
I gave you Patsy Cline
So long as I’m a sip-alone girl
You’ll be the sip-alone girl of mine

 

The Old, Old Photograph

The Old, Old Photograph
That they threw in the stream
Your smile is jaundiced elegance
In the midst of a fairy scene

The oats blow on the wave
A man with a bare back slows
And the old big horses head for home
To the place where the weary goes

I kissed your lips
The piobrachd in me dies
Floral scents rise from your skin
And tears from your emerald eyes

The Old, Old Photograph
O Caledonian Pine
Your spirit always follows me
To the standing stones in Clyne

I kissed your lips
The peewit’s evening cry
Floral scents rise from your skin
And tears from your emerald eyes

 

Nooner

Hey Baby, Baby, Baby pick up the phone
Saddle-up divine – I’m coming home
Pour me a whisky – cos I’ll be sooner
Put on your pretty dress and get ready for a nooner

My oh my just what I need
I’m like a filly itchin’ for a steed
Like a Harley I want a tuning
And there ain’t no better way … baby … than a-nooning

We got each other that’s the secret they say
Lying in the shade in the middle of the day

There’s a word on the street, there’s a rumour
That we’ve been taking drugs
But its love, love, love
And a helluva nooner

Hey darling, I love you so
11.45 – ready to go
Me too I’m like the harvest moon
Gonna burst if I don’t bed you … baby … by noon

 

Fragile Little Lady

Fragile little lady with the voice of a mocking bird
Won’t you teach this broken troubadour how he ought to love?
To catch the sparkling diamonds among the fallen leaves
Fragile little lady sing one for me.

Fragile little lady with the voice of a nightingale
Won’t you slip my broken anchor won’t you teach me how to sail
Through life’s stormy oceans; across the vicious seas
Fragile little lady sing one for me.

I read in the Good Book that an angel comes
To mend the broken heart of everyone
But my fallen angel, my fallen angel is fragile.

Fragile little lady with the voice like a silken swan
Won’t you catch the morning light upon your wings and watch me fall
Life’s a birdsong …calling endlessly
Fragile little lady sing one for me.

Nice & Slow

This is private property – no hunting!
All this girl needs is some lovin’ from you
That’s what you gotta do

Don’t take me for a ride; don’t take me for a Cybeline
Take me out to dinner & buy me expensive wine
And in time … you might be mine

No trespassing in my heart
If you wanna get very far
Loving’s a sacred art
And here’s how you gotta start

Put your hand on my waist and waltz me to the River
Put your hand in mine don’t ever let me fall
If we’re gonna be lovers ‘til we die
You’d better look me straight in these sparklin’ eyes
And show me nice and slow … that you love me
Woh-woh-woh-woh-woh-woh won’t you want me
Woh-woh-woh-woh-woh-woh watch how you go
Take me nice and slow

Gonne take you to the rodeo
Take you to find a honky-tonk
Show you how to rope a steer; to bare-back ride a bucking-bronc’
And in time … you might be mine

Murch’s Bar & Diner

Put some water in my whisky – I’ll drink it slow
Especially if it means you’ll wait a while before you go
Lonely by the old peat fire – outside there’s snow
Old rascals telling tales of escapades from years ago

Put another peat on the fire – let’s make her spark
It’s Christmas Eve – bitter cold and bitter dark
We’re old, old men we’ve lost our wives – God’s taken them away
That’s why the Bells aye tastes sae soor on Christmas Day

And we’ll all stand together
These days can’t be much finer
With a dram on Christmas Eve
And sentimental songs
In Murch’s Bar & Diner

Put another rachdedhann in’ the teapot – let her fuse
Life’s a game of chance my boy – except the friends you choose …
… to sit with by the fire on lonely Christmas nights
Old Pultney in your hand and tears of memory in your eyes

Winter in Summer Again

Sitting alone in the bar-room for heartbroken men
June 21st; it’s freezing
Winter in summer again.

The dying cry of a crow is my only friend
Crying; and frosting on the road at midnight
Winter in summer again.

Weeping eye glimpses hollowness through a smoky lens
The sleet slaps my window pane
When will this hollowness end?

Hey Gogo! Do you remember about 20 years ago?
She stood in that very doorway
And we didn’t know if she was coming or going
Hah … that’s the weather for you.

Out on the ridge a broken tree clings to the ledge
My fingers slipping from my Chivas Blend
Winter in summer again.