The first tune in this set was collected by Phil from a former band member, the well-respected piper Gordon Duncan, who attributes it to Martin Hughes. Dominic McGowan is a 6/8 pipe march played here on the fiddle, flute and small pipes. We then round up the set with three reels which come from the Gaelic tradition. These tunes are originally songs or "port a beul". Port a beul means mouth music and was invented in 1746 after the playing of the bagpipes and fiddle was banned in Scotland following the 1745 uprising. This singing is very rhythmic and tried to recreate the sound of the pipes. The first tune, Neil Anns a' Bhata Mhor (Neil in the Big Boat) was collected from a good friend, Allan MacColl. Allan is a multi-instrumentalist and this tune was discovered while going through some tapes of his great uncle, Donald MacColl. Donald was an accomplished bard from Acharacle on the west coast of Scotland. The tape was a recording made of a house ceildh (party). The second reel is very similar to the first one and is probably a variant of Neil Anns a' Bhata Mhor. Tha Toll Air a' Bhata is from the Gesto Collection of 1895 and was probably collected in another part of Scotland (perhaps on the Western Isles or further north). In those days, tunes or songs would be played or sung with regional variations. The last tune is an unusual one from Patrick MacDonald's Collection of 1784. It is nameless in this collection but in Allan MacDonald's Moidart Collection, it is called Quirang Quickstep.