Caledonia

This song has such a personal meaning to me. I first heard the song when Celtic Woman had done it on some PBS special that I had seen multiple times. I liked it, but didn't think anything of it. Then one day while perusing YouTube, I found a version done by Celtic Thunder, the all male version of Celtic Woman, and I fell in love with it. So I found lyrics, learned the song almost by heart, and I hold the lyrics very near to my heart.

I am away at college in one of the Chicago suburbs, but I live in a small country town in the middle of nowhere Illinois. And I actually understand this from both perspectives, it's almost strange and conflicting. While I am away at school, I consider my personal Caledonia to be my hometown. I miss my family, my best friends and I were raised there and have been friends almost our entire lives, and I miss the sense of familiarity. When I am at college, I don't always necessarily feel as though I am 'home'.

However, when I am home for an extended period of time(Summer/Winter breaks), I begin to feel as if my college is, in fact, my Caledonia. I miss seeing all of my friends from school, I have formed a few great friendships that will last a lifetime. And sometimes, home doesn't necessarily feel like home. My friends that stayed in the area continued living their lives together while I was away, so whenever I go back, home I feel more distant, because I have missed months of life at a time.

That's one thing I like about this song...although Caledonia is an actual area of Great Britain, every single person can think of a place that they would call their Caledonia.

The line that really hit me the hardest was: "Lost the friends that I needed losing, Found others on the way". I was sharing a bunch of music with one of my best friends from home a day or two before New Years, and right before I played this song, we made brief comment of how our core group of friends has changed in the past 4 or so years...a few of our closest friends very recently leaving the group due to some decisions they made. When I played this for him, he noticed the lyric and kind of chuckled, and then once the song was over, we had a long discussion regarding the "lost the friends that I needed losing." I think that is such a powerful line, at least to me personally. It's not "I lost touch with some of my friends...that's too bad...maybe I'll post on their wall on Facebook." No, it's friends that "needed losing". Almost as if the narrator has matured or changed on his travels, and some of his old friends just aren't on the same wavelength as him anymore. I have definitely experienced that with some of my friends.

This was an extremely long, drawn out personal interpretation, but I would suggest to anyone and everyone to check out the Celtic Thunder version, the harmonies are delightful, the orchestration is perfect and they all sing very, very well.

thanks for listening!

Was this not a Frankie Miller song or maybe it was just written by him?

Lion - The song was originally written and performed by Dougie MacLean. As far as I know Frankie Miller only recorded the song when it was to be used in the Tenant's Ad. Apparently one of the people at the ad agency was a fan of Dougie and brought the tape up to the office. However they decided to re-record it using Frankie Miller instead. In my opinion though the Dougie version is much better!

Lovely Song. Wherever you end up home is always there in your head calling you back. One of my favourites.

No matter who I hear sing this, its simply lovely. Check out the version by Scottish singer Fish (former lead vocalist for Marillion). It is a thing of beauty

Every time I retunr to Scotland and I am listening to a muscian at a pub I ask them to play this song. They must hate it, but it always make me want to dance with my loved one, slow, and just drift away. Even though it is about Dougie's love for Scotland, I think it appeals to anyone away from home; it is the ultimate home sickness song