Dear Friends,

On Saturday the 26th of September I attended the Highland Games in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a beautiful day and I was able to spend five hours at the traditional folk tent listening to the music of Jil Chambless. John Taylor & Scooter Muse and being surprised many times over by the friends who came from California, Colorado, Arkansas, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, and, of course, Missouri. What a delight!

I’d like to recognize my friends Beth McPherson Arnold, Di Phelps, and Jil Chambless for manning my sales table. After the games we hosted an evening party for our “Scottish connections.” It was a terrific, fun-filled night of food, beverages, and live music. John composed a tune called “Alex Beaton’s Welcome to the St. Louis Highland Games” which he performed both during the day and, again, in the evening. Needless to say, it was outstanding. Thanks to John, Jill & Scooter—you know you have a standing invitation to always perform for me! A big thank you goes to my dear friend, Amy Brady, who cared for me over the weekend giving Linda a well-deserved rest and to my dear friend, George Flew, who prepared a fabulous brunch for us on Sunday.

The Cumberland Three

In my last newsletter I mentioned that I was considering manufacturing what was the first professional recording in 1964 with my group “The Cumberland Three.” After running the numbers with my California Sales Representative, it was determined that the return on investment wasn’t worth the excess inventory I may be left with given that the minimum order is 300 copies. So instead, we decided to add these 15 tracks to my website – they are available now for download here. It was great fun listening to this album again, and I highly recommend adding them to your Beaton catalog. For those of you who have over the years asked for a recording a “Wild Mountain Thyme,” it can be found on the “The Cumberland Three” album. Take a look. Buy it. Enjoy.

Christmas Special

With the end of the year fast approaching, I’m offering the following Christmas Special: Purchase my triple feature DVD, “Alex Beaton’s Scotland,” for $20.00 and receive “The Water is Wide” and “The Scotsman” CDs at $5.00 each. There are three programs on the DVD: “Going Home”; “I Belong to Glasgow”; and “On the Castle Trail.” Each of these programs contains 10 songs and are full-length musical, historical and travelogues of Scotland. Several of these songs were never recorded on CD. It’s a great buy and makes a wonderful Christmas gift!

Out of Stock CDs

As a reminder, for those CDs that I’m out of stock on, you can now download the entire album or choose single tracks. They are as follows:

• Daft Ditties
• Christmas Classics
• Over the Border
• Lover’s Heart
• Songs of Robert Burns

See the entire collection at CDs for Download which includes The Cumberland Three.

The Arisaig Guest House in Scotland

Victor Devine, my childhood friend from Glasgow for the past 59 years has a daughter Samantha (Sam) Devine, who recently purchased a beautiful guest house in the lovely city of Perth. Sam has a warm and engaging personality; she loves entertaining and loves her homeland, so if you’re considering visiting Scotland, I highly recommend you stay at the Arisaig Guest House. For more information go to www.arisaighouseperth.uk

Many, many thanks …

To those of you who have generously donated funds to help with the cost of my therapy and caregiving. Thanks, also, to all my friends who have manned my CD sales tables at numerous Scottish festivals throughout the country this past year. Last, but not least, I appreciate all my fans who continue supporting me by purchasing my CDs. Your thoughts and prayers mean so much to Linda and me.

Much love,

Alex