Song picture
The Bell Pool
Like
Playlist
1 Comment Share
License   $25
Single   $0.75
Album   $10
A slow Scottish jig written for the guitar, using harmonics, named for the deep pool in the Tweed where the bells of ruined Kelso Abbey are supposed to lie, ringing as the dark water flows over them - to be heard when danger is near...
singer songwriter acoustic folk british guitarist song celtic traditional fingerstyle scottish scotland guitar kelso
Artist picture
Solo singer-songwriter and tunesmith playing British fingerstyle steel and nylon string guitar, and historic instruments. Scots and Irish influences.
I've been writing and playing songs and tunes since teenage years in folk clubs and pubs. I co-organise the Kelso Friday night live music sessions at the Cross Keys (hosted singaround 7.45-10pm) and Cobbles Inn (10-12pm open mic with The Cobbles Band) with the help of many friends. All welcome! Visit us at kelsofolkandlive co uk. It is worth clicking on the tab because the sound quality of my tracks is far higher than the auto player on this page. Many can be streamed or downloaded at 320KBps and the enhancement for solo guitar/voice far exceeds the benefit you get for highly compressed band recordings. My recordings are full dynamic, not compressed. Just select Hi-Fi for the first song, and an MP3 high bitrate window will open - you will still get a sequence of songs. Most of my downloads are free, but some 320KBps tracks are paid-for. These are selected because they make up my main instrumental album. I now have a YouTube page and have started doing some video recordings for fun: @daviddkilpatrick I have mainly played Lowden guitars since 1999. I current play a 1985 S5FN (nylon string), 1986 S22 (jumbo O-size mahogany/cedar), and 1995 S32 (small body rosewood/spruce). I also play my own 1997-built Martin 'kit' Grand Auditorium rosewood/spruce, a Sigma OM-T, Furch Little Jane, Tacoma Papoose, Guild 8-string baritone, Vintage V880 parlour guitar and Gordon Giltrap signature model, a Troubadour mahogany/spruce classical and an Adam Black 12-string. And that's just the guitars... also viola, mandolin, mandola, waldzither, bouzouki, Appalachian dulcimer, low D whistle, keyboards.
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic Guitar
Charts
Peak #75
Peak in subgenre #18
Author
David Kilpatrick
Rights
David Kilpatrick
Uploaded
February 07, 2008
Track Files
MP3
MP3 2.9 MB • 320 kbps • 3:09
Story behind the song
When the English finally attacked and destroyed the great Tironensian abbey of Kelso - wisely, as these were fighting monks as well as great healers of the war wounded - the bells from the tower were cast into the dark and deep pool of the Tweed where it loops below the crags of Maxwellheugh. On stormy nights in times of trouble, they are supposed to toll in the deep. This pool in the Maxwheel stretch of the Tweed is dangerous - it can be seen from my window as I write - and has an undercurrent which can drag any foolish swimmer to the bottom. The subaqua club has, of course, been there and found no bells though it is a very dark and forbidding place to venture. This composition is one I always play on the nylon-string Lowden S-25J as it requires the strong harmonics and percussive sounds this can create. It recorded here with both the internal pickup and a condensor mike. As I vary the details of the playing, I ran through it three times and selected one continuous take which I felt represented a typical length to play it, and all the parts or variations I would use.
On 23 Playlists
Comments 1
Please sign up or log in to post a comment.
ALEXIS PATRICK
May 11, 2012
Excellent musicianship.:)