Over the last few years I’ve been dematerialising all of my CDs, tapes & LPs and putting them on to a media server. Aside from being a wonderful way of finding things you’d forgotten about, it also means that I can access a lot of old recordings that have never been made available in digital formats.

One of the tapes I’ve been protecting and hence listened to sparingly over the years was ‘Welcome to the Dene’ – a full length recording of legendary Northumbrian fiddler Willie Taylor that is sadly now completely unavailable. Having added it to my library; the biggest challenge was to get the album cover – I’ve managed to find images for all but a handful of my older recordings online – and I did draw a blank with this one. So here’s a decent scan of the front (squared) and a full scan of the insert for anyone else who is looking for it.

And here’s the track list:

• Kenny Gillies of Portnalong (P MacFarquharson) / Kerry’s Welcome to the Dene (W Taylor)
• Sherlock’s Hornpipe / The Shining Pool (W Taylor) / The Seven Stars (A Harper)
• Andy Ross Two Step (I Duncan & B Watt)
• Dance de Chez Nous / Aunt Mary’s Canadian / Neil Taylor’s Jig (W Taylor)
• Mrs Helen Robertson (A S Robertson) / The Glakey Hornpipe (E Kirkby)
• John MacDonald’s March (J Shand) / Susan Stewart / Ian McPhail’s Compliments to Chriss Leatham (I McPhail)
• Partons in his Creels (A Windwick) / Farewell to the Dene (W Taylor) / Turiff Schottische
• Tich’s Reel / The Pearl Wedding / Nancy Taylor’s Reel (all W Taylor)
• Hopeman Hornpipe (C Sherrit / The Kirkgate / The Road to Ballysodare
• Alistair J Sim / Snowy Monday / Christine Taylor (all W Taylor)
• Westphalia Waltz
• Drystane Dyker (C Sherrit) / Roland and Cynthia Taylor (B Black) / Cave Hill
• Lament for Lockerbie (A Fitchet)
• Burnhervie Picnic (J Morgan) / John Gideon Jamieson (I McPhail) / Willie Taylor’s Fiddle (L Robertson)
• Patchwork Polka (I Peterson)
• Reverend Peter Fenton / Jean Kirkpatrick’s Fancy / Kinclavin Brig (all A Rennie)