Songs
Original songs, arrangements & commissions
Traditional songwriting
In a world where AI can generate a new song about any specified topic within seconds, and offer to perform it flawlessly in any number of styles and media, why spend so much time and effort trying to capture feelings and experiences in words and music?
Why study and recover old songs written generations ago, trying to understand and connect with authors and societies which are long gone and communicate their insights to us and our society?
Songs are personal. Human. Deep connections, feelings, stories and so much more than their component words and notes. Songs can encourage, comfort, inspire, console, calm, and make us want to dance. Real songs have real value, and can resonate with something deep inside us in ways that we can't easily articulate and may not even allow ourselves to admit. Songs bring us together - across a room, across an ocean, across generations. Here are some of mine, and some written by others long ago which still resonate with me.
Original songs
A small selection of songs written and performed by Mike on his own instruments. Album coming soon! Feel free to sing any of them for non-commercial use, but please note that as a member of PRS for Music (IPI 828821515) all public performances must be logged with them, and a license sought for recording, sync or other commercial use.
When I first strung this particular cittern, I played around with the hammer-ons and open-tuned chords and found myself being led into writing about the instrument and its relationship to me. The lyrics describe the origins and processes involved in creating it, and the chorus is me losing myself whilst playing it and appreciating the ‘voice of the forest’ in my hands.
Voice of the Forest
Mareel ('sea fire')
Sitooteries (places to 'sit out')
Hunted by heron
This song seeks to describe an experience I had once, many years ago, when swimming at night on the West coast of Scotland. First I saw the stars reflected on the surface of the water, and then millions of other smaller points of light like ‘shooting stars’ in the water which traced every move. Mareel (‘Sea Fire’ in old Norse) is the Shetland word for such bioluminescent plankton, and I very much hope to meet it again!
The Covid-19 "lockdown" in 2020-21 was a very strange time. With everyone restricted in their movements and many unable to work at all, their movements and working from home or unable to work at all, the focus turned to creating and embellishing nearby spaces to 'sit out'. We still use our clay oven. One of my neighbours was particularly creative and inspired much of this song - you know who you are!
When I opened my curtains one sunny Autumn morning I noticed a large, gray, still shape beside our garden pond which looked like a rock - until it lifted its head and looked sideways. This song tells the rest of the story, and I have since added netting to protect the other fish.
Song arrangements
Examples of Mike's arrangements of traditional folk and contemporary Scottish songs. Note for copyright reasons longer clips of more recent pop and other songs from Mike's repertoire cannot be posted here.
Performed solo by special request at the end of a wedding ceilidh in the fabulous Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, November 2025
Loch Lomond
Twa Corbies
Caledonia
Dougie MacLean's fabulous classic which he wrote almost 50 years ago in 1977 is a great way to end an evening - rivalled only by gathering round to sing 'Auld Lang Syne', or perhaps 'The Parting Glass'.
This video is from one of my very first paid solo singing gigs back in September 2019, so is a little tense and rushed, but is a good example of a song that creates a real sense of connection and shared meaning - and a nice memory of a lovely evening.
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