Chords for Gaelic Lament

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[G#] When it comes to expressing loss, no one can do it like the gales.
[G#m] Their laments could melt the hardest heart.
They're absolutely [F#] beautiful.
It's almost as if they could heal the soul.
Even if you don't know what the words mean, the emotion in these pieces make the sentiment
of the song absolutely crystal clear. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [Em] It's a bit paradoxical, because on the one hand, we're not very vocal when it comes [D] to speaking up.
[Em] We've had a history of that kind of oppression.
But when it comes to song, what you can't say, you [Bm] can often sing.
_ I [C] sometimes think of it as [N] the Gaelic equivalent of the blues. _ _
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[Dm] Margaret Bennett knows more about the healing power of Gaelic song than most.
She's a highly respected folklorist and singer, and when her son Martin died recently, she
experienced firsthand how particular laments can be [Am] of great comfort.
How _ [E] _
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_ [B] _ do you come [E] to terms with losing a song like that?
[C#m] _ I think [E] you just have to learn to live with it.
_ _ I know that anybody who's [F#] experienced it will tell you that nothing [B] ever again will hurt.
But of course, [Fm] music is a great consolation. _ _ _
_ Martin Bennett was one of the most talented and respected musicians Scotland has ever produced.
I got to [G] know him when he was a teenager living not far from me in the Isle of Skye, and I
should have guessed that the inquisitive boy who came to [F] my door to play tunes would go
on to transform Scotland's music scene [G] with a stunning blend of contemporary and traditional sounds.
_ _ When he sadly lost [C#] his battle with cancer in 2005, aged just 33, and the [F#] question arose
as to what music to have at his funeral, there was one lament above all others that seemed
to speak for Margaret's grief.
[F#] The only [D] thing that would come into my mind, and I [E] could never have planned this, but I
think it's deep in the [F#] psyche.
It goes back to my childhood.
My mother a singer, my father a piper, and my father used to sit and play Kjall Moir,
Patrick Moir, [F#m] McCrimmon's Lament for the Children.
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
And it's only [Em] four or five lines, [F#] and it repeats and repeats.
[A] _ Lad with the dark hair, I gave you my love.
Lad with the dark hair, _ [D]
I gave you [Em] my fondest affection.
Fond affection that I gave to nobody [D] else.
I gave you my love. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ O'Cmegan, nacht o _ _ 'Cmegan. _ _ _
[F#] _ _ It's repeated and repeated [D] and repeated because [C#] in some senses it parallels the actual feeling.
The feeling [F#] doesn't go away, so you continuously need to soothe and [A] comfort this.
_ [F#m] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
The lament runs like [Am] a thread through Gaelic poetry, [A] pipe music and song, and is thought
to originate centuries [D] ago from keeners who [A] were paid to help others grieve by wailing
at funerals in Scotland and Ireland.
[F#m] _
_ _ But its power is derived from something much more [A] fundamental.
_ _ _ The language itself has many words [F#m] for sorrow and sadness.
It's when [A] you translate a Gaelic song, you realise you run out of words saying sorrow or sad.
You don't run out in Gaelic, and I think that's one of the [E] things.
Also they're not sparse in [A] using them.
_ Scots has [E] wonderful laments too, but there's an economy of expression.
[D] If you might think [D#] of Waterscots, o think na yí, my hért o séir, and you don't get
much more than that.
You feel the pain, but the Gael will [B] linger on that, and _ you're in no doubt that [Dm] there is sorrow. _ _ _ _ _ _
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Do you think that people use the lament as a cathartic thing [A] to help them to cope with
[Dm] tragedy and loss?
Oh [G#] yes I do.
[G] I think the first time I noticed this I was quite [Fm] young, and my grandmother had lost a second daughter.
And the unspeakable grief, we didn't see her cry much, not on a daily basis certainly,
but I remember her standing at the ironing board with the flat iron on the stove and
then she'd bring it over and she was singing _ just the same three or four lines and I can
hear it yet.
And I thought how unusual, Granny doesn't usually sing during the ironing, but I realised
that when she could express nothing else, this is what she sang. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Tired and I'm on my own, this being aloneness, yes. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Certainly music is a great solace.
_ _ It's the only thing that can reach to touch that deep, deep pain. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Gaelic laments can [Am] comfort and sometimes even heal because they take us to places we might
[D] not otherwise have been able to go.
And as well as the words, it's the beautiful haunting melodies and repetitive phrases which
take us there.
_ I'm sure there are specific reasons why music has such great