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SHEARWATER is released on 11th July 2026 to mark the 200th anniversary of the clearance of the Isle of Rum in the Inner Hebrides Scotland.

On 11th July 1826, 300 people were evicted from the island with only what they could carry on their backs… including my one-year-old, great-great-grandfather John Mòr McLean, born in Kilmory Bay on the North shore of Rum..

The Manx Shearwater is a seabird that nests in burrows up in the mountains of the Isle of Rum. It also nests across the Atlantic in Nova Scotia where the evicted population settled. The song celebrates the union between the people and this extraordinary seabird on their journey between Scotland and Canada.

The song also honours the intrepid teams of people on Rum, Canna and around the world working hard today to conserve the Shearwater.

lyrics

Lyrics:

You built your home high on the mountain
I built my own down on the shore
For we were born to be together
Upon this island we call home

I don’t know where you go in Winter
Or how you find your way back home
When you arrive we are together
And when you go I am alone

Fly! I Will Fly with you
I’ll watch you cut the waves
For we, we are bound together
By the mountain and the bay

I see you fly in from the ocean
With every tide you ebb and flow
I cannot wait for your arrival
I cannot bear to see you go

Fly! I Will Fly with you
I’ll watch you cut the waves
For we, we are bound together
By the mountain and the bay
For we, we are bound together
By the mountain and the bay

Now we must go and go forever
Where I am bound I cannot say
But when we go we go together
And together we will stay

Fly! Will you fly with me?
I’ll watch you cut the waves
For we, we are bound together
By the mountain and the bay
For we, we are bound together
By the mountain and the bay

credits

releases July 11, 2026
Written and performed by Will Boyd-Wallis (GREENSHANKS).
Produced by Will Boyd-Wallis and Iain McGlaughlin.
Guitar, guitalele, piano: Will Boyd-Wallis.
Recorded at IMOUT studios Inverness, Scotland.
Manx Shearwater ‘cutting the waves’ image adapted from photograph by Michael Potts

STORMBIRD will be launched with a live concert on the 26th April 2025 in the ‘Forest Village’ of Nethy Bridge. Doors 7pm.

A night of stories, song and music, featuring Hamish Napier and Becky Doe With support from local musicians Benjamin Godlington, Cailean McKerron, Hebe Boyd-Wallis and Jack Boyd-Wallis.

Tickets and full details here: Stormbird Live Concert Album Launch (Eventbrite)

Now available for orders: digital download and CD on bandcamp

STORMBIRD features acclaimed musicians: Hamish Napier, James Mackintosh, James Lindsay, Ross Ainslie, Becky Doe and Iain Forrest – produced by Hamish Napier, Will Boyd-Wallis and Andrea Gobbi. 

The STORMBIRD songs are all themed on the sea. The first, Fistful of Sand, featuring Ross Ainslie on whistle, is a powerful portrayal of the unjust clearance of the 300 strong community from the Isle of Rum in 1826. It immortalises Will’s great-great-grandfather John Mòr McLean, only a year old when they were evicted.  The Ballad of Billy and Eilidh is a cautionary folk tale with a foot-tapping tune lifted by Iain Forrest’s slide guitar.  Sandstone is a love story about a man who loves a woman who loves the sea, defined by Becky Doe’s viola and a heart-wrenching piano solo by Hamish Napier. Into the Open began life in a secret cave during lockdown and became a message of hope inspiring the artist Stephen Redpath to paint the watercolour featured on the CD sleeve.  The title track Stormbird, marks a moment in time and stretches it into an intense rendition of a life changing encounter with a Leach’s Storm Petrel on the cliffs of St Kilda. 

The EP is dedicated to Will’s mother ‘Maha McLean’ who died just two months after the EP was released. She was the great-granddaughter of John Mòr McLean.

SANDSTONE | GREENSHANKS

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