MRS. BRUCE'S BOYS (vol 1)

(Lochshore Records)

LOCLP1007

1. Ryebuck Shearers......Trad.

"This L.P. was recorded at Craighall Studios, Edinburgh, late 1979 Recording was not new to Fraser; he had already recorded two solo L.P.s. for Nevis Records.
"Shamrock and Heather" NEV R008 and
"Fareweel Tae Tarwathie" NEV L.P. 105.
But for me......WOW! It was like my dreams coming true. At last I would be rubbing record sleeves with the likes of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, David Bowie and other artistes whose names started with 'B'. (Spot the anorak who has his album collection in alphabetical order.)
This point was put in song on one of my later albums.
That same song, "Up There With 'Em", mentions too, that I was as much into the physical attributes of a spinning disc on the required turntable. I was to be "immortalized", as my old school buddy said. ( Where you now, Norma Clifford?)
I was nearly 24. All those years of daydreams were to come to fruition.
Well, the big day arrived. Having had some amazing practices with our hired hands, we ploughed on in. Stuart Jeffreys was on the desk and he really knew his job.
Therefore.....Eight hours later, we were driving home to catch a few beers before retiring. ( We all lived in Rutherglen.) The whole album
was in the can. Were we gloating? The next week we returned, trembling, to mix down. Stuart pressed the 'play' button. Two or three seconds can be so long. Our efforts, it seemed, had not been in vain. The sound just boomed out of those oversized JBLs.
Our backing musicians; three of them, played together in a bluegrass group called 'Old Hickory'. (now disbanded)
Another two played together as a duo. They did self-penned Gaelic Country music.( Donnie Large and Colin Forgrieve)
Donnie is now in California somewhere. ( I recently met him, 1999, in Pennsylvania at a festival. He was on great form; playing in a duo called Men of Worth. ) As for Colin, I've unfortunately lost touch.
Our final accompanist, an old school friend called Margaret Steel (nee Bridges). A lovely piano player and teacher. " An unlikely bunch," you might think, but we worked so well together. We had done it! We had 'given birth' and hadn't thought of a name. Not even a working title.
I had been very impressed with the out come and considered it a serious offering. Therefore, my brother's somewhat frivolous suggestion of "Mrs. Bruce's Boys" stuck in my throat. We did have rather a heated argument, outside the Mill Street chip shop. However, he was, in fact, putting up the money for the project.
I was silenced.
Ian McCalman had agreed to take the cover photo. (He's good at that stuff, y'know!) So, going along with the 'chosen' title, our mother was drafted in.
She was so excited. She bought herself new clothes, new glasses and paid more than her normal for a hairdo. When she saw the result of the photo session, she was a little miffed. On the cover her face was smaller than the average pinky nail. If you scroll back up to the image on the top left of this screen, you might just make her out. She's the dot between the two, apparently, floating guitars. She has a great sense of humour and, fortunately, saw the funny side.
The concept;... Mother, who had always run after us with forgotten handkerchieves and worries about clean underwear, is pointing out that we had forgotten our guitars. Funny or what?
Anyway, I confess now, that "Mrs. Bruce's Boys" did us little harm. The radio stations gave us loads of coverage. The folk D.J.s liked our music - and the album title. We became synonymous.
Although, nowadays, we rarely play together, to this day, people still call us "Mrs. Bruce's (wee) Boys" and I don't mind too much. "  IAN BRUCE

"We originally released this album on our own label, RICKETY RACKETY RECORDS  The label was named after our 'Barras Market' record stall."