Some songs resonate in ways impossible to put into print. I’d say it occurs at the cellular level, but that explanation seems far too scientific; it’s more akin to the inexplicable device of myth and fiction known as soul transference. They spur and embody the essence of a feeling that wordsmiths the world over (and here in North Carolina) spend lifetimes attempting to articulate, and somehow port it over to us. Such is the case with “Scotland in the Snow,” a stirring single from singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt.
She explains on Facebook, “I wanted to write a song inspired by the feeling I get while listening to ‘Caledonia.’ The sense of moving away to chase your dreams but still longing for home. The excitement of seeing the world but the realisation that nowhere will ever hit quite the same as where you’re from. And yes I’ve seen the lights in New York BUT have you seen Scotland in the snow?!”
“Caledonia,” of course, is the unofficial Scottish national anthem written by Dougie MacLean—and covered by Nesbitt last year. As I said at the time, in an otherwise silly piece, “it captures the profound pangs many of us feel when thinking of a specific time and place.” Despite loving where we live, for instance, Diane and I feel as far from what we consider home, the Philly area, as from our childhoods. We moved away seven years ago, but some days it feels closer to 70. What we miss is much more than just Billy Penn and Lochel’s Bakery, however; it’s our youth.
I’m getting far afield, I know, but that’s how the mind drifts while listening to “Scotland in the Snow”; the memories pile up faster than the snow did on the dead-end road where we lived for 24 years. It’s a beautiful song that resonates in ways impossible to put into print.
The Old Grey Cat 