Dear Dorothy
In 2025 I was extremely fortunate to be awarded a bursary by the Sessions & Sail team to attend their songwriting course aboard the Lady of Avanel. Imagine. Sailing around Mull for a week aboard a tall ship, with the brilliant songwriting tutors Jenny Sturgeon and Adam Ross, the epic crew of Barry, Harry and Harris Bari, and a lovely, lively bunch of fellow songwriters. Heaven, no?
It was. Dear Dorothy was written during the week. Prompted by a postcard dating from 1937, the lyrics are part factual from the card’s message and part fictional, from my imagination. It was posted to a Miss J Wagart, in Kilmacolm, Scotland, by Dorothy, in Adelboden, Switzerland. This is my imagined reply, winging its way from Kilmacolm back to Switzerland.
A song about friendship and really loving and missing someone. And a song in celebration of that rather under-used-medium of the postcard.
When was the last time you posted one?
Lyrics
Dear Dorothy, good to hear
You got your snow
Must have been a lovely break
From rainy Köln
Kilmacolm is fine
In the garden drinking some wine
And the edelweiss you planted
Is starting to grow
Dear Dorothy, can’t believe
You saw that show
And Ooh lah lah
Paris …
I really have to go
Kilmacolm is fine
In the garden drinking some wine
And the edelweiss you planted
Is starting to grow,
Grow, grow, grow
Dear Dorothy, one more thing
To let you know
I saw your maw the other day
She said to say “hello”
Kilmacolm is fine
In the garden drinking some wine
And the edelweiss you planted
Is starting to grow
Dear Dorothy, dear Dorothy, dear Dorothy
I miss you so
Track Info
Release Date: June 6, 2026
Vocals: Shirley Barr
Double Bass: Quee MacArthur
Guitar & Percussion: Ewan MacPherson
Additional Vocals & Piano: Jenny Sturgeon
Produced by Ewan MacPherson | Engineered by Quee MacArthur, Unity Recording Studios, Auldearn
Mixed and mastered by Mattie Foulds, Caribou Recording