Soul Music

"Oh the Summer time is coming. And the trees are sweetly blooming"
Wild Mountain Thyme also known as Will Ye Go Lassie Go? is a much loved song around the world with its rousing chorus "And we'll all go together". It was featured recently on the soundtrack to the Oscar winning film "Sinners" introducing it to a whole new audience.
This programme explores the origin and lasting popularity of the song.
Belfast singer and piper Francis McPeake IV recounts the story of his great-grandfather Francis McPeake I writing the song in the 1940s recalling a fragment of an old song he'd heard 'Will ye go lassie go?' that may or may not have come from another song "The Braes of Baquhidder" based on a poem by Robert Tannahill with the line "Let us go lassie go".
Charlie Gorman is a musician from Paisley, Tannahill's home town. Charlie plays in hospitals and care homes and tells the moving story of being asked to play in a stroke unit where a seriously ill patient underwent a form of recovery while singing along to Wild Mountain Thyme.
Scots singer Fiona Kennedy has happy memories of her childhood home in Glasgow. As the daughter of two famous Scottish singers Callum Kennedy and Anne Gillies she recalls hearing the strains of Wild Mountain Thyme from her bedroom during her parents' legendary parties where well known guests such as Andy Stewart and Billy Connolly would sing it on repeat.
For Kevin Fry being at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC when singer Jacob Collier performed it with the National Symphony Orchestra turning the audience into a choir transformed a song he already loved into an emotional experience of human connection.
And Nicole Lazarus pays tribute to a remarkable man - Graham Peddie under whose guardianship at Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel in Surrey many often disadvantaged young people thrived. Nicole started going to Tanners as an awkward teenager and recounts the joy of the monthly folk nights singing "Graham's song" Wild Mountain Thyme.
Francis McPeake says its strength is its universal message of love and hope.
Producer: Maggie Ayre

Landslide was written by Stevie Nicks in 1973, on the cusp of huge change in her life. Penned while she was depressed and struggling financially in the snow-covered mountains of Aspen, Colorado, the song captured a moment of uncertainty and reflection.
Soon after the song would written, Stevie and her partner and bandmate Lindsey Buckingham joined the band Fleetwood Mac and became superstars. But the pair would go on to experience a turbulent relationship breakdown while remaining in the same band for years to come.
The song's themes have resonanted with listeners around the world, becoming an anthem of quiet courage and acceptance in the face of change and the passing of time.
Featuring Heather Shtuka in Alberta, Canada; Sarah and Fiona from the Sing for Joy choir in Waterford, Ireland; Gregg Breinberg, Director of the PS22 Chorus in Staten Island; and Zoe Howe, author of Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams and Rumours.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol
Editor: Emma Harding

Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline was released in 1969, but it wasn't until the 1990s that it became a theme song for the Boston Red Sox, spreading to other other countries and sports, including the England football team. Danielle Capalbo is a Red Sox fan who explains where it began, and Lionesses fans Donna and Liz take up the story.
Meanwhile in Essex, dance teacher Meryl Kiddier has found the perfect song to help Parkinson's patients with movement and mood. Cathy Hill describes how Sweet Caroline is a catalyst for changing the way she thinks about her condition. and Peter Lovatt, AKA Dr Dance, explains the science behind it all.
And in Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, Agnes goes to a day care centre which is all about the singing and dancing. Sweet Caroline has become her theme song, and still gets her up and moving in her 90s.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

Rasputin was a massive disco hit for the British-German Caribbean group Boney M in 1978. Nearly fifty years later it remains a much loved symbol of happiness and freedom for a a truly global audience. This edition of Soul Music features stories from Iran, Cameroon, India and of course Russia.
Anahita Tishtar says Rasputin is a song that represents a golden age in Iran before the Islamic Revolution restricted Western music. It reminds subsequent generations of happier times when people were free to dance.
Famil Ismailov recollects his wild dancing in the style of Bobby Farrell at teenage discos in the former Soviet Union. Boney M was one of the first Western music acts allowed in Russia.
Eric Ngalle Charles heard the song on his sisters' cassette player as a small child in Cameroon. The song became significant to him a decade later when he was trafficked to Russia and ended up dancing on stage with Boney M at one of their many Russian concerts.
Sweta Amit danced to it as toddler at her parents' dinner parties in Thailand. As a child from a conservative Indian family the song represents freedom and a way to banish stress.
Rasputin on the violin and cello: the Scottish-Egyptian classical duo The Ayoub Sisters first heard it as children in the back of their surgeon father's car as he drove to the hospital to do his ward rounds. Later on they released a classical version of it.
The original lead singer of Boney M Liz Mitchell says Rasputin has a sound and rhythm that incorporates so many different styles of music that people all around the world can identify with, and that it just makes people feel free and happy.
Producer: Maggie Ayre

"When the rain is blowing in your face / And the whole world is on your case / I could offer you a warm embrace / To make you feel my love"
Written by Bob Dylan for his Time Out of Mind album, 'Make You Feel My Love' went on to become a huge hit for Adele and has been covered by Billy Joel, Ane Brun and many more.
With its promise of unfaltering love, we find out what the song means to different people around the world. It has inspired a translation into a 65,000 year old language and a choral version with the comfort of a psalm; it has soundtracked heartbreak and grief; and become a lullaby of parental love.
Featuring music writer Annie Zaleski, musicians Ane Brun and Dyagula, organist and conductor Anna Lapwood, Howard Simons, Aly Halberstadt, and Adele's manager Jonathan Dickins.
Produced by Mair Bosworth
A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4