Mairi's Wedding
Mairi's Wedding (also known as Marie's Wedding, the Lewis Bridal Song, or Mairi Bhan) is a Scottish folk song originally written in Gaelic by Johnny Bannerman for Mary McNiven. Written using a traditional Scottish tune, it was first played for McNiven in 1935 at the Old Highlanders Institute in Glasgow's Elmbank Street. Hugh S. Roberton translated the Gaelic version into English in 1936.
It is also a Scottish country dance, 40 bar, reel time, devised in 1959 by James B. Cosh.[1]
Recorded versions
Mairi's Wedding has been recorded by a wide variety of musicians.
- The Alans, "The Houston Sessions"
- The Rankin Family taking it to number one in Canada. From the album The Rankin Family, 1989.
- Alexander Brothers "Best of"
- Moira Anderson on "The Best of Scotland: Twenty Tracks of Traditional Scottish Music"
- Moira Anderson, "A Land for All Seasons"
- Bantry Bay, "Set the Sails"
- Neil Barron and His Scottish Dance Band, "The Reel Party" [1]
- Bushwhackers Band, "Dance Album"
- The Clancy Brothers
- Van Morrison and The Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat
- The Corries, "Kishmul's Galley"
- Paul Dooley "Rip the Calico"
- Teresa Doyle "If Fish Could Sing"
- The Ecclestons "The Home Fires"
- Fiddler's Green, "Drive Me Mad!"
- The Foggy Few "Pint of No Return" [2] - a Norwegian folk-rock band
- Clive Gregson used the same tune for a song called "Mairi's Divorce" on his album "People and Places"
- Noel Hill, "The Irish Concertina Two"
- Christy Hodder "Celtic Energy" [3]
- Seamus Kennedy, "A Smile and a Tear" [4]
- The King's Singers, "Annie Laurie: Folk Songs of the British Isles"
- The King's Singers, "Mairi's Wedding"
- David Kinnaird, "Mairi's Wedding"
- Kenneth McKellar on "Wild Conserves"
- Orthodox Celts, "Green Roses"
- Rapalje, "Rakish Paddies"
- Anne Roos, on "Haste to the Wedding" [5], an album of Celtic harp wedding music
- Andy Stewart "Donald, Where's Your Troosers?"
- Trasna Ceilidh Band, "Trasna Ceilidh Band"
- Waking Maggie, "Hit the Bricks"
- The Wiggles, "Hoop Dee Doo"
- Robert Wilson, "The Voice of Scotland"
- The High Kings, "The High Kings"
- EDF (Patrick Ewen, Gérard Delahaye, Mélaine Favennec), "Kan tri" (this song is performed in french and is untitled "La noce à Marie")
- Alan Stivell, "Brian Boru"
- John Martyn, "Sunday's Child,part of the message"
Use in Movies
Jim Corr wrote two additional verses for the movie Passed Away. They are the only ones heard clearly in the movie.