Album Notes

The following are liner notes from POSING AS HUMAN to give you an idea of what the album is about - the CD comes with a 32 page booklet containing liner notes, lyrics and photos. Track 1: Don't Stop the World was written during recording in the summer of 2003. Gerry came to the studio one morning and sang it and we knew straight away that it had to be on the album. It made us laugh as it could so easily apply to any of us. It is one of those songs that you think is about you because it is about such common failings. No one is perfect, so Kris keeps telling the band, and we all have to make allowances. Allowing each one of our friends at least two major failings really helps keep friendships together. Drummers should be allowed 4. The way we record is all part of our creative process. We don't rehearse or 'know' a song when we come to record it. We have the words, chords and melody and let the rest just grow. This one grew and grew, blending alternative country, folk and indy rock and reflecting our diverse tastes and interest in this crossover of Scottish and American music. Track 2: The Way Things Are. Like the sixty or more other songs that we wrote for this album that didn't make the final fourteen, this one was consigned to a cupboard marked 'boxed set' - those which one day might get recorded. At least we have the next four albums written. It didn't make it back onto the album until a couple of weeks before we thought the CD was finished. All the rock songs that Gerry, Kris and Deb wrote were dropped in favour of a more alt.country feel which Gerry happened to be coming up with at the time. The Way Things Are is our first original 'bluegrass' song - inspired by our debut radio tour in America in 2002. Our friend Susan Forbes Hansen, a DJ with WFCR in Connecticut, took us to see Robert Earl Keen and Eliza Gilkyson at the Iron Horse. What a night to remember! Their music became the soundtrack of our trip. It also got us thinking about the origins of bluegrass and country, and how our emigrant ancestors took their Scottish folk to the 'New World' and ended up creating a whole new music. So we have come full circle, but this time with us departing America touched by all this wonderful music to return back to the Scottish west coast island of Bute and start writing our new album. Track 3: The Gallows. There wasn't a dry eye among us when we first played this song. On the album we wanted it to be a song of empowerment, not sentimental and sad. What you hear is a tale of a couple who are fighting for what they truly believe in and are willing to pay the ultimate price for. The night before his execution an anti-government rebel, framed, beaten and tortured, accepts his fate. The next time he will see his love will be in the moments before his death. His lover is aware of this fact but is still supportive of his actions and pledges to be strong for him - showing no fear, shedding no tears and promising to continue the struggle. This could be any dissident from any culture but the idea here was to extend our interpretation of the plight of the characters in the song 'Loch Lomond'. This is no sad lament but rather an articulation of defiance in the face of seeming defeat as sadly relevant today as it was all those hundreds of years ago. Track 4: Both Sides the Tweed combines a lyric from 1707 and a beautiful melody from the great Scottish singer/songwriter Dick Gaughan. We like to cover songs which really touch us or express our feelings about a particular subject relevant to our lives. The subject of 'union' crops up a lot in the UK these days, as some forces are trying to break the country up and divide people, while at the same time others are trying to make us part of a Federal Europe. The creation of the United Kingdom had its outspoken opponents and this song is asking people on both sides of the border, the river Tweed, to consider that living peacefully with t