Còta fad air Dòmhnull Lòm

This is a swinging piece of Gaelic puirt-a-beul (‘poorsht-a-beel’) or mouth music – the name for songs written to accompany dancing. It’s well known in Scotland and describes the sorry appearance of a lanky lad named Donald who could sorely do with putting a comb through his hair. It has been arranged in a fast-moving canon which can quite easily turn into a competition between male and female voices as to who can keep going better.
Traditionally, puirt-a-beul is sung unaccompanied and in unison but the tunes harmonise very well. Frequently they are sung in sequences of three or four, each song leading without a break into the next. This song works well as the third in the following set of four: Tha bean agam; Chuala mi e; Còta fad’ air Dòmhnull lòm; ‘S ann an Ile (all published by Canasg).