Sweet Afton

You’re listening to an Edison Blue Amberol Cylinder from 1914, featuring William Davidson and the words of “Scotland’s favorite son”. And, You’re on the Sound Beat. Robert Burns was also known as “the Ploughman Poet” and, in Scotland, simply, “The Bard”.  This song, Afton Water, was based on his poem “Sweet Afton” and set to music by Jonathan E. Spilman in 1837. Burns’ birthdate, January 25th, is celebrated throughout Scotland with “Burns Night.” Not only that, a national poll taken in 2009 named him “The Best Scot Ever’, narrowly edging William Wallace. We’ll spare you the “Great Scot” joke we had planned if you promise to check us out on Facebook, @onthesoundbeat on Twitter and our home on the web, Soundbeat.org   Photo: Copyright Bill Copland and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.