Wild Mountain Thyme

Wild Mountain Thyme

Author: BBC Radio 4 September 7, 2026 Duration: 27:34

"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


There’s a certain piece of music that, when you hear it, seems to stop time. It might be a melody from your childhood, a song that played at a pivotal moment, or a composition that simply reaches into your chest and grips your heart. Soul Music, from BBC Radio 4, is built around that very phenomenon. This isn’t a program about genres or charts; it’s an intimate exploration of why specific pieces of music carry such profound emotional weight. Each episode focuses on a single, iconic work-from classical adagios to folk ballads, from film scores to pop anthems. The podcast weaves together the voices of people whose lives have been indelibly marked by that music: listeners share personal, often moving stories of grief, joy, love, and remembrance, while composers and performers might shed light on the piece’s creation. You’ll hear the music itself, of course, but framed in a way that reveals its deeper resonance in human experience. It’s a quiet, thoughtful series that reminds us how soundtracks our inner lives. Tuning into this podcast feels like being part of a conversation about the invisible threads that connect us all through notes and rhythms, exploring how a sequence of sounds can become a vessel for collective memory and feeling.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Soul Music
Podcast Episodes
Ae Fond Kiss by Robert Burns [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:45
Robert Burns began a correspondence with Agnes McElhose, also known as Clarinda and Nancy, a married woman he was besotted with. When she left Scotland to reunite with her husband he wrote Ae Fond Kiss as a heartfelt far…
I Feel Love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:53
Stories of love, loss and legacy surrounding Donna Summer's iconic 1977 hit. Producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte wanted to make something which sounded like the future, and sure enough 'I Feel Love' went on to re…
Sailing By [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:48
Written in 1963, 'Sailing By' by Ronald Binge was chosen by the BBC as the musical interlude to be played every night before the Shipping Forecast. These are the stories of some of the people for whom this piece has a po…
Benedictus [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:39
Sir Karl Jenkins' Benedictus is the penultimate movement from his anti-war mass, The Armed Man. Written twenty-five years ago this year and performed over three thousand times, Sir Karl dedicated it to the victims of the…
Lovely Day by Bill Withers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:41
"Lovely Day" was released in 1977. Its simple blissful melody masks profound lyrics which on closer examination offer hope and solace to many fans of the song. Some of them share their stories here of what it means to th…
Tender [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:42
"Tender is the night lying by your side / Tender is the touch of someone that you love too much..." - Chris Lightfoot will always associate Blur's song 'Tender' with his first big love. A relationship he moved across the…
Diamonds and Rust [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:51
“Well, I'll be damned, Here comes your ghost again…”Joan Baez, also known as the "Queen of Folk", is halfway through writing a song one day when she gets a call from Bob Dylan. It’s 1974; almost 10 years after their rela…
Tiny Dancer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:42
Elton John's slow burner is now one of his most beloved tracks. Released in 1971 during a prolific period for Elton and Bernie Taupin, many people see themselves in the lyrics.Eliza Hewitt grew up in a strict household i…
Northern Sky [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:49
"I never felt magic crazy as this....."For some it's a beacon of hope, for others a metaphor for love. 'Northern Sky' is the penultimate track on Nick Drake's 1971 album 'Bryter Layter'. The sound was shaped by the Velve…
I Can See Clearly Now [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:51
"I can see clearly now the rain is gone / I can see all obstacles in my way / Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind / It's gonna be a bright / Bright sunshiny day"I Can See Clearly Now was written by the Houston-bor…