> Danny Spooner > Songs > Hieland Laddie

Hieland Laddie

[ Roud 4691 ; Ballad Index Doe050 ; trad.]

Danny Spooner sang Hieland Laddie on his 1988 album We’ll Either Bend or Break ’Er.

Stan Hugill and Stormalong John sang Hieland Laddie at “Fêtes du chant de marin”, Paimpol, in 1991. This recording was included in the following year on their Le Chasse-Marée CD Chants des Marins Anglais.

The McCalmans sang a medley of Highland Laddie, Roll the Woodpile Down, and A Hundred Years Ago in 1991 on their Greentrax album Songs From Scotland. This track was also included in 2010 on their anthology The Greentrax Years. They noted:

Testosterone, synchronised shouting an proud of it. Stan Hugill’s Shanties From the Seven Seas is one of the great folk collections and a well-thumbed book in Ian [MacCalman]’s house.

The Salts sang Hieland Laddie on their 2013 CD She Rises. A live recording from Wilton’s Music Hall, London, on 13 April 2023, was included in the following year on their album Live in London Town.

Lyrics

Danny Spooner sings Hieland Laddie

Was ye ever in Quebec?
    Bonny laddie, hieland laddie,
Stowing timber on the deck,
    Me bonny hieland laddie;
    Way hey and away we go
    Bonny laddie hieland laddie,
    Way hey and away we go,
    Me bonny hieland laddie.

Was ye ever in Mobile Bay?
Screwing cotton all the day.

Was ye ever off Cape Horn?
Where the weather’s never warm.

Was ye ever in Mirrimashee?
Where yer tie up to a tree.

Was yeever in Valipo?
Where them gals is never slow.

Was ye ever in Dundee?
There some pretty ships ye’ll see.