A Robert Burns Night

This is our annual birthday celebration for Robert Burns, the Bard of Caledonia and a seminal figure in the history of folk music as a pioneer song collector and restorer. He was born Jan. 25, 1759. Although he is generally known as a poet, Burns supplied words and tunes to more than 300 Scots tunes, songs and ballads. Jean Redpath once characterized him as "the very soul of Scotland" and our annual celebration touches on that. This year we've compiled some sets from the Linn series of recordings of Burns songs (two of the discs recently came into our possession), feature a set from balladeer Bruce Davies (including a recitation of "Address to the Haggis") and took a look at how Burns' tunes are being reshaped by younger artists.