FT: Caledonia is a remarkable song on so many levels. It touches on homesickness, longing and identity. It’s been recorded by more than 200 artists, featured in films and adverts, including ‘Trainspotting 2’, and is often described as Scotland’s unofficial national anthem. There was even a whisky inspired by it. It’s a special song for many?
DM: It’s one of these wee songs that people seem to have picked up on. It’s great for a songwriter like me. I’ve been fascinated by the wee song’s journey, which it’s had since I wrote it in my early 20s. It’s now become almost part of the common culture. People use it at their weddings, family funerals, and football games.
FT: Do you have a favourite cover version of the song?
DM: I particularly like Frankie Miller’s version, the very original one. He took what I had written as a gentle ballad and put a wee rocky edge to it, with that wonderful voice of his, and I suppose a lot of people got exposed to the song through his lovely rock version of it, and that helps broaden the appeal of the song.
They are all brilliant, but I really like Frankie’s he has some great songs.
FT: Do you ever get fed up talking about the song?
DM: I don’t actually. I’m very proud of the wee song. It’s become a wee bit of a law unto itself. It’s out there, and it’s doing its own thing, and I just watch from the side lines.
I was chatting to a busker in Glasgow, and he told me, ‘whenever I’m out on the street, and it’s raining, and nobody’s putting any money in my case, I just wip
that song out, and all of a sudden the money comes in’.
So, it’s a lovely thing to have. I’ve written a lot of songs, and I think I’ve written better songs than Caledonia, but for for whatever reason, there’s something that just captures that sense of place that people long for.
FT: Do you ever feel that the huge success of Caledonia has overshadowed the rest of your catalogue, which includes so many other wonderful songs?
DM: No. I mean, I think a lot of people think of me as having written that one song, but I actually think it’s opened up a lot of doors. People come along to the concerts to hear me singing Caledonia, and then they hear ‘This love will carry’ and ‘Ready for the storm’, so it’s great to have that song, which is a key to let the public come in, and they stay for the other songs. This is my 52nd year as a professional troubadour, a travelling songwriter, and it’s been a privileged life, with my little bag of songs, going round the world. I don’t sing it all the time, but I do sing it regularly, and I get transported back to the 24-year-old who wrote it, and it’s quite nice as an older man to be able to revisit your 24-year-old self, every now and again!
FT: So many great singers have recorded your songs: Kathy Mattea, Frankie Miller, as we mentioned, Paolo Nutini, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and many Irish artists in particular, such as Frances Black, Mary Black, Cara Dillon, Dolores Keane and Ronan Keating. There’s clearly a Celtic resonance there, but what do you think it is about your songs that draws so many Irish performers to them?
DM: Yes, I’ve often wondered that myself over the years. I wonder if it has something to do with my own grandparents being Gaelic speakers. As a wee boy, I grew up with my grandfather, who was a Gaelic singer, so maybe there’s s a little in the way I choose to write melodies. Perhaps there is that Gaelic influence in the background that Irish people can relate to, maybe on a subliminal level. I’ve often thought about that. You can’t escape your roots, I suppose.
My grandfather used to go down to the pub when he lived with us as an older man and have a few whiskeys. And I remember his wee voice when he was sitting in the Kitchen, singing this beautiful old Gaelic song, and tears would be running down his face, we called him Shaner, and my sister and I would ask my mum,
‘What’s wrong with ‘Shaner’,
and she’d said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, he’s happy’!
We wondered how you could cry and be happy, so maybe it is a little of that Gaelic creeping in, however subconsciously, as I write.
FT: Many of your songs carry themes of resilience and perseverance, songs like This Love Will Carry and Ready for the Storm. I think there’s that element of resilience in both nations, too? Is that something you consciously set out to write about, or does it emerge naturally?
DM: Yeah, will we both have kinda sad histories? The histories of both countries have been kinda sad and rooted in oppression. We are a kinda of melancholic people, I think, because of those histories, and maybe that’s a connection as well. But there is also a kind of toughness, that resilience that you talk about, we keep going. I’ve had a long journey as a songwriter; it’s not the easiest thing to do. To get taken seriously.
Because I’m not particularly political, my songs are socially political with a small p, so it takes people a wee while to get into the songs, but I’m very lucky to get this far, and still be doing it, and still enjoying it. I just love to sing.
I think that’s another thing the Scotch and Irish have in common. The slightest sign of a glass of whiskey and Scottish people will start to sing, and the Irish are the same.
It’s part of our DNA. The whole business of singing and expressing our emotions in music.
When I was a kid, in the house, there were times when the chairs would be moved back, there would be a wee bit of dancing, and my mum played the melodeon, you know, the wee squeezebox?
She played Gaelic waltzes. She’s still alive, my mother, she’s 90 and lives a few miles away from us, and she still plays the melodeon. You made your own entertainment. My dad played the fiddle, badly (Laughs), so we grew up seeing and listening to all these instruments in the house.
It’s fascinating how you take what you have grown up with, and I’ve been able to take it around the world with me. So, I’m eternally grateful to my mum and dad for exposing me to all this when I was wee!
FT: Well, all your many fans around the globe and I are equally grateful to your mum and dad! When it comes to song writing, what tends to spark a song for you? What grabs your attention and makes you want to write about it?
DM It’s all pretty subliminal, a bit magical even, there’s no rhyme nor reason to what comes. I’ll sit down with the guitar, and just fiddle about, and something will come out. I find that the best times to write for me are first thing in the morning, before your brain starts to get into the stuff of the day, or really late at night
It is quite magical. I look back at some of the older songs and think –
‘Where did that come from?
My daughter, when she was a young lass, was asked by her teacher,
‘So Julia, what does your daddy do?
And she said,
‘My daddy’s a magician’!
She meant ‘Musician’. But maybe there is a certain amount of magic in the craft? If you start to think about it too much, you can start to break the spell
FT: What kind of music do you listen to yourself?
DM: I have a real broad taste, but I’m very picky! If I don’t like it, I won’t listen to it. I love melodies, that’s why I love the older traditional songs. I like a lot of contemporary writers who play with melodies, which can be a difficult art. I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. I suppose I don’t get as exposed to as much music these days. I don’t listen to the radio, and I know I probably should. My Spotify playlist is probably what I’ve always listened to over the years.
FT: If someone were discovering your music for the first time, and you had to recommend just one of your albums (and we won’t allow a greatest hits because that would be cheating), which one would you choose? One album that says, ‘This is Dougie MacLean’!
DM: Oh, that’s a difficult one! They all become like your children, so it’s a bit like asking which is your favourite child? It’s not really fair to pick one! I’d tell them to listen to the whole lot! (Laughs)
FT: It’s been an absolute treat talking to Dougie, and thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
DM: Not at all, it’s been my pleasure!
Dougie MacLean plays Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Saturday 14th March. Tickets via madelahall.com