Greentrax Recordings

Adam McNaughtan - The Words That I Used To Know (CD)

CDTRAX195D (released April 2000)

category: singers and songwriters

This is a double CD re-release of the earlier cassette recordings The Glasgow That I Used to Know and Words, Words, Words.

Singer/songwriter Adam McNaughtan, a product of the Scottish Folk Revival of the '60's, has been writing, collecting and singing songs for three decades and has become one of Glasgow's best-loved characters.

Many of his own songs have stood the test of time and entered the repertoire of singers from Scotland and beyond, including such classics as Where is The Glasgow That I Used To Know, The Jeely Piece Song, They're Pullin' Doon The Buildin' Next Tae Oors and The Transportation Ballad, which date back to the '60s.

Adam's more recent compositions include The Yellow on The Broom, Blood Upon The Grass, the hilarious The Lion and The Glove and of course Oor Hamlet, his reduced version of the Shakespeare play.

But Adam does more than write songs, he is also a performer, with a repertoire ranging from the finest traditional ballads to the excesses of the Glasgow music-hall and from the simplest playground songs to the most thoughtful compositions of other writers.

Examples of School Songs, Jail Songs, Mammie Songs, Music Hall Fragments, Football Songs and Street Songs are to be found on the first CD, while the second CD has several examples of the work of other songwriters. Adam performs this amazing mix of material with great enthusiasm even in the cold atmosphere of a recording studio, while a 'live' performance is an experience not to be missed.

In addition to performing solo, Adam is also a member of the group 'Stramash'.

All the songs referred to, and many more, are included in this double CD which Adam cleverly titled The Words That I Used to Know. The original recordings have been kept intact and two versions of The Glasgow That I Used To Know are included.

An indication of the widespread popularity of Adam's songs was when the Prince of Wales, in his opening speech at the Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988, quoted a lengthy passage from Adam's The Glasgow That I Used to Know. This was widely reported in the national press.