Fiddle & Guitar

MacPherson’s Lament

(James McPherson)

One of the best known Scottish Airs, composed by James MacPherson himself on the eve of his hanging. Born in 1675, he was the illegitimate son of a laird and a gypsy woman. A true Robin Hood figure, he stole from the rich to give to the gypsies. Eventually he was caught, betrayed by a woman. A very fine fiddler, MacPherson played this lament on his fiddle, smashed it on a stone and jumped to his death. His broken fiddle now lies in a folk museum near Newtonmore, Scotland.