The Real McKenzies are celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band and are traveling back in time to do it. On November 18th, Songs Of The Highland, Songs Of The Sea, will set sail and is available for pre-order. You know these songs. Even if you’ve never been to Scotland, even if you’re not a seafaring type, you know them. That’s because the twelve anthems—and make no mistake, these are anthems—have been sung by others for decades, if not centuries.
The songs are all given a Celtic punk makeover by TRM and include beloved sea shanties and words by the poet, and lyricist, Robert Burns.
Vocalist Paul McKenzie shares, “I was raised with Robert Burns and I just love him. I think we’ve covered 15 of his songs. One of the things about Canada that you have to understand is that in the ’20s, Robert Burns was fucking huge, and Scottish music was also huge there back then. Even today, there’s a Robert Burns statue in every major city in Canada.”
They will be sharing more singles as we get closer to the release date, but for now, let’s start things off with “Scotland The Brave!”