I feel a little more relaxed and excited about my Celtic Invasion of County Mayo, Ireland this summer. The trip goes from June 3-10. I leave one June 24 to go with my family to Nice and then my mom’s home in Italy for a vacation before the Invasion.
Just four weeks to go, I felt stressed. But I’m working hard to wrap up stuff before I leave. I selected music for the next four episodes of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.
That’s a big relief. I just need to finish one more episode of the Pub Songs podcast to finish up that episode for the Spring season.
Oh! And I guess I should close down my store soon since I’ll be gone soon. If you want any CDs, now is the time to buy. Just click here to shop.
You’ll also find a whole bunch of Celtic Heartstrings at half off their normal price. It’s a good time to buy!
UPCOMING CONCERTS
- MAY 17: Coffee with The Celtfather on YouTube
- JUN 3-10: Celtic Invasion Vacations, County Mayo, Ireland
- JUN 24: The Lost Druid Brewery, Avondale Estates, GA @ TBD
- JUL 22: Burnt Hickory Brewery, Kennesaw, GA @ 6:30 – 9:30 PM
Oh! Speaking of the Celtic Invasions. I don’t post too much on social media. But I do plan to post a wee bit in my blog, and on instagram.
A MAN WHO WEARS A KILT EVERY DAY
In 2000, the Knighthood of Buh, a student organization at the University of Texas at Austin, held their first annual No Pants Day celebration on the first Friday of May. Andrew and I were practicing daily on the South Mall of the university as the Brobdingnagian Bards. So we were there as a bunch of students ran through the school shouting and waving signs about the oppression of pants.
The event resonated with me because, well, we wore kilts at all of our shows. We were “pantless” too.
The event spread to other locations around the nation and eventually the world. But it took me four years before I wrote “A Man Who Wears A Kilt Every Day”, a parody of the traditional Scottish song “Jock Stuart”.
Instead of “a man you don’t meet every day”, my song was about a man who loved wearing kilts, like I did.
I didn’t stop there. Again, I felt like No Pants Day was a Scottish holiday. So I decided to create a backstory for my song. I wanted people to think that the origins of No Pants Day was actually a Scottish holiday called No Troosers Day.
I researched Scottish history and learned about the Proscription Act of 1746. This act banned the Scots from wearing “highland clothing”. The goal of course was to assimilate the Scots into Great Britain, just like the Disarming Act banned the Scottish from wearing weapons.
From that base, I wrote a fictional history of an uprising in Glasgow where the Scots removed their trousers and donned their kilts and rewrote “Jock Stuart” to celebrate their love of the kilt and their culture.
The best thing about this fictional history was that a few years later, a newspaper in Canada quoted the blog where I shared this fake history saying that this was ACTUALLY the origins of No Pants Day.
This should serve as a reminder to all of us. Check your sources!
I finally recorded this song in 2009 for my CD, Kilted For Her Pleasure.
“Jock Stuart (A Man Who Wears A Kilt Every Day)”
lyrics by Marc Gunn, May 6, 2004, music traditional
Oh my name is Jock Stuart, I´m a trooser-less man
And my roving young fellows move freely
* So be easy and free in nae boxers or briefs
I´m a man who wears a kilt every day.
I’m Highlander made and a piper to trade
And the tartan is me flag that I wear.
I go out with my gun and my dog for to hunt
Try to make me wear troosers, and you'll pay.
I’ve got acres of land, I’ve got ships to command
So burn your pants on No Troosers Day
So come fill up my glass with whiskey or rum
Then send o'er your lass and you'll see.
–last chorus–
It's better easy and free in nae boxers or briefs
I’m a man who wears a kilt every day.
GREEN PRODUCTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
I’m actively trying to buy fewer items that are packaged in plastic because plastic is made from chemicals from fossil fuel production.
It also lasts pretty much forever. It is virtually impossible to remove it entirely from what I buy. But I have found a few items that I enjoy that are not that I thought I’d share.
Did you know you can buy shampoo and conditioner in bar form?
This was one of those weird rabbit holes I went down. Once upon a time, we didn’t have liquid shampoo and conditioner. It certainly wasn’t in a big plastic bottle.
A day after I started researching this a few months back, Gwen came home with a Love Beauty and Planet shampoo conditioner bar from Target. I immediately tried it out and loved it.
You can see a list of Shampoo and Conditioner bars here.
My favorite body soap is the Dr Bronner’s Lavender soap. I was starting to lament losing that when I just saw they have bar soap also. And of course, all of those are wrapped in paper and I can get it at my local Publix.
ALBUM GIVEAWAY
Win a free copy of my CD, “Pirates vs. Dragons” — if you're in the US, I’ll ship an autographed physical copy, or download for our overseas Gunn Runners. Be the 12th person to email back. You can email once a day until I get a winner
You can still win a copy. Just hit reply to email me back right now!
GO DEEP WITH THE PODCAST
I hope you enjoyed the Marc’s Musings newsletter. If you want to dig deeper, subscribe and listen to Pub Songs & Stories.
The podcast version includes what you just read… and a lot more. I expand on this and you get to listen to some of my music in each episode. You can also download the MP3s every month. Subscribe now!
THANK YOU!
I really appreciate your kindness and generosity. Tell your cat I said hi
Slainte!
Marc
PS. If you want to support my music, join other Gunn Runners on Patreon. For as little as $5 per month, you’ll get lots of bonus goodies, including MP3s, concert bootlegs, videos and more.
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