Quest & Chorus Ep. 4: Come Adventure to The Quiraing on Skye (special feat: Folk Songs & Stories #308)

The Quiraing is not a gentle place. Stone spires jut skyward, cliffs crumble toward the sea, and paths twist like they’re still being carved by giants. It’s a landscape that doesn’t promise safety—it dares you to take another step. On Skye, they say even dragons once hid in these folds, rising to defend the island from invaders. And standing here, staring into that mist and stone, you can feel it: adventure isn’t slaying dragons. It’s choosing to face the one within. Music from Kinnfolk, Ed Miller, and Marc Gunn.

This is Quest & Chorus #308

0:39 -  - Kinnfolk “Highland Laddie” from Star Above The Mountain

4:21 - WELCOME TO QUEST & CHORUS

Where every hill might hide a dragon, and every fear might be your map. We stand on the edge… of a cliff, of a journey, of ourselves. The Quiraing, on the Isle of Skye, is a land caught between movement and stillness… earth sliding slowly toward the sea. And standing here, staring out over stone teeth and mist-choked valleys, you might ask: Should I go forward? Or turn back?

I’m your bard, Marc Gunn, also host of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, and typically host of this show as Folk Songs & Stories, but today, we call it Quest & Chorus.

Quest & Chorus is a 6-part podcast series. I fuse my love of Celtic and folk music, science fiction and fantasy, and travel into a podcast with a quest. In each episode, you will get a clue to unlock a secret reward. And at the end of the season, you will combine all of those clues to unlock an even bigger amazing reward.

If you’re new to the show, please follow us. You can do that PubSong.com or Just send me an email to follow@celtfather.

Review of ALEP 6: A Long Expected Party. Stories:

• 6 mile hike
• Dressing like a hobbit
• Playing music with Kelly and Mitch in the Dancing Pony.
• Providing the atmosphere for Middle-Earth
• Sunrise over The Shire
• Singing beneath the stars.

Ed Miller has a gift for turning lived experience into song. In “The Wide Rio Grande,” he tells the story of a young Scottish singer facing the sting of rejection at the U.S. border — and how that moment bound him to countless others who’ve risked everything to cross into a new life. It’s a song about displacement and determination, about rules that separate and courage that refuses to be denied. From Houston to Laredo, from Scotland to Mexico, it is both personal and universal — a reminder that behind every border there are human hearts, still daring to cross.

11:19 - Ed Miller “The Wide Rio Grand” from Many's The Fine Tale

The Wide Rio Grande

Lyrics and music by Brian McNeill

Fifteen years gone, the airport in Houston

A young Scottish singer stands waiting in line

He's been too long apart from the home of his heart

It's a young Texas sweetheart so fair and so fine

But the man at the desk with his uniform shoulders

Gives uniform reasons and a uniform smile

Takes more than a song son. The paperwork’s wrong son

Fly back where you came from just 5000 miles

Come all you brave lads who follow my story

I’ll stand at the border and give you my hand

Here’s honor and luck, good health, and glory

To those who would try for the wide Rio Grande

London to Mexico, ready to try again

Walk through a border that thousands have crossed

Join the bold dispossessed of the South and the West

For a white boy from Scotland, no irony lost

But he knows as he reaches the light in Laredo

With the guards looking on and the sun beating down

That the hard law and order, the rules on the border

Has made him at one with the men who have drowned

Come all you brave lads who follow my story

I’ll stand at the border and give you my hand

Here’s honor and luck, good health, and glory

To those who would try for the wide Rio Grande

So the next time you walk the wrong side of the border

Remember this song as you think on your lot

For every man, Jack, who can take the road back

Should think on the fortune of those who cannot

For Wetback’s a name that they whisper in corners

But there’s one man hear who will wear it with pride

For a fence or a wall means nothing at all

For a heart full of courage will ne’er be denied

Come all you brave lads who follow my story

I’ll stand at the border and give you my hand

Here’s honor and luck, good health, and glory

To tho