I’d never tried to arrange traditional songs before making Dalriada's "All Is Fair" with Colin and Robbie. It was an enlightening experience and gave me insight into Scotland’s history and heritage which, being a child of 60s counter-culture, I had previously shown little interest in. 

I hadn’t known for example that the Stuarts ruled Scotland for 400 years which no doubt goes some way to explaining why there was and still is such a romantic attachment to Jacobitism.

In 1690, when it was all but over for the great dynasty, the Jacobites lost one of their early uprisings at Cromdale. Challenged by reality, the songwriter resurrected the Earl of Montrose from the grave to avenge defeat. It would be a while longer before the Stuart followers finally gave up the ghost of divine right and surrendered to history.