I spent yesterday in sessions for a BBC programme about metrical psalms, specifically Psalm 23 'The Lord's my Shepherd'.  This was a chance to play and sing through some of the hundreds of tunes and versions that have appeared since a committee of The Church of Scotland settled on the words in 1650. We were recording in Kelvinside Hillhead Church, but as you can see below, I borrowed a trusty harmonium rather than use its immense Willis organ. The photos of our tea break show tenor Paul Rendall who was on his day off from Scottish Opera's production of The Magic Flute set on the moon, Greg Lawson and cellist Mark Summers with his feet up - note the melodica lying on the floor. Yup, the combination of free-reeds and gut strings strikes again, it sounds great.

Whether our impromptu Cajun version of the tune 'Martyrdom' makes it into the final programme I doubt, but the four of us gave some spirited vocal renditions of some of the silly practice verses that were written to psalm tunes in the 19th century: Tony Kime, who was recording us from his truck outside, pointed out that our appalling diction made the line 'and hear with reverence due' sound like 'And here, with Reverend Stu ...'.  

Meanwhile, we nearly have dates in the diary for recording the orchestral part of our Earl of Kellie record.  Nearly!